The Town of Light

Story driven walking sim where you get to explore cool long abandoned insane asylum. Story itself is probably the saddest i've ever come across in any game.

Picked this one.....shit
CW: HEAVY themes.
Okay in all seriousness I had no idea what I was getting into when I put this into one of my lists months ago, it's an educational game which I always appreciate, and on some level it's intended as a horror game, not in the conventional "survival horror" of key finding, puzzle solving, avoiding enemies sense, if the idea of a slow slowly narrated walking sim isn't for you well, I can't significantly challenge your opinion on the genre, it's not for everybody and that's fine, but I'd gladly contribute to the discussion of this game, if that alone might interest you.
Town of light centers itself around mental institutions nearing the 2nd half of the 20th century, it's an interesting subject to research because it represents a turning point for the development of health treatment, nowadays we understand medicine as 'supplements' whereas the way ethical concerns stood back then, it used to be that misbehaving was grounds for being castaway from the rest of the world, followed by having your personal belongings taken away, all means of communication being falsified, tied for several days to bathtubs of ice, and yes, specially to being a target to acts of sexual violence as facilitated by these institutions.
It's valuable in understanding that Medicine, despite being rooted in the well intended pursuit of development and betterment of humanity, should never be excempt from condemnation, hell the history of medicine consists largely of some of the stupidest fucking ideas such as spirits and bloodletting, torture and racially motivated acts of violence, incapacitation as means to solve even the most benign of problems like, "oh my wife got sad and said something mean to me" this game looks at many of these themes, during the short window of time where causing permanent damage to your prefrontal cortex by puncturing it like a balloon was very popular.
She goes by many names, trepanation, lobectomy, doomscrolling brainrot at 3:00 am, she's the 2nd most prolific murderer on elm street after Freddy Krueger, you've known her well as far back as 7000 years ago, her name rolls right off the tongue, say hello to the one and only lobotomy baby cause she's not here to stay for very long, all it takes is a 10 minute appointment with a hammer and an ice pick and before you can say shaboioing we'll guarantee 100% satisfaction with your newly attained vegetation, or in the significantly more likely scenario that you don't come back alive, you can rest assured that our method, while not actually providing any significant evidence of improvement whatsoever, is also completely painless, or at least that's what thousands upon thousands of our satisfied customers lead us to believe, after all, it's not just a fancy slogan when we say that a lobotomite has never complained about their lobotomy, it's completely true!
So hopefully that illustrates why a lobotomy ban was placed after thousands upon thousands of reported deaths in the span of a few years, it's an actual cromagnon practice that somehow escaped the hellholes that tried to bring it back one final time and made its way into the lives of perfectly adjusted people who for all we know, could have simply needed an aspirin or some shit, instead leaving them completely ruined with no hopes of ever recovering.
Going back to this game, it's a valuable resource in how it recreates a real derelict asylum for you to explore, letting you read all about the types of abuse that were conducted here, some of the reasons as to why people were tortured, about how women especially were abused in these prisons, the repugnant living conditions your sexual preferences or a light headache could earn you in the last few hundreds of years.
That's basically what horror in this game consists of, graphic violence and simulations of mental asylum practices, there's no jumpscares no nothing, it's just soul crushing. You play from the perspective of a former resident with difficulties understanding their situation, giving you an unreliable account of the events that took place during her stay.
Excellent music and illustrations are some of the highlights for this game, surrealist sequences and branching paths give it merit beyond a single playthrough, and it doesn't particularly explore any unique gameplay concepts but a number of story sequences are a delight to go through, it's hard to think that having you do anything more complex than examine your surroundings might have been in good taste.
You can tell the studio responsible are super talented and gave it their all for this title, it's got a great sense of aesthetics in every way imaginable, it's well researched and even manages to tell a fairly emotionally compelling story, it's a solid exponent for this genre, executed with care, one asking for a higher level of maturity than a lot of other games that released in close proximity to it, hopefully it'll earn its place in your library as it did mine.

This is a hard game to sit through and to recomend without significant trigger warnings. While it's not a unique idea or story, it's been told in movies before, playing it in first person is... disturbing to say the least. I think you know what you are in for when the story is about a young girl in a mental instituion in the late 30:s. The gameplay is your typical walking simulator and while it's a bit more free roaming you are still guided by a pretty good hint system telling you where to go next. Depressing AF, will make you furious, sad and horrified. If you are up for that, then yes. I do recomend it.

I had a good time finished it in one sitting. Kept me interested. Brought back memories of Alice: Madness Returns with some of the drawn parts and story. A few times the game was missing vital dialog that I had to see in a old walk through to know what to do. It was a video from 8 years ago so possibly they patched it that way on purpose but it came off broken to me. It does a good job of letting you know where to go and what to do most the time so it was a immersion breaking. Overall a good experience.
A dark tell of the mental health system failing the mentally ill. Based on a real Psych Ward. Reflecting on many victims through time. Not a particularly unique story but overlooked due to its gut-wrenching nature. Will you look away too? Lost souls left behind. Lingering hopeless state of confusion. After all the distortion can you trust your own thoughts? What do you know to be true?

This is a powerful exploration of what was reality for countless thousands of people. This game hits especially hard for women. This game hits especially hard for anyone who's had to deal with the dark sides of mental health "care."
I felt myself fairly immersed in the old ground of the hospital. The game does a good job with its art direction, captures the historic period (and the eventual decay) and does its job transporting the player mentally to another place and time. It has a handful of fun exploration moments.
There were a couple of moments that felt a little too "gazey" for me. This is a fictional story but really wrapped up in the non-fictional reality of this hospital, so it felt in poor taste. But I think you'd have to be particularly well-versed in those sorts of radical feminist nuances to even notice. If you're familiar with avant-garde art, you're probably aware of the stereotype of the "artistic" man who's a little too eager when it comes to rape depictions. This game is heavy though, don't play it if you don't have a close relationship with your triggers.
It's a psychological horror, but for some of us it'll feel more like an interactive visit to a museum. If you're the latter, I think this game is worth playing with that understanding in mind. I think overall, this game accomplishes its goal. It's not a typical "horror" experience though.

very educating and emotional game. i just had to go back and unlock every other path in the game! the heavy unfortunate lore was even more saddening realizing it's inspired by real life events. makes me feel grateful about how medically advanced we are now and a lot more educated about mental illnesses and all that. my condolences go to these souls and i hope they're resting in peace 🖤

I want to applaud the sorrowful atmosphere of this game - keep in mind that you can end up feeling quite sad by the end of it. The developers seemed passionate about the theme they chose for their debut, and I always appreciate passion.
It's a little bit clunky and not all that interesting from a gameplay standpoint, overall it's definitely not my favorite "walking sim". But if you like this subgenre, you might want to give The Town of Light a try.