Striving for Light is an intriguing newcomer in the ARPG genre, already out on Steam as of July 11th following months of early access. Developed and published by Igniting Spark Games, the team aims to breathe new life into the ARPG landscape, drawing inspiration from beloved titles like Diablo and Path of Exile. They seek to combine the best elements of these classics while infusing their distinctive style and charm into the gameplay. As I delve into the game, I’m still not convinced that they’ve achieved the ambitious vision they set out with, let me explain why.
The same content presented with a different tone
The game offers players a choice between two starting characters and 6 unlockable ones which are like most games of the genre as the game progresses using the shining light currency and completing mini challenges to unlock, each providing a slight variation in stats and starting weapons. On the surface, the changes between these classes may seem minimal, consisting of a few variations in stats. However, the core of each class’s effectiveness lies within the intricate skill tree and the life tree systems.
While these provide exciting opportunities for character development and customization, they can also present a steep learning curve for new players, making it both daunting and confusing to navigate at the beginning with limited to no story progression and minor tutorials to guide you.
Right ideas, Misfired Execution
The game takes a different approach compared to its predecessors by focusing on a mapping system instead of going through specific acts. This system consists of a series of map nodes that increase in difficulty over time, leading you to end game modifiers. As you progress, you can accumulate map currency, which allows you to enhance the enemies, damage, and loot within the maps. While this change might initially seem similar with a few alterations, it quickly becomes repetitive and lacks excitement. You can breeze through the maps, tackle various mini challenges along the way, before finally confronting the gatekeeper for each map to advance to the next one.
During your map runs, you will collect shining lights, the primary currency needed for nearly everything in the game. These lights unlock passive bonuses in your Tree of Life, which carry over across different playthroughs. They are also required to unlock NPCs, weapons, buffs, and events within the maps themselves.
Overall, the reliance on a limited currency for many different unlocks feels poorly executed on the part of Igniting Spark Games. A broader diversity of currency types linked to content would have been a more effective approach. In addition to shining lights, you can find various currency drops for a minimal crafting system, along with occasional tablet shards used for time-limited instances, like rifts in Diablo.
Adaptive Skill Tree, With a Catch
The game’s skill tree does add an array of customisation but does also need a fraction of luck to both work and navigate in your favour, each run you will earn skill points as you level which will allow you to unlock temporary buffs for your current run, be it your attack strength, speed, life steal or extra passive skills like a meteor when you swing your weapon to rain down fire on your foes.
The skill tree does provide some difference with each run as they are randomly generated at the start of each new run, what makes it more unique is you are able to loot various passives for your skill tree which you can apply at any time branching off your skill tree, unlocking new routes to take, the downside is you will still need to invest more skill points, and have these passives drop for you in the first place.
When you finally die, your run will come to an end, with some shards awarded based on how you progressed, with these shards you can craft a weapon and adjust its stats, the downside is you do not get such a weapon at the start of your next run, you have to have it drop from one of the maps as you progress, either yours or someone else’s weapon requiring a degree of luck. You rinse and repeat venturing in once more, either with the starting heroes or new unlocked hero provided you saved enough shining light and did their quest during the previous attempt. Regardless, the skill tree, weapons and levels reset, you start again with only your tree buffs you may have unlocked to back you up.
Charming visuals and audio
All assets of the game provide a level of charm, they have all been drawn by the developers and do add a degree of darker charm to the game, with various visual changes between map biome, enemy types, the various array of skills and bosses.
The audio whilst limited can also add some life to the game, but whilst both do provide a level of charm, they can quickly grow old and boring over time, with only a limited 80 minutes’ worth of various audio, you will find yourself on the same audio soundtracks in loop before you even finish your current attempt.
Strong Entry or Forgettable Experiment
As someone who enjoys ARPGs, I found myself struggling with this title. I wanted to appreciate it more, but it feels like something essential is missing. I’m not sure if it will leave a lasting impact or change the genre in a memorable way, much like its accomplished predecessors. That said, it is still an enjoyable game for what it is and does not need a high-spec system to run. It is available on Steam for £14.99. At the time of writing, there is both a sale and a free demo on Steam that you can check out.