Striving For Light is a unique Survivors-style hand-drawn rogue-like hack and slash with a twist, both developed and published by Igniting Spark Games that is currently in Early Access. Playing as one of the8 available characters (after some unlocks, of course), take on a slew of hand-drawn environments and enemies. Invest in an ever growing and evolving skill tree, and modify it as you see fit, and tweak and upgrade your weapons. You can specialize you character with powerful abilities at specific levels, further deepening the character building elements often absent in other similar titles. Asan immense fan of these sort of games, I was excited to see what new elements Striving for Light would be bringing to the table. I had some insanely high hopes going in, so let’s see how it ultimately measured up.

Each playable character comes with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, more suited to each individual playstyle.

Out the gate I will first and foremost lead with: This game is entirely compromised of hand-drawn cut scenes, characters, creatures, and environments. That being said, it will absolutely not be everyone’s cup of tea, based off this alone. And while I initially did giggle quite a bit at the paper-doll-esque way the character of your choice waltzes across the screen, eventually I got used to it. Dare I say, I eventually even found a little bit of charm to the art style? Clearly there was a lot of hard work and effort behind the visual presentation. But again, some may find it charming, while many others may very well find it off putting. However, while there is a great deal to look at and enjoy, I also found things a little to repetitive for my taste visually once a few hours ticked by. Sadly, that wasn’t the only thing I ended up finding repetitive.

Companions, like The Farmers trusty Chickens, are surprisingly overpowered, if played right. They can make short work of even the largest foes.

Besides some of the visuals growing a little stale, the overall feeling of the environments, as well as the loop itself felt strangely tedious. It wasn’t for LACK of anything to do, because there are quite a few “events” backed into each level. Phoenix Fights, Tower Defense Missions, Elemental Trials, Shadow Fights and Boss Battles- the list could go on. There is a heaping TON to do, so why does it feel like it falls so flat? What I think it boils down to, by the end of the day, is the sheer predictability of each one of these events. There is a very negligible margin for variance, leading to many of the fights feeling repetitive, copy-paste… even the Boss Battles: On one run, I fought the exact same enemy at the end of every level about 4 times. Unfortunately, at that point it felt un-interesting. Call it a bad luck of the draw, but ultimately most things are fairly predictable in how they will go. That is… with one exception: The Skill Tree.

Good ideas meet poor implementation with the skill tree: A fantastic concept that just falls short, especially if you fail to get lucky.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the entire game is one of the least predictable, so in turn, the most infuriating. Initially appearing quite small, as you invest skill points, it sprouts off at random, generating nodes that you can modify, change, and re-connect, if you have the resources. While this can add some amazing ability and power to your build, it can also be overwhelmingly frustrating. As it seems to be entirely generated at random, if is left up to pure chance if you actually get nodes that are useful to your specific character build. This can lead to an absolutely infuriating time, and a feeling of wasted skill points if luck “isn’t on your side”. Ultimately a fantastic concept, with poor execution- which unfortunately, for the time being, seems to be an overarching theme for Striving for Light.

Boss battles bring you toe-to-toe with larger than life enemies, in a unique hand-drawn style.

Controls are par, though can be confusing at times. I did notice the game had some issues switching back and forth between keyboard and mouse, to controller (It’s debatable which is better for this game, but at the end of the day, I would suggest keyboard and mouse) and occasionally getting stuck on the prompts of the other input device. As this game is in Early Access, glitches and bugs are abound, and I myself ended up having the game crash out at minimum 3 times for no clear or apparent reason. One would assume that most of these issues will get addressed with patches over time, when it comes to stability and optimization. I am also hoping that some of the story aspects end up slightly more rounded out. The introduction is somewhat confusing, and while characters are voiced, it's easy to get lost in strings of text, being more excited to get to the gameplay rather than listen to the characters read out a few paragraphs.

Eventually, you'll unlock the Pathfinder: A unique way to customize your runs with modifiers to increase the risk, as well as the reward.

At the end of the day, Striving for Light is a slew of fantastic ideas with rough-to-poor implementation. Considering it is currently in Early Access, I hope they can make the much needed changes to the framework, as I think this is absolutely a title that holds a ton of promise. For it to reach it’s full potential, however, it is going to require a LARGE amount of work. From the sounds of things, the developers at Igniting Spark Games are eager to listen and take feedback into account, so I’d like to remain absolutely hopeful for the games future. In short, if you are more than willing to deal with some kinks while they make their way through Early Access, temper your expectations, and give it a go. If you’re looking for something polished top to bottom, however, it may be best to wait.

Striving for Light is currently available in Early Access on the Steam Marketplace for $14.99 USD.