While Gleamlight is beautiful visually to behold some of the developer's design decisions make the game frustrating to play at times. The game isn't exceedingly hard but there are times, due to its dark presentation, you're not sure which way to go. The design leaves too much to trial and error. The decision to use a "keep it clean" design for the user interface sometimes takes it a step too far. With this being said, the game does offer some fun for the better first half of the game, after that it grows a bit stale.
Gleamlight is a mixed bag. There are enjoyable aspects here. Unfortunately, there are larger and more numerous negatives. At the end of my playtime I was left wishing the positive aspects were in a better game. Taking everything into account, I would skip Gleamlight.
Gleamlight doesn’t feel finished. Had there been even the smallest amount of text or UI, I honestly feel like this would have been a more enjoyable experience despite the other issues; if anything, those issues were heightened simply due to the lack of critical components. I love what the developer had in terms of concept, but as far as execution goes, Gleamlight unfortunately fell flat. You can find far better 2D sidescrollers for less money; unless the developer makes some sorely-needed improvements, it’s probably best to let Gleamlight fall into darkness.
Gleamlight tries to mix-up a formula that we've seen before, and falls some way of short. Despite some interesting features, it's biggest problem is that it's not fun to play.
Hollow Knight this is not. With a flawed control system, dreadful music, and painfully unfair platforming, this is a game you will want to end as quickly as possible. Thankfully it is over in about an hour.
Gleamlight is worse than the majority of bad games. With most poor-quality titles, the rot is obvious from the word go. Here, the game doesn't show its true colours until you realise it's over. Surely, you'll think, it's going to pick up? It generally looks nice, after all. It was featured in at least one Indie World presentation, which is usually a mark of at least some quality. But no. It's atrocious. It's boring to traverse, feels bad to play, has an insultingly low amount of content and has nothing to recommend it. Hollow Knight is actually cheaper, and there are plenty of lower-tier Switch platformers more deserving of your time than this. FoxyLand. Goblin Sword. Polyroll. Get those three for the same price as Gleamlight, maybe less. They're not even that good, but they're ten times the game Gleamlight is. Oh! And the music's discordant clanging rubbish, too. We hope it gets a physical release so we can throw it in a bin.
I was rewatching old directs, and remembered Gleamlight. I remembered its controversy and decided to give it a go.
It's not... THAT bad. It's not good, I'd say it's mediocre, but it's not utter trash. The camera never keeps up and is mediocre, you learn new skills but without any indication, the level design is mediocre and the art is too busy. You forget the whole glass stain angle pretty quickly when everywhere is dark, everything has the same colors, and there isn't any personality or set pieces. There is different music between "themes" but they all sound the same to the point that you even question if the music changed at all.
The combat, again, mediocre. You don't get that pogo-stick effect from hollow knight. Instead, you get up-light and down-light attacks that have the character look in the direction first. Every single time. Bosses aren't fun to react to and the life-draining mechanic means that you can no-skill kill most bosses by mashing in their face. The game has a few bosses, but none are super memorable or interesting, and their designs are copy-pasted throughout.
Seeing the credits (multiple times in one playthrough), you have to question, how come are so many people involved in this project? Did noone stop and think about what they were developing? This isn't an average Joe making their first game, there are more people involved than fingers on your hand. That's a crime in timewasting at least.
Overall, it's mediocre. It's not bad, but it's not good. It does enough to call itself a finished game and just that.
Gleamlight isn't great. And at $20, it's a highway robbery. Better action platformers and indie games are the same price or cheaper. I can't even recommend it as a holdover for Silksong because it plays nothing like Hollow Knight. But this isn't just an inditement of its price. Even at $5 it would still be bad. It has cute ideas such as its health system and stained-glass art style, but based on how they were implemented into this game, you'd think they were evolutionary dead-ends.
I found this game when I was looking for a metroidvania that could help me bridge the time until the release of Hollow Knight Silk Song. Unfortunately Gleamlight is only looks lacking any kind of decent gameplay. The graphic style is really gorgeous, but the gameplay is worse than bad. There is no information whatsoever, regarding controls or when acquiring new abilities. The character is extremely slow, ponderous and very unresponsive, so that fighting and platforming are extremely frustrating. I am not sure if there is any story in the game, since I quit after absolutely fun-free 1,5 hours. I am sorry, Gleamlight, I really wanted to like you, but you turned out to be a waste of money!
Don't waste your money. I honestly bought this game because of all the "hollow knight ripoff" stuff and figured it would be fun. While the graphics are beautiful, gleamlight is SUPER boring.
This game is horrible!!!! Terrible! Disgraceful! Putrid! Pathetic! An absolute waste of life to play! A ripoff! A shameless cash grab! Game lasts less than an hour. Rushed out the door! Laggy! Enemies are dumb as a rock! Fall into spikes you cant see cause the game is so dark, etc etc blah blah blah, I would rather play a video game of stick figures drawn on toilet paper than play this game again.
SummaryThis is a story of light - of Gleam, in a world of glass stained in darkness.
Welcome to Gleamlight – a 2D action game that will take you through an adventure traversing a beautiful, transient world.
Immerse yourself amid the beautiful stained glass artistry as you navigate without the reliance of any standard game UI, while tracin...