Dark Light: Survivors Preview: Adding New Wrinkles to a Classic Formula

The world has ended. Nightmarish creatures have risen from the Dark Void, fueling an apocalypse that has wiped nearly everything out. What little remains of humanity has poured the last of their resources into constructing the Phantom Train, a celestial locomotive capable of leaping across universes in hopes of finding Elysium, the only safe haven that’s been spared the encroaching darkness.

In Dark Light: Survivor, you take on the role of one of these multiverse-crossing humans. Your job is simple: survive against innumerable enemies, and fight your way to Elysium. It’s just you, your weapons, and an ever growing horde of snarling monstrosities. After several hours of slicing, shooting, and launching screen-clearing, element-infused attacks at these enemies of humanity in our exclusive hands-on, I’m a believer. The end of the world can’t come soon enough.

Rage Against the Dying of the Light

At its core, Dark Light Survivor is an action-RPG roguelite.The overall setup is very Vampire Survivors-like. You are dropped into a map (in this case via a rad train), enemy waves of ever-increasing ferocity and size try to turn you to mulch, and you collect a delightfully absurd number of powerups to turn more and more of the screen into your personal slaughterhouse. Most runs will probably end with your death, in which case you start again from scratch on your next attempt. Rather than Castlevania-inspired pixel art, it’s all presented in a fully 3D cyber-gothic style that more closely resembles a sci-fi Diablo, though if you are feeling nostalgic there is a pixel graphics option that adds a cool ‘90s-PC-style look to everything.

As I start my run I occupy the shoes of the Knight. A member of the Order of the Sunken Light, he’s a heavily armored melee specialist, handy with hammers and swords, carrying a shield, and a somewhat less-knightly pistol (who says chivalry is dead?). The level is called the Oblivion Array, it’s a mostly open space dotted with abandoned cars, farmhouses, and other debris that tells me this was once a rural area populated by people – at least before all hell broke loose. I drop a few undead-looking creatures, collect some XP orbs, and level up. This pops up a trio of upgrades for me to choose from, and I’m right back in the action. It’s a familiar formula, but dammit if it’s not a fun one.

The action is one of the areas where Dark Light: Survivor really differentiates itself. You control your attacks: one button to fire your gun, one to swing your melee weapon, and, at least for the Knight, one to hold up your shield and block incoming damage. There is a togglable auto-attack option, and I found myself gravitating towards leaving that on full-time, and letting it fill in the space between my manual attacks. It feels great to circle-strafe around the outside of a big group, chipping away at everyone, or push right into the heart of it, maul swinging, and carving a path right through every snarling monstrosity in your path.

In a cool twist, Dark Light Survivor can be played in either a top-down or an up-close, over the shoulder view. It took me a bit to figure out the best use case for the action game-style third person view, other than making the video version of this preview look cool. After all, losing the ability to see in 360 degrees around your characters opens you up to a lot of unseen damage. But as I ran into some tough elites, and especially the tank-y bosses, being able to pick and choose where to aim to chip away, or take potshots while ducking behind cover, became an essential strategy to deal damage while staying alive. The fact it is seamless and instant is impressive as hell, and, outside of the heavy baddies, I found myself switching to it periodically just to see what the explosions and lightning bolts looked like deep into runs.

Meanwhile, these hordes are getting nasty. My Knight is doing his best, but he’s in the crosshairs of these new snipers that have started to appear a lot. I do my best to dodge-roll him to safety, but he’s taking a few hits. Worse, those elite units have started to show their ugly faces. They seem to be a giant-variant of some of the other units I’ve seen, but hit much harder, have far more health, and line up devastating charge attacks. Deft footwork on my part keeps me circling them, and hacking away with my melee, a strategy that’s working pretty well until I slam my weapon into the glowing head of an exploding zombie, ending my run in a violent flash.

Power Overwhelming

My next run is off to a fast start, as I rapidly carve through the monsters and rake in the XP. Every level-up briefly pauses the action, an NPC appears via a pop-up, and offers a choice from a selection of upgrades. Each is themed after the character offering them: fiery Seraphina sets you up with ways to set enemies ablaze, the duo of Odette and Odile load you up on mechanical armaments, and the mysterious, winged figure of Stahl builds up general buffs to your character, to name a few. I hope we get to learn more about these characters in the release version, the little bits of voiced dialogue offer intriguing hints into their personalities, and the hand-drawn pen-and-ink portraits of them are nothing short of stunning.

These upgrades might be the star of the show. Adding new attacks that trigger periodic lighting crashes, raise poisonous, exploding skeletons from defeated enemies, or call in aerial strafing runs completely remake how you approach battle. These abilities can be upgraded across multiple tiers, increasing them in potency and adding new effects, like Thunder Halo, which starts as a humble ball of lighting circling you until it reaches Tier III, at which point you have several of them, and they start chaining damage between enemies. Seeing just how powerful the most extreme version of an ability is, and seeing how broken a build I can get by the end of a run is by far my favorite thing to do in this style of game, and Dark Light: Survivor has that in spades.

It’s these upgrades that have me flying through my next runs. Thanks to an ability called Arcane Conductor, strikes from my melee weapon sends electricity arcing through enemies, and some excellent luck on the random draws has added a deep stack of buffs to both melee and lighting damage. Add the Reaper’s Reach to extend my range, Primal Link to boost elemental damage, and Zeal to up my attack speed, and I’m clearing screens full of enemies in seconds. Later, fueled by powerful poison, missiles, and lighting bolts, I reach Chaac, the boss of Oblivion Array, for a decisive showdown. It’s a fierce battle, as he rains down lighting bolts, covering large areas in certain death. As I dodge, dash, and circle strafe, I hammer away at the towering, horned monster and finally send him to his grave in a hail of machine gun fire.

Gear Up

Before I start my next run I make a stop in at The Nexus Hold, a sea-bound citadel that functions as your main hub. Here you can chat with NPCs, outfit your characters, and unlock new warriors to take into the fight. My first stop is Alara Voss, Keeper of the Seals. Beating Chaac opened up the option to purchase the Soldier, an Old West outlaw-looking, gun-specialized warrior, in exchange for the Void Stone that can be dropped by the most powerful enemies.

Next I pay a visit to the Keeper of Bound Paths. As you defeat enemies you accumulate Void Marks, and it’s these that you trade to the Keeper of the Bound Paths in exchange for permanent upgrades to your characters. While many of the Knight’s improvements focused on bolstering his defense and power with melee attacks, the Soldier has a tree that boosts his mobility, chance to land critical blows, and buff gun damage. My favorite is his Ricochet shot, which can be activated temporarily to send each shot bouncing between multiple targets, perfect for ripping a horde to shreds.

I spend a few more Void Stone to unlock the Sunless Keep level, and take the Soldier for a spin. This new area is populated with tall goblin-like creatures, and their rapid leaping attacks make me glad to that I’m fighting them from a distance, unloading constant volleys of rounds from my dual pistols and using the quick sprints afforded by my very limited stamina meter to keep them out of reach. The terrain is covered in trees, adorned with dilapidated ruins, and rolling hills offer some varied topography that make this area extremely distinct from my previous runs. These elevation changes in particular have a noticeable impact on ranged attacks (incoming and outgoing), and I find myself switching into the over-the-shoulder camera more to make accurate shots.

Like Vampire Survivors, points of interest dot the map, though they are a lot more numerous here, and for good reason. In addition to the powerups you gather, Dark Light Survivor has a full RPG-style loot system. Shooting and smashing your way towards a chest can set you up with stat-boosting armor, new weapons, and Runes that can be socketed into those weapons for additional effects and boosts. Swinging a massive great sword, picking off enemies with a rifle, or blasting them to bits with a shotgun can completely change the approach to combat. I know I can never resist the allure of new gear, especially when there is a chance it has a stylish new cowboy hat for my character that buffs fire damage in all of my attacks.

As my kitted-up cowboy fights his way through the massive swarm of creatures of the night, I find myself in a shootout with Velkrath, the Bone Marksman. It’s by far the most intense fight I’ve encountered yet, as he alternates between long range volleys that cover large areas in arrows, wide horizontal attacks I have to time just right to dodge through, and sudden, direct salvos of fire that send the ground ablaze. It’s equal parts a duel and a bullet-hell, and I find myself one shot from death for most of it. But with lightning strikes, bursts of frost, and the occasional strafing run augmenting my damage, I’m able to put Velkrath in the ground once and for all.

My heart is pounding as I return to The Nexus Hold, and I’m just getting started. There’s another character to unlock, the elemental mastery-focused Mage, a new level to explore, and countless gear and attack combinations to experience. I can’t wait to start my next run, and you won’t need to wait much longer to start one of your own. Dark Light: Survivor launches on Steam Early Access on May 15th, with a full release targeted later this year on Steam, Epic, Xbox Series X, and PlayStation 5.