Bright Lights of Svetlov Review

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Fast Facts

Bright Lights of Svetlov is an interesting game, to say the least. I enjoy a game that has a good story. I’d take story over graphics pretty much any day of the week. A game that can grab me and pull me into its world is always off to a very strong start. With Bright Lights of Svetlov, I was pulled into a 1980s USSR apartment complex and left alone to experience daily life.

Sounds strange? Keep reading this rapid review to learn more.

A Haunting Story that Leaves a Mark

Bright Lights of Svetlov is a haunting experience that left a mark on my psyche that lingers after the credits rolled. Beyond the game being a walking simulator set in the 1980s, I knew nothing about the game before loading it up for the first time.

The game tells the tale of three people living in an apartment complex in the USSR during the 1980s. The game doesn’t tell you that everything you play through is based on a true story and real events. I think this would have been a great point to make at the start. I struggled to feel any connection to the characters for a large portion of my time with Bright Lights of Svetlov. Knowing I was playing through something real would have added an immediate level of depth and clarity to the proceedings.

A Grim Reality

We all know that life in the Eastern Block during the early part of the 1980s was no picnic, and Bright Lights of Svetlov did a great job at painting that grim reality, mixing the banality of everyday life with an undercurrent of fear and uncertainty.  Interestingly, the game was made by a solo developer, Vladimir Cholokyan, who did not live through those times but hails from the same part of the world.

To complement the grim nature of the game, you rarely play in any setting that is not the 4 room flat that is your home. Other than a trip outside to the garage and once down into the cellar, everything plays out behind the same four walls, which I found helped create a claustrophobic atmosphere that was well-suited to the game’s underlying story.

A Game of Mundane Tasks

The story in Bright Lights of Svetlov is small. You perform mundane tasks to progress from chapter to chapter. Tasks include cooking soup, wallpapering your daughter’s bedroom, removing the trash, and dusting. Despite the tedious nature of these tasks, the game never felt tedious. Despite the lack of action, there was always a slightly menacing atmosphere. I never felt truly comfortable walking around.

Once you have completed a character’s tasks for the day, you are done, and the new chapter fades in, telling you which character you were controlling and which year you were in. The simplicity was welcome, but I can’t help but think a little more lore would have been nice. This leads me to my one major complaint about the game.

The Language Barrier Cannot be Ignored

I know Bright Lights of Svetlov was made by a solo developer, but the language barrier was a lingering issue. The voice acting was all done in Russian. There were subtitles, and that’s fine, I actually rather enjoy listening to a game in its original audio. However, there were certain interactables and items that I found in the house that were all in Russian and offered no translation. These were not story-advancing items; these were all in English. However, I feel my immersion in the game would have been better had the world-building been a little deeper and possible for me to understand.

I mean this with no disrespect to the developer at all, but some of the English text in the game, the letters, and other lore-building elements read very strangely and, in some instances, took a little figuring out to get the true meaning of what was being said. This took me out of the game and broke the immersion I was so desperately grasping at.

A Few Weird Instructions and Annoyances

The game had no real bugs, and the performance was admirable. The only error I encountered was when reading a letter, which then became locked on the overlay. Luckily, I could progress to the next screen, and it disappeared. However, it irked me that once I had read something, there was no way to return it. The game lacked a true inventory, and so an inadvertent click meant that the item was gone forever—the same is true for on-screen instructions.

For example, I needed to find a wet rag to clean up some glue early on. The screen hint told me to get a wet rag. However, I was busy with another task at the time. When I returned to the glue to re-read the instruction, it never returned. This was recurring throughout the game with any onscreen interaction or hint.

There was also a confusing moment when getting ready for bed. I needed to remove my clothes, and it took me a while to discover that this meant clicking on a nearby chair. I understood why, after the fact, as my clothes were hung over it, but it felt like a very strange interaction at the time.

An Easy Platinum but a Highly Commendable Effort

Bright Lights of Svetlov is not a long game. I completed my playthrough and platinum trophy in around 85 minutes. However, a game doesn’t need to be long to be impactful. Bright Lights of Svetlov is a commendable game and a great achievement for a solo developer.

However, I struggled to feel for any of the characters. I understand the story the game tried to tell, and my review of the game changed after I reached the final scenes. However, it needed something more to be truly engaging.

You can get your copy of Bright Lights of Svetlov from the Microsoft Store today.