Candleman

Candleman is a game in the line of limbo, little nightmares or inside, that is to say that its gameplay mixes platformer and puzzles but that its real ambition is first immersive, the game resting a lot on its universe and its atmosphere. The story of Candleman is very simple: a small candle sees in the distance a lighthouse and is dazzthe by the power of its light. Wanting to shine as much as the lighthouse, she decides to go on an adventure to join her model and Pierce her secret. Candleman is divided into 12 chapters which each have four levels on average, the goal being always the same: to reach the point of arrival of the level, preferably having lit a number of candles on the way. The gameplay is basic: we walk, we jump, we eventually push objects, and we use the gimmick of the game, which is to be able to turn on our candle taking care not to let it burn more than ten seconds, capacity of its (tiny) wax reserve. This gimmick is well-exploited visually, the game being very nice and playing well with the effects of shadows and lights, but in terms of gameplay, it will not look far, the game being very limited, linear and agreed: at a glance, we understood what to do and doing it is neither original nor difficult nor thrilling. This simplistic gameplay would not be a problem if the game was enjoyable to play and if its story or universe were sufficiently surprising, but Candleman is annoying, rather annoying, and ultimately does not tell much. On a playful level, the game is based on platformer and exploration in the almost complete black, and so it happens frequently that one falls because of lack of legibility (I recommend you to play the keyboard or the cross if you use a gamepad , otherwise you will spend your time accidentally dropping longiligned beams), and one often reaches the end of the level by having missed a candle to light, which in one case as in the other leads to laborious repetition, since there is only one checkpoint by level and that the automatic camera makes the back-up very difficult. And as for the immersion, which should be the big highlight of the game, it is restrained by a banal universe and rather disfigured not doing at all work the imagination, with very little dramatization, feeling of progression or staging : comparing the other games quoted, especially little nightmares of which he is very close but very, very much superior, Candleman is extremely mediocre, his rhythm in particular being soporific even tense. For my part, I gave up the game to its penultimate chapter by weariness and I regret its purchase, so I do not recommend it. Instead, play the other games listed.