It’s said that the speed of light is nothing compared to the speed of dark, because wherever light goes the darkness was there first. That’s all clever except it should be obvious that before there’s something, there will have been nothing. The real problem comes when the darkness isn’t quite the nothing it appears to be and fights back against the illumination. Light will always chase away the dark but sometimes the darkness has teeth and claws. It’s kind of a lot for a young girl to combat, but Victoria Bloom has a flashlight, a slingshot and is the daughter of a long lineage of inventors, so it’s not like she’s fighting the toothy darkness unarmed.
Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom is an action-roguelike platformer in black and white, with Victoria caught in a time loop created by her grandfather just before he was taken. On the down side this means Victoria has to explore the mansion over and over again, starting back almost from zero on every failed run, but this also means that she’s got a breather when she gets too scared to go on. There are big ugly critters lurking in the pitch-black shadows that have overtaken the mansion, and they only get bigger and meaner as she clears out each new set of rooms.
Like any good action-roguelike, Eyes in the Dark is carried out over a series of runs with every failure paying off to help the next attempt go a little further. The entire game is set in a Victorian mansion with each section being a series of rooms themed as part of the house and its grounds. Initially only three areas are open of the nine-sectioned home, but after defeating the foyer, parlor and garden the upper areas become available, and completing what’s now six sets of rooms opens up the basement. It takes a little practice to get used to all of Victoria’s abilities, but once you’ve done that it won’t take too long to have the run of the mansion.
Each run starts roughly the same, though. At the start you’ve got the flashlight and slingshot, plus your basic jump and dash for mobility. A kiosk in the entryway has a random powerup which could be anything from extra damage for the flashlight to a slightly bigger window of invulnerability for the dash. Once gathered it’s time to explore the house, using the beam of the flashlight to clear away most of the monsters. The problem is the beam only has a short range, and while it does constant damage when touching an enemy it doesn’t do much. The slingshot is much stronger while being balanced by having limited shots, although they’re quickly refilled by taking out enemies with the flashlight. All the tools are there to be used, with no single-use items that somehow always end up being hoarded long past when they’d have been most effective, but Victoria is weak until she finds a few upgrades.
Upgrades come in three types: flashlight, slingshot and gadget. All three categories initially only have a couple of slots apiece for upgrades to fit in, but enemies drop sparks when defeated and once you’ve got enough you can buy more space at any time. Additionally, the flashlight can change its bulb for different types of shots, the slingshot has a variety of ammo it can fire and the primary gadget is shoes that have various hover or double-jump upgrades. Being the weapon you’ll use most often, the flashlight has the most interesting variations such as rapid-fire sparkles, a rain of light motes kind of like wielding a shower head, laser sword, different types of rapid-fire pulses, etc. All these weapons come with different damage, range, rate of fire, etc., and when you run across a new one you can swap back and forth to see if it’s something you’ll want to keep. New items get slotted into place, old ones scrapped for sparks and the slow buildup of power soon pays off as the mansion’s shadowy bestiary is decimated by a brave little girl.
But not for a while, because it takes a bit to get used to what’s basically a gothic run & gun platformer. Failure is always ready to end a run as Victoria’s health drops bit by bit in each room, but the reward for failure is knowledge that can be spent in the entryway’s bookshelves. New and more powerful weapons become available in the mansion while a bigger variety of powerups with the ability to choose more than just one help start a run off right. A little bit of practice grants familiarity with enemy movement and fire patterns, making for longer runs that pay off with a bigger knowledge bonus at the end. It’s your standard action-roguelike progression and every bit as satisfying as expected, helped in no small part thanks to Victoria being a fun and lively hero to guide through her quest.
Closing Comments:
Once you get the hang of things Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom clicks into place and becomes a great little action-platformer to blast through. The art style in particular is striking, with the high resolution black and white art looking especially good as it effortlessly switches to white and black when the flashlight or slingshot’s grenades light up an area. Each house section also comes with its own unique boss, all of which feel different from the others with varying attack patterns to go with their individual designs. Once you’ve got a good toehold on a run the challenge level can take a dive, but sometimes it’s nice to not have to sweat for every inch of progress in a roguelike. Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom is an inviting and likeable journey into a cursed mansion and the family history of holding back the darkness, beating back the worst the void has to offer with bravery and a bizarrely tricked-out flashlight.
