Radiant One

Developer: Fntastic | Publisher: Fntastic | Release Date: 2018 | Genre: Casual / Adventure / Indie | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

It’s not uncommon for people with depression to try and escape reality through different means, some more destructive than others. For Daniel, the protagonist of Radiant One, his means of escape is lucid dreaming. Daniel has spent his days reading up on the subject and, at the start of the game, finally manages to master his dreams. His dreams quickly become the high-point of each day, but eventually, Daniel crosses a line and things begin to go terribly wrong. Not only does his dreams turn into nightmares, but the sinister creatures haunting them can harm Daniel in real life. It quickly becomes clear that unless he figures out how to stop the nightmares he might never wake up again.

Although all of this sounds like a great setup for a horror title in the same vein as Silent Hill, Radiant One is actually a very casual point and click adventure. It is also very obvious that the game was designed with the mobile market in mind before getting ported to PC. Thankfully, the price tag wasn’t inflated in the process, but Radiant One is still a game that can be completed in about 30 minutes. This means that some players will find the bite-sized adventure satisfying to complete and others could end up feeling short-changed despite the budget price.

The gameplay in Radiant One is very simple and involves guiding Daniel across three nights as he attempts to escape from his nightmares. The game is viewed from an isometric perspective and all the hotspots in the game are highlighted. Before he falls asleep each evening players can move Daniel around his Los Angeles apartment before moving on to the more surreal environments of his dreams. Clicking on a hotspot causes Daniel to interact with it or reveal some information. Players don’t need to click on all the hotspots to complete the game, but a Steam achievement is awarded for finding all the additional dialogues from doing so.

Since Radiant One was originally a mobile title the controls can be a little clunky on PC using a mouse. Players can hold down the left mouse button to move Daniel around and click on hotspots to interact with them. However, the game also throws a couple of quick-time events into the mix that requires “tapping,” “holding,” and “swiping” which are all mobile staples.

Some of these scenes can result in failure if not done correctly, but the game simply restarts from a point just before Daniel died if this happens. Although this makes the game accessible to all players, it will feel a little too easy for experienced players.

While visually Radiant One still resembles a mobile title the visuals are stylish and detailed enough for a casual title. There are not a lot of locations to explore, but the available ones are filled with all kinds of cool details. Radiant One also has a great soundtrack that matches the mood and feel of the game. Also, the sound effects are very realistic, so playing the game with decent headphones is highly recommended. One scene in particular, which involved someone knocking on the door, actually startled us due to how real it sounded. The game does not have any speech, though, so all the dialogue has to be read.

Because Radiant One is such a short game we don’t want to spoil anything more about the story, but it does come to a satisfying conclusion. There are definitely elements of the game that could have been fleshed out more and it’s a pity that it is only set across three days instead of a week. Nevertheless, the game was enjoyable while it lasted, and considering the low price tag, we felt like we got our money’s worth out of it. It would also seem that at this point the PC version is the best way to experience the game as the mobile release had some unwanted monetization elements shoved in after its release. As long as you don’t mind a title that can be completed in a single sitting and without much brainpower Radiant One is still unique enough to warrant a playthrough.