While it isn’t so unusual to run into cases of missed potential in games, you normally wish that the issues would just be technical or a matter of depth. It’s one thing to play something that’s reminiscent of a stronger series and just can’t quite match the quality of its overall execution. It’s another to feel like a popular title’s formula is being emulated in some way, but perhaps entirely understood. While I’m not sure what has happened with Search of Light’s development, I can only comment that this feels like an incomplete mess.

One of the more unique takes on a strategy game I’ve now enjoyed quite a few times in this generation has been the Kingdom series. Your role in them is to be a savior on the move, taking the currency you accumulate to enlist the aid of different people, assign them roles, and then build up the defenses of your base while also slowly pursuing a means of escape. The problem is that when the night comes, so do dark creatures who are set on destroying what you’ve built, typically attacking you from two sides, so you need to remain on the move and mindful of where you spend your currency to ensure you can survive.

Search of Light feels like a very slight alternative take on that formula, complete with its own elements that feel unfinished. To start you’d take the Kingdom formula and cut it down in scale and complexity substantially, with you controlling fewer units (robots in this case) and having far fewer defenses to build up. Then, you replace the day and night cycle, which would trigger attacks, and instead have you going into a vortex that takes you to a different location and challenges. The problem is these very, very quickly become both repetitive and frustratingly dull. While you can be hurt by odd enemies you’ll merely swipe at to kill, I was more often injured by random spots where I was standing suddenly hitting me without an enemy in sight or by rocks that would randomly fall after breaking through a boulder, often inexplicably remaining falling for a few seconds afterwards for no discernable reason. To help break things up there can also be puzzles that require you to move objects around to trigger a button or create a ramp, but after repeatedly seeing the same layout and puzzles it got to be a bit of a joke.

In the end this simply feels like an unfinished experience, or one where they’ve walled off more for later, hoping you’ll persist through repetitive drudgery to get there. There’s a framework of a game here, but at best it feels like an initial rough draft, having gotten to the point where its elements work but is still in need of more variety and content. It quickly felt like I was just going through the motions, not being pushed or challenged, and without anything really resembling fun to be had. By contrast I’ve always found the Kingdom series great at making me lose an hour pretty effortlessly, with this I was almost immediately looking at my watch.