Game reviews
The Town of Light: a real place is not a ready-made monster
LKA’s psychological horror premise raises a harder question than whether an empty institution looks frightening.
Whimsical Woes editorial ·
A deserted institution is an efficient horror image. It is also a place with a history beyond its usefulness as a set. Wired Productions describes The Town of Light as a psychological adventure set at the Volterra Psychiatric Asylum and says it was inspired by true accounts. That line is a reason to look closely at the game’s framing, not a reason to treat a dramatized game as a complete record of patients’ lives.
The building carries more than atmosphere
An abandoned corridor can suggest isolation, neglect, and a system that once controlled movement. Those meanings are not interchangeable. A fictional ghost story can use an empty school without claiming to explain education; a game invoking a real psychiatric site has a more specific responsibility to distinguish its artistic choices from historical evidence.
The central character, Renée, gives the game a personal route through that place. But representation is not settled by making one person central. A thoughtful player can ask what the game allows her to describe, what the architecture is asked to symbolize, and whether the institution becomes a shortcut for “madness” instead of a subject with context. These are questions to bring to the work, not verdicts that a store page can answer for us.
A difficult subject needs room for disagreement
This kind of story will not suit everyone, particularly players who prefer supernatural threats with no connection to real institutions or mental-health history. The official description is promotional material and cannot substitute for historical scholarship or first-person accounts. That limitation is especially important when a game uses the phrase “inspired by true accounts”: inspiration alone does not establish that every scene or character detail is factual.
For a game that names a real institution, players can ask whether the building is being treated as a setting with specific history or simply as a ready-made image of dread. The difference matters. Specificity can make a work more responsible, but it also asks the creator to be precise about what is documented and what is invented. The official page provides the developer’s framing, not the complete history of Volterra.
For artists, the lesson is not “never set a horror story in an institution.” It is to make the source of the image legible and to resist using suffering as instant atmosphere. Context takes research; a gray corridor alone does not provide it.
The Town of Light is best approached as a work of fiction that invites scrutiny. Its setting can be atmospheric, but the real place and the people connected to it deserve sources beyond the game. For horror that invents its own systems of control rather than drawing from an actual institution, our [Pathologic 2 review](/journal/pathologic-2-triage-and-time-review) explores choice under pressure.
Questions from the crypt
Where is The Town of Light set?
Wired Productions identifies the Volterra Psychiatric Asylum in Tuscany as the setting.
Is the game a documentary?
No. The publisher describes it as a psychological horror adventure inspired by accounts, not a historical record.
What should players keep in mind?
Treat the game’s scenes as fiction and consult independent historical and first-person sources for context about real institutions.