In the future, the last plant on Earth struggles to stay alive, but it needs sunlight.  Unfortunately, the plant is at the bottom of a crystal-filled chasm, and the only way to it to obtain some sun is if the crystals reflect the light to it.  In this free-to-play downloadable game, you must slice crystals on the touch screen so the angles will reflect the light so it reaches the plant.  But it’s harder than it sounds!  Gleam: Last Light is available for iOS and Android devices, but reviewed on iPad here.

In each stage, the plant is at the bottom of a pit, and there are crystals scattered about the walls.  Swipe your finger on the touch screen to slice the crystals so they’ll be at the correct angles to reflect the light down to the plant.  But you have a limited number of swipe slices, and if your energy runs out by swiping too many times, you’ll have to start the stage over again.  You must also take care that crystal pieces that you slice don’t fall on the jar that holds the plant and breaks it.  If either of these things happen, it’s Game Over.  If you can clear the stage with fewer swipes, the higher your rank will be.

The problem with this game is that the swiping involved requires way too much precision.  So much so that I didn’t get very far in the game and didn’t find it that much fun anyway.  Maybe if you used a stylus instead of your finger, it might work better, but I doubt it.  And you must do this with several crystals in a stage and if you mess up, you have to start over.  I can’t really recommend this one.

Kid Factor:

Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, and younger gamers may get frustrated at the difficult gameplay.  There are no in-game ads or purchases, which is cool, but there is still an area where you can donate to the game developers, so parental supervision is still recommended.

Tags: Game Reviews