Psychological adventure game The Town of Light is the second game to join the Black Label collection, a partnership between Limited Run Games and Wired Productions designed as “a celebration of art, music and most importantly; the teams behind each release”.
Originally released in 2017, The Town of Light is a first-person adventure game set in the remains of the real-life Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, that sees a woman revisiting the traumatic youth she spent there. By drawing on and subverting a lot of the tropes of the horror genre—especially of the “insane alysum” ilk—it instead looks to explore the horrific reality of what mental health “treatment” has looked like, even in relatively recent history.
As I described it in my review back then:
It may often be labelled a horror game (not by the developers, I should note), but The Town of Light is something else. It’s certainly horrific, and the abandoned asylum setting is a creepy one, but this isn’t a game about dangerous lunatics, jump scares, existential dread, or any of the other tropes of the horror genre. No, this is a poignant, haunting look into a grim period of history that’s much more recent than most would like to think, with effects that are felt to this day.
It’s a powerful, affecting game, and a fitting choice for a Black Label release, given Wired Productions stated goals of using this collection as a way to celebrate games as a form of art, and the effort that goes into making them.
Black Label #02: The Town of Light includes:
- The Town Of Light on PS4, enclosed in a brand new variant inlay and sleeve
- A collection of art prints hand-chosen by LKA developer founder Luca Dalcò
- CD and Digital Download soundtrack by acclaimed artist and musician Aseptic Void
- A Wired Razor authenticity card – individually numbered with just 2,500 available
- razor-cut Alu-dibond art print
- Collectable trading cards from the Wired Productions collection
- a bespoke high-end Black Label silver box wrapped in the Wired Razor Sleeve, with a black finish with an embossed tattoo motif
- “a pretty cool and super exclusive bonus item that Wired will reveal later!”
“After seeing the positive response from the community to Black Label #01: Victor Vran, I couldn’t wait to announce the next game in the Black Label Collection,” said Leo Zullo, Managing Director at Wired Productions. “The Town of Light is an extremely important game for Wired and deserves to be celebrated in the form of Black Label, from the first time we played the demo of the title we were shocked, in awe and knew instantly that this game needed to be played.”
Black Label #02: The Town of Light is limited to 2,500 copies worldwide, and will set you back USD $79.99 / £69.99. Pre-orders for it are open now through Wired Productions and Limited Run Games. with the pre-order phase running until October 31 (or the order limit is reached). It’s worth noting that this release is separate from Limited Run’s standard catalogue and numbering system, and missing out on it won’t compromise a complete Limited Run set, for collectors who are concerned about such things.
Pre-orders also remain open for the first Black Label game, Victor Vran, at the time of writing, though Wired Productions expects to hit the 2,500-copy limit soon. At least four more Black Label games are planned, judging from placeholders on Wired’s store listings, but details of the remaining games remains to be seen.
LKA, The Town of Light‘s developer, also has a new game on the way in Martha is Dead. This “dark first-person psychological thriller, set in 1944 Italy, that blurs the lines between reality, superstition and the tragedy of war” is due out later this year on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.
