History VideoGame / TheTownOfLight

''The Town of Light'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame with elements of PsychologicalHorror, developed by LKA and released in 2016 for Platform/MicrosoftWindows, with UsefulNotes/Playstation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne versions following in 2017.

Renée is a 16 years old girl who gets locked up in the [[BedlamHouse Volterra asylum]] in Italy as the girl represented a danger to herself and others and a cause of public scandal. During the course of the game, the player explores the modern-day asylum in all of its [[SceneryGorn crumbling glory]] to retrace Renée stay in the asylum, learning her story and the horrors she had to live through.

* ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture: A flashback shows Renée undergo electroshock therapy. The scene plays out like a NightmareSequence and [[FadeToWhite fades to white]] when the procedure begins.

* HystericalWoman: Renée's story is one where her womanhood was pathologized. It makes you realize how long of a way we have come in understanding how the human mind works and how mental illnesses can be treated effectively. It doesn't help that Renée [[RapeAsBackstory was molested as a child by different men]].

* SecurityBlanket: Renée had a doll called Charlotte who provided her some comfort in the harsh times at the asylum.

** In reality, Renée's and Amara only met for a short time but in her memory, they maintained a close bond for years.

''The Town of Light'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame with elements of PsychologicalHorror, developed by LKA and released in 2016 for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], with UsefulNotes/Playstation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne versions following in 2017.

It is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, set at the Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital in Tuscany, Italy, that was once home to more than 6,000 mental patients. It was shut down in 1978 after its practices were deemed cruel.

* RapeAndSwitch: Downplayed. Renée was molested as a child which may have let to her pursing a homosexual relationship (imagined or not) at the asylum.

* SentimentalMusicCue: The song "The Town of Light" playing over the closing scene of Renée sitting on a bench in front of the hospital.
* ShearMenace: In a cut scene, you stab yourself with a pair of scissors in the stomach. You do the same to your doll if you fetch it from the cemetery.

* DrivenToSuicide: After several years of [[INeverGotAnyLetters communication censoring]] by hospital staff, Renéediscovers that her mother died and tried to take her own life on multiple occasions.

* DownerEnding: The story ends with a doctor narrating that the long term recovery for Renée post-surgery is unclear but it doesn't look good.

* AbandonedPlayground: One can be found right at the start of the game if you walk off to your immediate left.

''The Town of Light'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame with elements of PsychologicalHorror, developed by LKA and released in 2016 for[[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], with UsefulNotes/Playstation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne versions following in 2017.

''The Town of Light'' is a 2016 EnvironmentalNarrativeGame with elements of PsychologicalHorror developed by LKA.

The story is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, set at the Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital in Tuscany, Italy, that was once home to more than 6,000 mental patients. It was shut down in 1978 after its practices were deemed cruel.

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!!Tropes:

* AbandonedHospital: We enter the hospital in 2016, almost forty years after it was closed down. [[SceneryGorn The decay is beautifully captured]]. There's also an AbandonedPlayground to be found right at the start of the game if you walk off to your immediate left.

* AbandonedHospital: We enter the hospital in 2016, almost forty years after it was closed down. [[SceneryGorn The decay is beautifully captured]].

* HowWeGotHere: The game opens with a scene right before the [[spoiler:lobotomy surgery]] but then we cut to the present day and explore Renée's time leading up to that scene.

* DisappearedDad: Renée's father is never mentioned in her recollections.

* StoryBranching: On the basis of your choices, the story will develop in different ways.

* PromiscuityAfterRape: We learn that Renée developed an unhealthy sexual behavior in her youth which may be related to experiences she had with her CreepyUncle and a PedophilePriest.

* RapeLeadsToInsanity: One explanation for Renée's mental instability may be unresolved trauma from sexual abuse in her childhood.

* HystericalWoman: Renée's story is one where her womanhood was pathologized. It makes you realize how long of a way we have come in understanding how the human mind works and how mental illnesses can be treated effectively. It doesn't help that Renée was molested as a child by different men.

* RapeAndSwitch: Renée was molested as a child and is then shown to have a homosexual relationship at the asylum (imagined or not).

The story is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory set at the Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital in Tuscany, Italy, that was once home to more than 6,000 mental patients. It was shut down in 1978 after its practices were deemed cruel.

''The Town of Light'' is an EnvironmentalNarrativeGame with elements of PsychologicalHorror developed by LKA.

* BedlamHouse: Volterra asylum was infamous for its cruel treatment of patients including electroshock therapy. The hospital was called 'the place of no return' because patients supposedly never returned home. Thousands of patients were held in the tightest of spaces. The tragedy is thoroughly explored in Renee's flashbacks and through documents scattered around.
* ChildByRape: A caretaker at the asylum molested Renée (and others) over a period of time which led to her having an abortion.

* DownerEnding: The story ends with a doctor narrating that the long term recovery for Renee post-surgery is unclear but it doesn't look good.
* DrivenToSuicide: After several years of [[INeverGotAnyLetters communication censoring]] by hospital staff, Renee discovers that her mother died and tried to take her own life on multiple occasions.

* {{Flashback}}: Renee walks the corridors of the derelict asylum which triggers flashbacks of both her inpatient stay and circumstances prior. Sometimes takes the form of a FlashbackCut when we only see a flash of a memory bubbling up like when she was making love to a stranger in the greenhouse or [[https://youtu.be/9pM2S9m2MlA?t=209 took a visit]] to the DepravedDentist.

* INeverGotAnyLetters: Renee discovers that correspondence from her mother did not reach her.
* {{Lobotomy}}: In the final scene, [[spoiler:Renee is undergoing lobotomy surgery, presumably turning her into an EmptyShell for the rest of her life.]]

* PedophilePriest: One of the paintings in TheMaze level depicts Renee with Don Gino who frightened her. We can only assume that he was lusting after her.

* ThousandYardStare: Renée absent-minded look in the closing scene, a result of the lobotomy surgery.

* UnreliableNarrator: Renee's recollections are often at odds with the official hospital documents.

* WardensAreEvil: According to Renée, the nurses were pretty insensitive and brutal. She even got sexually abused by a male caretaker and subsequently had an abortion.

* PedophilePriest: One of the paintings in TheMaze level depicts Renee with Don Gino who frightened her. We can only assume that he was lusting for her.

* EyeCam: The first part of the lobotomy surgery is seen through Renée's eye where her eyelids open and close as she watches up from an operation table.

* INeverGotAnyLetters: Renee discovers that correspondence from her mother did not reach her.
* {{Flashback}}: Renee walks the corridors of the derelict asylum which triggers flashbacks of both her inpatient stay and circumstances prior. Sometimes takes the form of a FlashbackCut when we only see a flash of a memory bubbling up like when she was raped in the garden house or [[https://youtu.be/9pM2S9m2MlA?t=209 took a visit]] to the DepravedDentist.

* {{Lobotomy}}: In the final scene Renee is receiving lobotomy surgery, presumably turning her into an EmptyShell for the rest of her live.
* DownerEnding: The story ends with a doctor narrating that the long term recovery for Renee post-surgery is unclear but it doesn't look good.

* {{Lobotomy}}: In the final scene Renee is receiving lobotomy surgery, turning her into an EmptyShell for the rest of her live.