Dark Light: Survivor Preview

Dark Light: Survivor is a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk roguelite survival game coming out on the 15th of May 2026, and I got the chance to check out its beta before its release. And let me tell you, I couldn’t tear myself away.

In a world where creatures from the dark have fractured humanity and the universe, you play as a Dark Hunter, one of the last humans left alive, and in control of a multiverse-travelling train, your goal is to reach the fabled Elysium. Even if it means traversing the Dark Void and fighting against the many corrupt creatures in your way, no matter how many universes it takes to get there, you must reach that last bastion of safety.

This is basically any Vampire Survivors–inspired game where you’ll be facing down hordes of enemies while you level up, gain powerful buffs that change your playstyle, and obtain equipment to keep up with the ever-growing threat. You either die trying or last long enough to kill the boss at the end of the waves. However, there are some serious differences here that kept me playing.

A slight word of warning, though; the tutorial consists of showing you the controls and loading screen tips. It didn’t go into details of certain mechanics, which would’ve been nice to know beforehand, so I might be missing a few things.

First off, let’s take equipment because there’s a lot you can do with it. At the beginning of a run, you start off with only your basic weapons: one melee and one ranged. In chests or dropped by powerful foes, you can obtain armour and weapons to really help boost your survivability, which is good. However, the game didn’t exactly point out that I could customise these weapons after I used them enough to level them up; adding attachments to guns or runs to swords, that sort of thing. I love weapon customisation, and you feel (and hear!) the difference in their effects. I just wish that the indicator was a little more noticeable.

Now, while most of these types of games simply let you walk around while your weapons/spells/robot/mutations/whatever attack for you, here you can control your attacks manually or let the auto-aim do it for you, and there’s a reason for that.

The most prominent mechanic is that you can shift from a top-down perspective to third-person at the press of a button, with both views having their advantages and disadvantages. Playing from top-down, you can see any enemies behind you, and it makes auto-attacks more effective. In third-person, though, you can see into the distance and aim your shots to hit weak points. I found myself frequently switching between the two views to effectively deal with the hordes. It’s a really cool system that shakes up the formula a lot more than I was expecting.

But, as I said before, this is a roguelite, so it will be inevitable that your first run might not end spectacularly. If you want an easier time fighting the Dark Void, you’ll need upgrades.

Between runs, you’ll be at the Nexus, where you can talk to NPCs, switch your character, equip relics that provide buffs at the start of a run, and purchase new equipment, additional characters, and permanent skills using the money obtained during a run. These can be quite powerful and help customise and optimise your playstyle. For example, my character could start with a powerful revolver instead of a dinky pistol, which really helped in the early stages until I needed a more powerful gun.

I seriously loved my time with Dark Light: Survivor, and despite it being so close to release as I am writing this, I can’t wait for the full version now. It would certainly be great not to deal with some of the glitches I got… such as being completely invincible but unable to move after using a free resurrection.