Games give us so many opportunities to do things that we wouldn’t be able to do in real life, from travelling to different dimensions or having superpowers to destroying or saving the world. Often the best part of these experiences is the journey to get there. MadLight’s Seed of Life is one such game.
Players take on the role of Cora. The last survivor on the dying planet of Lumia. The young girl goes on a journey to activate the titular Seed of Life, an alien device with the power to reignite the sun and save her homeworld from destruction from ever-encroaching darkness.
On her journey to save the world, Cora can utilise the remnants of the planet’s life force called Lumium to help her push back the darkness.
As Seed of Life progresses, players unlock abilities that require Lumium to use. This is collected from altars scattered throughout the world or from Lumium plants that also allow you to upgrade your Lumium capacity.
So is Seed of Life a journey worth taking? The short answer is yes. The long answer is a bit more complicated.
Seed of Life is beautiful. You can tell a lot of care and effort went into the lighting, design and the overall aesthetic of the world. I instantly found myself entranced by the visuals.
The controls for Seed of Life are what you would expect from your average 3D action/adventure game. However, Cora can’t sprint. This isn’t a deal-breaker, but it makes travelling long distances feel a little tedious at times. Overall though, the controls work well, while the platforming and puzzle sections are on point.
Seed of Life does a great job of tutorialising during its opening. Cora gives players simple instructions via dialogue like ‘I need to get to the other side of the river’ to indicate where you need to go. However, after a while, these drop off, and you have to figure things out for yourself, but at this point, you have all the tools necessary to complete the game.
Although the game’s dialogue is helpful, at least, to begin with, the same can’t be said about the voice acting that almost caused me to stop playing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no voice actor, but Cora is painfully monotone. There doesn’t seem to be any emotion coming from this girl fighting to save her planet. It’s a small thing but had a lot of impact on my enjoyment of the experience at times.
Overall, I would recommend playing Seed of Life. It is a stunning and enjoyable experience, with an engaging story, and a world that begs to be explored, even if the characters inhabiting it aren’t always that inspiring.