Lanternborne

A dark fantasy survivor-like where the hero has no powers. Ilan walks the old Lamplighters’ Road. His weapons aim and fire on their own, and every lamp he relights keeps the dark out of the ground he has already crossed.

The game opens on its own start screen rather than on the game. Its button starts a run, and the game was playable about 13 seconds after that press here.

No attack button

Ilan has no powers and no attack button. He walks, and the weapons he carries aim and fire at the nearest demon themselves. What a run changes is the weapons he holds: 16 of them, from a dagger up to a gatling, and each one changes what the walking is for.

That makes the run a question of ground rather than of timing. A dagger wants the demons close and a gatling wants them lined up, and the same street plays differently depending on which of the 16 is in his hands.

What the coins buy

Demons drop coins, and the coins buy new weapons, upgrades and the perks the Chained Merchant sells. A chest opens by walking to it, a puzzle asks for a route rather than a fight, and the merchant waits where the road bends.

On a desktop the 4 keys that walk him are all a run asks for. The chest, the merchant and the puzzle all trigger by arriving, which is why nothing here needs a second button.

A road with lamps behind you

The old Lamplighters’ Road crosses a hundred levels in 10 cursed lands. Each street lamp he passes is relit, and the dark cannot close in on ground that is lit, which turns the road into a record of where the run has been.

Every land ends in a boss, and the last of them is Lucifer. That gives the hundred levels a shape: 10 stretches, each one closing on something that has to be walked through rather than around.

The story is the reason the sun is gone

Demons rule the world because the sun is gone, and Ilan is the last lamplighter: a man with no gift, carrying light because nobody else is left to carry it. The game tells that in the road rather than in cut scenes, so a run that stops at level 12 has still seen the premise.

Keys, or one held button

WASD or the arrow keys walk him. Hold the left mouse button instead and he walks toward the pointer, which is the same steering on a trackpad. P pauses the run, and so does the pause button.

On a phone the same steering becomes one finger dragged anywhere on the screen, so the game is not one of those that needs a keyboard to be worth playing.

How it sits beside Azeroth Survivors

For anyone who plays Azeroth Survivors for its dark fantasy rather than its numbers, both games put one figure on a road with a crowd closing in, and both let the character attack without being asked.

The difference is what the road is for. Azeroth Survivors grows spells inside a run; Lanternborne grows the weapons and keeps the lamps as the progress, so a good run is one that leaves a lit road behind it.

What a first session looks like

Walk, do not fight. The weapons fight, and every second spent standing still is a second the demons use to arrive from the side. Take the coins that are on the way, open the chests that are on the way, and let the merchant wait until the route passes him.