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Lightmatter
A first-person puzzler where shadows kill you. Watch your step or be swallowed by the darkness.
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “Light-and-shadow puzzle mechanics” (49 of 79 reviews) and “Portal-like humor and engaging stories” (15); the most common complaint is “Shorter than expected” (15). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-28 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
49 of the 79 reviews raise this.
“Really clever puzzle game built around light and shadows. It starts simple but quickly ramps up into some brain-melting challenges. The humor and narration keep it from feeling too dry. Short, but very satisfying.”
15 of the 79 reviews raise this.
“Really clever puzzle game built around light and shadows. It starts simple but quickly ramps up into some brain-melting challenges. The humor and narration keep it from feeling too dry. Short, but very satisfying.”
“The perfect game to play in one sitting at the end of a long week. The music, story, voice acting, puzzles, and increasingly intriguing setting really captivated me. The OST should be sold or provided for free as DLC.…”
13 of the 79 reviews raise this.
“Really clever puzzle game built around light and shadows. It starts simple but quickly ramps up into some brain-melting challenges. The humor and narration keep it from feeling too dry. Short, but very satisfying.”
“Fun short puzzle game. The puzzles weren't all too hard but sometimes I did get stuck unable to think out of the box. Overall pretty relaxing as well, since there are no time limits as well.”
“The perfect game to play in one sitting at the end of a long week. The music, story, voice acting, puzzles, and increasingly intriguing setting really captivated me. The OST should be sold or provided for free as DLC.…”
9 of the 79 reviews raise this.
“a well-designed and fun puzzle game similar in style to Portal and Portal 2. Even though the achievements are a bit tedious the game is definitely enjoyable and makes for a nice few hours of puzzling. The athmosphere is…”
7 of the 79 reviews raise this.
“The perfect game to play in one sitting at the end of a long week. The music, story, voice acting, puzzles, and increasingly intriguing setting really captivated me. The OST should be sold or provided for free as DLC.…”
“a well-designed and fun puzzle game similar in style to Portal and Portal 2. Even though the achievements are a bit tedious the game is definitely enjoyable and makes for a nice few hours of puzzling. The athmosphere is…”
15 of the 79 reviews raise this · 15 of them still recommend the game.
“Really clever puzzle game built around light and shadows. It starts simple but quickly ramps up into some brain-melting challenges. The humor and narration keep it from feeling too dry. Short, but very satisfying.”
“Fun short puzzle game. The puzzles weren't all too hard but sometimes I did get stuck unable to think out of the box. Overall pretty relaxing as well, since there are no time limits as well.”
“A brilliant game, but far far too short. Definitely play it if you're a fan of Portal! I also spent far too long on level 17. (spoiler hidden)”
11 of the 79 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“It's so and so. OK when it's on sale but not otherwise. The game desperately tries to be another Portal but fails pretty much on every level to live up to it. It constantly references Portal but not in a clever way. It…”
“A brilliant game, but far far too short. Definitely play it if you're a fan of Portal! I also spent far too long on level 17. (spoiler hidden)”
“Так как при оценке чего-либо, что мне в целом понравилось, я обычно разбираю в первую очередь минусы, чтобы поскорее с ними закончить и завершить обзор на хорошей ноте - с них и начну. Не понравилось: Сюжет и отсылки:…”
8 of the 79 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“A bit "light" on puzzles. Light Matter is a game that has taken inspiration from Portal in some big ways, and it doesn't hide this. The developers obviously loved Portal and so they throw in homages to it throughout the…”
“Seems like a decent puzzle game. It has a Portal vibe, which is nice. The puzzles were annoying to me so I didn't get far. If I liked puzzles, I'd probably like this.”
“It's so and so. OK when it's on sale but not otherwise. The game desperately tries to be another Portal but fails pretty much on every level to live up to it. It constantly references Portal but not in a clever way. It…”
6 of the 79 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Buy on sale, really fun game I enjoyed this puzzle game a LOT. Highly recommend for puzzle enjoyers”
“It's so and so. OK when it's on sale but not otherwise. The game desperately tries to be another Portal but fails pretty much on every level to live up to it. It constantly references Portal but not in a clever way. It…”
5 of the 79 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Seems like a decent puzzle game. It has a Portal vibe, which is nice. The puzzles were annoying to me so I didn't get far. If I liked puzzles, I'd probably like this.”
“A brilliant game, but far far too short. Definitely play it if you're a fan of Portal! I also spent far too long on level 17. (spoiler hidden)”
Counted across 79 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 91.5% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“This is a relatively short game with excellent graphics and story writing. The puzzles are amusing and interrupted from time to time with timed sections of obstacles. Some eye-hand coordination required, but most emphasis is on reasoning and puzzle solving. It would have been…”
— a player, Steam review · 11 hrs played“Hello Darkness My Old Friend Key features Portal wanna be, Actually nice puzzle mechanics, Randomly spawns a purring cat (rare encounter) Light Me Up Light is life, indeed. Overall Lightmatter is a nice puzzle game. It's very short, smaller than first Portal game, which…”
— a player, Steam review · 6 hrs played“Really fun puzzle game. A lot of homage to portal, especially on the humour front (Also a direct mention of Aperture Science). Avoid the shadows, shine light on them, do what you must to escape. 8/10”
— a player, Steam review · 14 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-24.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-23). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Lightmatter Anniversary: Play 9 never-before-released prototypes!
Hello everyone! As we wrote a few weeks ago, Lightmatter is turning five years this month!🥳 Some of you might already know that the game actually began as a university project called 'See You On The O
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Hi everyone! Can you believe it? It has already been five years since Lightmatter saw the light of day! In order to celebrate, today we are releasing the amazing soundtrack that Ulrik Slot Christensen
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The awesome people from the Lightmatter Discord community will be speedrunning Lightmatter Any% at a marathon called For The Love of Gaming later today - January 28th at 4:48PM EST. It's completely or
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Adventure, Indie |
| Player tags | Logic · Indie · Adventure · Puzzle · First-Person · Sci-fi · 3D · Atmospheric · Science · Dark Comedy · Dynamic Narration · Narration (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Steam Trading Cards · Partial Controller Support · Steam Cloud · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * , Danish * , French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese - Brazil * |
| Achievements | 23 |
| Official site | http://lightmattergame.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i3 4170 / AMD A8-7600 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 660 / AMD R9 270 Storage: 6 GB available space