Static Dread: The Lighthouse Review

Injecting elements of cosmic horror into a work, or paying homage to Lovecraftian lore, is one thing, but it’s exceedingly difficult to build an entire game around the subgenre. It’s not that fishmen are hard to love, or the fact that people hate coastal towns; it’s the unknowing. Beings of incomprehensible magnitude that fracture the mind at a mere glance of their visage can be awfully tricky to depict in a largely visual medium, and it’s trickier still to find an engaging way to interact with a world that exists in their shadow and under their influence.

That’s the reason I was so drawn to Static Dread: The Lighthouse. It sounded like developer solarsuit.games was on to a winning formula, marrying the removed choice-based gameplay of Papers, Please with the otherworldly horror of Lovecraft. However, while there are some excellent ideas on show and a fantastic art direction that perfectly matches the tone, the tedium of being a lighthouse keeper in the middle of nowhere may have been recreated a little too faithfully.

Our nameless lighthouse keeper is new to the role, having left his family at home to accept the important position. The state of this world is dire, with an atmospheric disturbance knocking out almost all modern technology, forcing humanity to revert to more analogue methods of communication, like the humble fax machine and radio.

Juggling the mess of paperwork can be stressful in itself

As the new keeper, it’s your responsibility to maintain the lighthouse, guide ships to shore, and keep your wits about you in your isolated state. Taking a first-person perspective, you’re able to explore the structure during the day, free of any time-sensitive responsibilities. But when night comes, so do the ships, each with captains eager to see port.

During your first shift, you’ll get used to the basics. Ships will hail you over the radio, and you’re tasked with first finding the frequency on which to speak to them. Once connected, the captain of the vessel will fax through their documents, with info like their name, cargo, port of origin, and destination included. From there, you’ll have the option to ask a handful of questions before you plot their course on a map and send them on their way.

Of course, things don’t stay this peachy for long. With a night or two under your belt, calls will start coming through with reports of strange activity, otherworldly creatures and sickness. Additional orders will start getting added to your checklist, requiring you to thoroughly vet each ship for suspect signs, diverting their paths away from the requested route and onto one that suits your objective. Or, of course, you can go rogue; the choice is yours.

Interacting with the haunting cast of characters is a clear highlight 

The stranger calls come in tandem with malfunctioning equipment and spooky happenings taking place within your lighthouse. Akin to Five Nights at Freddy’s, a huge portion of each night is dedicated to warding off the unseen forces that want you to vacate the lighthouse. These menaces make themselves known by turning lights off, scribbling runes on the wall in blood, shutting off the lighthouse, and…creating spiderwebs?

These maintenance quirks are initially a novel wrinkle to gameplay, but as nights draw on, they become more and more frequent, until each shift is completely dominated by menial tasks that have you putting a stop to what you’re doing to attend to them. Worse still, if you somehow succumb to madness as a result of leaving marks on the wall, you’ll be forced to reattempt that night from the beginning, no matter how far through the evening you were. I understand wanting to add another layer to an otherwise simple loop, but this massively oversteps and quickly becomes a deterrent that had me questioning if I even had another night in me.

Adding to the chaos is an enigmatic and seemingly malevolent voice that takes over your comms, tempting you with power and pushing you to offer it sacrifices. As with every ship call, you can choose how you interact with the voice, and your actions will determine which of the multiple endings you’ll receive. It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that the conclusions are all quite similar, and all boil down to text on the screen and little else. Making these huge decisions feels important in the moment, but they’re disappointingly toothless in the end.

Company is good, just let the right one in

As the sun rises and your shift ends, you’ll have time to prepare for the next night, often by answering the door and interacting with a number of colourful characters, each brought to life in a striking 2D art style that gives each of them a unique and spooky presence. Certain vendors will offer items to ward off status effects like fatigue and sanity, while others will present choices that affect the overall outcome of the story.

You’ll use cash you earned by completing shifts, with demerits handed out for any mistakes you make during the night. Spending this cash with vendors is an odd proposition, mainly because a core two or three items make the others completely useless. Buying the fishing rod and coffee maker with your first paycheck will eliminate the need for any further consumables, as you’ll be flush with fish and coffee to keep you awake and aware. Resource management is an understandable attempt at building tension, but some balancing was sorely missed along the way.

Final Thoughts

Manning a lighthouse plagued with cosmic horrors and surrounded by crazed cultists is a cracking pitch, especially when you throw in the intrigue of a Papers, Please-like gameplay loop. While I truly commend the effort here and love the presentation of the package, there are just too many underdone elements to ignore. Seeing that Static Dread has a subtitle, I’m hoping that this can be spun off into a series, and that learnings from The Lighthouse will light the way for a follow-up that lives up to the premise.

Reviewed on Steam Deck // Review code supplied by publisher

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