Static Dread: The Lighthouse Review – Alone, Adrift, and Probably Doomed

Static Dread: The Lighthouse Review

Static Dread: The Lighthouse is self-described by indie developer, Solar Suit Games, as Lovecraft meets Papers, Please. In the 2012 game, you play as a border inspector in a dystopian future who regulates the border checkpoint. They determine who to admit and who to keep out or arrest. In the Lighthouse, you serve a similar function as a lighthouse keeper and guide ships safely into the harbors of various ports using your radio. However, there is another eerie layer going on as you carry out your duties.

Like Papers, Please the setting for Static Dread takes place at a lighthouse in the aftermath of a global cataclysm. Harbor authorities want to keep the seas navigable amidst the growing chaos. So they have reactivated an ancient lighthouse and sent you alone to a forsaken island where the lighthouse is. It is your responsibility to safeguard passing vessels. If that isn’t enough, the future of the nearby town is also your responsibility. Further adding to your fear and isolation is the separation from your wife and daughter. They wait for your return, but that is contingent on you successfully doing your job.

Things start going off the rails from the start. Strange and unexplained occurrences are happening every night. Mariners report encounters with creatures beyond the reach of science. Ships drift back from distant waters – empty, their crews vanished without a trace. In the island’s fishing village, the locals whisper prayers to sea gods and perform rituals to raise the dead. Your duties grow more perilous with each day.

What makes Static Dread work so well is the tension between your job duties, which should be straightforward, that continually collide against the unexplainable. Your duties are not that difficult. Make sure the lighthouse beacon is on. Communicate with ship captains by radio. You take their requests for which port they are going to and provide them with the best course. Your navigational advice is done via a fax machine. You draw the best course on the map and send it to the captain.

Radio Ga Ga, Radio Goo Goo 

Radio communication with the captains is difficult, however. It requires tuning to the proper radio frequency. This is an all-analog activity. You must manually scan through the entire broadcast band, pausing when the signal strength becomes strong enough. Scanning radio frequencies leads to uncomfortable moments. Eerie sounds can be heard. Sometimes they sound like voices. Ghost voices, maybe? Other times they just sound plain unnatural. Hence, the game title – Static Dread.

Things get weirder as the ship captains start making strange reports or requests. Reports of things unexplained, such as weird phenomena on the seas or land. Things like gaping maws. Or reports of things. Things that whisper and writhe. Things that are wet and have tentacles. Some of these things you hear about, and some of them haunt you in the lighthouse. Lights flicker, and there are noises outside. And bumps in the night.

You soon realize that the rules you are supposed to follow aren’t working. Quite often it feels like doing the wrong thing is the only to survive. The conflict between the two heightens your sense of dread. One of the early rules your boss gives you is not to let the townspeople inside the lighthouse. So what should you do when one of them insists you let them in? The game keeps you constantly off balance and questioning yourself.

The struggle to preserve your sanity is not only a mental dilemma but a physical one too. You have to keep your energy up by getting rest and eating. The problems are that there is so much to keep track of, and food can be scarce. In desperation, you will make choices one would normally not make so you can get more food. Every action and result tests your morality as well as your sanity.

Decisions, Decisions

You’ll be engaged in a balancing act of making tough moral decisions, balancing your energy against dwindling supplies, as well as dealing with ship captains who may already be insane for reasons you fear finding out. You may find some helpful clues if you can screw up the courage to investigate the lighthouse. And while doing so, decide whether to answer knocks at the door. There could be townspeople on the other side. Or something more.

On the technical side of things, Solar Suit Games has taken a very stylized approach to the game’s appearance. Working with a limited budget is a challenge, but it can also lead to some inspired creative choices. The interior of the lighthouse would be right at home in a Looney Tunes cartoon. Architecture is slightly off-kilter. Doors and jambs rarely run in straight lines. The net effect generates a sense of unease and disorientation.

Because the game takes place in a dystopia, unusual light displays similar to the Northern Lights weigh down the night sky. Green veils of illumination drape themselves across the stars, giving off a very otherworldly aspect.

In contrast with the 3D world, the game presents characters in static 2D images with choices of how you want to interact with them. Often the choices are as dialog choices. While safely navigating ships is an important gameplay element, it is with the characters that you really determine which way the story plays out. Do you act friendly, indifferent or outright hostile? The choice is always a difficult one. Especially when a possible path seems counter to what appears to be the best choice.

The Sounds of Horror

Audio is always an important aspect of games, even more so in horror ones. The centerpiece is the radio and the unsettling sounds that come from it as you scan the frequencies for ships. Those ghostly and static-filled noises do a great job of unnerving you. Plus, they also make you question what you are hearing. Or even worse, what you are missing.

The game offers a great mix of dread laced with unknowable horror. Because there are different choices you can make, the game has many very different endings. Can you successfully complete your job? Can you make the right choices, even if they go against your morals? There’s only one way to find out.

***Static Dread: The Lighthouse Steam review key provided by the publisher.***