Static Dread: The Lighthouse
Developer: Solarsuit Games
Publisher: Polden Publishing
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $12.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
If there was anything that goes together perfectly, it is anything based on or near the water and Lovecraftian horrors. As such when Solarsuit Games revealed that one of their latest indie horror games would be making the jump to consoles, it seemed like the best way to experience a new take on horror, especially given what it tasks players with doing, being a lighthouse keeper of all things. Isolated with only a radio and the local fishing village nearby, does Static Dread: The Lighthouse manage to deliver interesting gameplay and unique enough storytelling to carry the frights?
Story
The player, an unnamed lighthouse keeper, has been assigned to take over the only working lighthouse near Blackfort on a small island of Outsmooth when a strange aurora appears over the entire world, disrupting all modern electronics and striking fear into many as the eerie aurora remains in the air day and night. Formerly entirely automated, the player is given the task to help manage the radio of the lighthouse, keep its beacon shining, and guide ships lost on the sea to their ports at night while talking to their family on the radio during the day. Or at least that’s how it was meant to be until an incredibly strange broadcast comes through the radio, warning the keeper to leave or face their terrible wrath.
As the second day rolls around the keeper is informed by the “Chief” that not only have the two lighthouse keepers that were supposed to work in shifts alongside the player have been found murdered by a local gang of drug-runners, but the drugs themselves are seemingly changing people, all while the Chief demeans the keeper and issues new orders to keep an eye out as they guide ships to port. Thus begins the fifteen‑night trial growing ever more dire as time progresses and new events unfold. The keeper faces mounting burdens, additional tasks, ship analysis, and their own sanity all while the world itself strains to hold together. A being not of this realm cracks it at the seams, and a rising cult transforms, battling against humanity’s desperate struggle to survive what it cannot possibly comprehend.
Static Dread: The Lighthouse tells a fascinating and eerie story that does wonders to keep the player invested every single night by offering not only a wide-variety of choices and outcomes depending on what they end up selecting, but also being as upfront with the potential terror right at the doorstep but holding the curtain back just long enough before dropping the veil fully as each night progresses. That being said, it is a bit unfortunate that some player choices feel like they don’t make much of a difference outside of having an occasionally different radio call or an extra helping hand to talk to in the lighthouse.
It is interesting to note that the game does track certain choices and reveal “Chapter” achievements depending on what players have done, even if they never resulted in a visual effect. For example, players can bring in a number of characters into the lighthouse (despite being explicitly told not to), and at certain points these characters find their will to continue or calling, only for players to be left hanging. In fact, multiple times my Keeper found himself threatened by outside threats that would “attack” due to denying them access to my inhabitants only for nothing to happen, lowering the horror factor quite a bit especially since there is a locker that players can “hide” in but it never was needed, even after unlocking all of the lighthouse’s dark secrets.
On the other hand, it is fairly clear that there are some notable choices players can make that can and will drastically alter how the story can unfold and there are multiple endings as a result of this, though the actual variations among these endings are small as well. These aforementioned “notable” choices are obviously the ones that play a bigger role in the story as they also tend to feature some of the biggest twists and revelations amongst the drip feed of information that players get otherwise throughout the limited conversations and radio calls with port authority and ships on the water. Going along with these bigger twists players are also given plenty of eerie glimpses at events through their windows as every day/night players can look out into the village and forest and witness events unfolding depending on how the story is flowing.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of Static Dread: The Lighthouse is fairly straightforward as players are free to roam around what they’ve unlocked of the lighthouse during the day, talk to any people who come to the door or people they’ve let stay inside, peak out the windows to see what’s happening outside, all while making sure they are ready for the challenge that comes at night by eating and drinking food. The title introduces three “perks” called Energy, Sanity, and Speed that players can unlock each day by filling their meter during the day and these are mostly self explanatory since they simply enhance the Keeper’s abilities at night. Energy keeps players awake longer without needing to rush ships or eat additional food to stay awake, sanity keeps them sane while navigating through dark locations or strange happenings, and speed increases overall running speed for the night.
At night players are then given their real mission, to find a ship’s radio signal and guide them to port. Locating a station is meant to be done by rotating the analog sticks but this is slow and only best used for precise stations. Thankfully using the D-Pad rapidly takes players to a signal, shaving time off significantly. As things slowly grow more complicated as nights progress, more will be asked of the player since at first players might need to only guide the ships by drawing straight lines to their destination or Blackfort if it isn’t available but eventually as stranger events happen players will need to question ship captains about their ship status, if they’ve seen or picked up anything strange, or how the crew is doing and dictate where they should be sent instead. Ironically, players will be fined and have a deduction taken out of their next paycheck for improperly handling ships though eventually there are also small bonuses for correctly guiding ships as well.
Things escalate so far to the point of incredible complication as not only will players need to check a ship’s condition, but eventually things like it’s identification sign, draft depth, and more to the point that players will be literally juggling papers on their desk trying to dig out the proper info. While this may have worked fine on the PC version, using only the analog sticks to highlight a paper only to grab a piece beneath is annoying, especially since players don’t technically have forever to handle each radio call. This is ironically not because a call might be missed, as during my time with the game a ship sat on hold for quite some time during a few interactions and malfunctions happening all at once at the lighthouse but because of the aforementioned stats.
The longer a night takes the sleepier the player can become and falling asleep means an instant game over, probably, as it never happened for us, but it was presented as a fail state. It also gives the darkness that stalks the lighthouse a chance to slip through by painting cultish symbols onto surfaces, flick off light switches or straight up rip lights from the ceiling (that can be hung right back up) in an effort to summon its tentacled sludge in the dark. Players will need to brave the darkness at the cost of sanity to drive it away with their flashlight and flick the lights back on, restart the generator, or even run all the way to the top of the lighthouse to restart the rotation motor. If anything, maintaining the lighthouse’s functions that constantly are falling apart and the ever encroaching darkness sometimes takes more time than actually navigating ships and answering calls. This eventually does grow a bit tedious, especially in the last few nights where things start really going wild and the fact that, other than dropping the lights entirely, it doesn’t really vary or feel scary. The biggest scare came from a randomly appearing teddy-bear that happened only twice actually.
It is also worth noting that the game’s economy and item management is a little bit broken. Since players need to eat to keep their perks active for night, they might think they need to ration carefully but some quick purchases can make these non-existent worries. One of the first things players can purchase is a fishing rod for rather cheap to fish out on the dock when not on duty, catching two or three fish at most but easily able to boost their stats as a result. Similarly, a pricey but helpful coffee pot that fully restores energy once a night makes falling asleep also not a concern even when running long nights. This means that players will find themselves not needing to buy any “food” items from the sellers that come to their door, but there is also a problem with these sellers. A couple of them can take refuge inside the lighthouse and close their shop entirely, locking players out of purchasing anything else from their stock.
Our time with Static Dread: The Lighthouse was mostly glitch free but it is worth noting that many of the game’s achievements appear to be bugged or unlock incorrectly. Finishing the game unlocked an achievement for hanging a decoration on every available hook while doing just that gave the achievement for catching ten fish, which in turn never unlocked anything on its own. Not every achievement is glitched, but those looking to tackle achievements will find some issues here. It is also worth noting that while players can load any “day” they want to over again there is no New Game+ style that allows for a money boost or special items to be carried over should players want to start from the beginning, discouraging replay despite the variations available in the storyline.
Audio & Visuals
Solar Suit has taken a very stylized approach to Static Dread: The Lighthouse and it has done wonders to make the game’s atmosphere as creepy as possible. The inside of the lighthouse is designed with odd angles and doors that are off-kilter, making everything seem ever-so-slightly out of place. As for the character designs, they are portrayed just as stylishly with moving 2D portraits that are just as creepy as they are normal looking, at least at first for some. Throughout the game players will also be shown terrifying images of things found by boats out at sea or peek out the windows to see something strange. Either that or get a fax featuring a furry fox girl on accident by someone who’s been at sea too long. Anyways, these creepy designs of the interior and exterior create a wonderfully eerie atmosphere while making it through the nights, especially when needing to navigate through the dark, cleaning evil marks, and eerie eyes appearing on walls.
There is no notable voice work throughout Static Dread: The Lighthouse outside of grumbles through the radio from time to time. In fact the only real voices tend to be the haunting whispers and dire screams that can occur during some nights and whenever the player’s sanity starts to dip low, as well as various doors opening and slamming shut on their own or the sound of bulbs bursting when they are in-fact intact, trying to distract the player from the task at hand. As for the background music, there is an eerie background track throughout most of the game but it is also worth noting that players can acquire a “track player” that they can move around and place in near their radio set-up that not only plays a wide variety of simple but effective background tracks but also restores sanity.
Overall
Taking care of a lighthouse during an imminent Old One driven apocalypse makes for an engrossing storyline that is quite engaging to experience even if it isn’t quite as scary as one might actually expect. While there is certainly a sense of “dread” while manning the radio and navigating the multitude of choices presented to the player, it often feels like many are of little consequence. Combine this with a bit of tedium when it comes to maintenance and the quick way players can break the food mechanics and many of the other elements fall a bit flat, despite how strong the story is presented and atmospheric the game can be, leaving Static Dread: The Lighthouse feel like it got a bit lost in the fog along the way before delivering a unique if somewhat lacking horror game.
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