Static Dread: The Lighthouse was a small case of mistaken identity for me. In my haste to look it over before reviewing, the screenshots made it seem like more of an interactive novel-style puzzle game with some horror elements. Imagine my surprise when it revealed itself as more of a lighthouse management game—with horror elements—which is something I’ve been dying for someone to make.
There’s such a compelling idea in exploring the terror of isolation, compounded by the responsibility of manning something as critical to other people’s survival as a lighthouse. There are so many interesting ways to create tension and a sense of paranoia. And while Static Dread: The Lighthouse doesn’t fully achieve these things, it offers a number of compelling ideas that make it a captivating experience.
Static Dread: The Lighthouse places the player in the role of a Lighthouse Keeper, newly assigned to a remote island outpost after a strange phenomenon has occurred across the world. An enigmatic aurora hangs in the air, causing the seas to become dangerous and electronics to malfunction. All the while, unexplainable horrors begin to emerge from the waters, and soon what starts as a routine job may become the salvation—or damnation—of the world.
It’s an odd thing because, at its core, it’s a genuinely compelling story that does a strong job of keeping the player invested—encouraging them to carefully consider each choice and how it might affect the outcome. However, it undercuts itself fairly quickly by playing the Cthulhu card too soon. The game becomes a bit too “in your face” with a supernatural antagonist who calls you directly and makes aggressive demands, quickly draining much of the potential tension.
Gameplay is also somewhat of a mixed bag. Static Dread: The Lighthouse describes itself on Steam as “Lovecraft meets Papers, Please,” and I’d say that’s fairly accurate—with a dash of Five Nights at Freddy’s sprinkled in. Each night, players receive calls from wayward ships that must be guided to safety. As the nights progress, new events alter the rules for directing the ships, and players receive bonuses for good work or citations for errors.
However, unlike both Papers, Please and Five Nights at Freddy’s, players are able to walk around their Lighthouse and will need to deal with malfunctioning equipment and paranormal occurrences as the night progresses. Combining the narrative with the gameplay, sometimes the strange locals will come to your door, and how you choose to talk to them can have positive or negative effects on the story.
Much like Papers, Please—the gameplay is incredibly compelling as you comb over documents and complete your tasks in an orderly fashion. However, it falls somewhat flat of inspiration since there’s no real sense of tension. Each night doesn’t seem to be on a timer in the same way its inspiration was, so there’s no real sense of urgency to deal with problems or the paranormal as they arise, or take your time guiding ships properly.
“Much like Papers, Please—the gameplay is incredibly compelling as you comb over documents and complete your tasks in an orderly fashion.”
Static Dread: The Lighthouse does attempt to keep the player on edge by throwing small complications at them—from minor malfunctions to the need to keep hunger and sanity restored. The lighthouse is old and is in need of constant repair, from crucial components to lights going out. If a player is in the dark for too long, they’ll begin to lose sanity, and if it drains completely, they’ll be dragged into the darkness.
Likewise, running around the house and fixing problems requires energy, and if the player works themselves to exhaustion, ships will run aground, and that’s essentially game over. Players can mitigate these problems with food they can purchase with the funds they get from completing each night, so how you choose to spend your money can affect how well a night goes.
And while it has its moments, it’s genuinely disappointing that Static Dread: The Lighthouse isn’t nearly as scary as it could be. For a game with the word “dread” in its title, it doesn’t do the best job of instilling that feeling. The main way paranormal events manifest around the lighthouse is through strange symbols that appear on the walls, floors and ceilings during the night. As these accumulate, the lighthouse begins to malfunction in new ways.
However, since there’s no real urgency in guiding ships or answering visitors, running around to clear these symbols and reset the lights becomes more of an inconvenience than a source of tension. On top of that, when several glyphs appear—whether you can see them or not—an extremely loud horror theme plays immediately, alerting you to the issue. Also, and this might be a nitpick, but there’s a locker meant for hiding; yet, throughout my entire playthrough, I never encountered anything I actually needed to hide from.
It’s a real shame, because you can see the potential for Static Dread: The Lighthouse to be a truly tense and frightening game. One feature I genuinely appreciated was how players interact with ships. Since the aurora has scrambled communications, there are no consistent radio frequencies for ships to hail the lighthouse. Players must scan through the static to locate an active frequency and determine whether a ship is on the other end.
This can result in players receiving small pieces of flavour text—from panicked crews aboard ships, to automated radio broadcasts, to eerie messages from deranged cultists. However, since these are entirely text-based and tied to Static Dread: The Lighthouse’s core gameplay mechanic, the messages begin to repeat fairly quickly, dulling their impact. I couldn’t help but feel that if the radio had used actual audio recordings instead of text, it would have added an eerie atmosphere to the otherwise quiet sense of dread the game tries to build.
Similarly, with the previously mentioned malfunctions, the game misses a lot of potential for scares. The house is relatively small, and without any meaningful penalty for ignoring ships or any real sense of urgency, the tension fades. Static Dread: The Lighthouse could have taken a page from The Mortuary Assistant—using a compact space, but broken up by hallways or staircases. It is a lighthouse, after all. Forcing players to navigate such a space could have created opportunities for both subtle and scripted scares.
“Credit where it is due, though, Static Dread: The Lighthouse has a solid visual design.”
If players were on an actual time crunch when the lighthouse was malfunctioning, in order to get to ships as quickly as possible, lest they run aground, there would be a much greater sense of tension and dread, alongside the necessity to help as many ships as possible for a monetary reward. Without it, it just starts to feel like some jerk keeps breaking in and writing on your walls while you wait for ships to come in, and it’s more frustrating than scary.
Credit where it is due, though, Static Dread: The Lighthouse has a solid visual design. While it’s not completely low-poly, it’s going for that kind of PSX look, and it does a lot of playfully weird things, making certain shapes and doors look very oblong and weird. Character designs for the variety of visitors you get through the game are equal parts unique and creepy, and do a good job of making you feel uneasy about the world and the people you may be helping.
While the audio can be somewhat intrusive, Static Dread: The Lighthouse does a decent job of playing with ambiance and using sound effects to build mood and tension. The way the radio static distorts and hums as you search for a frequency, paired with the creaky floorboards and strange groans, can at times create a genuinely spooky atmosphere. It’s just a shame this is short-lived—especially toward the end, when the frequency of wall writing ramps up and the game blasts its intense horror theme.
Static Dread: The Lighthouse has a lot of strong ideas, but it also squanders a great deal of potential. While it certainly kept me engaged to the very end, it began to lose steam in the final stretch. I kept catching glimpses of the game it could have been—and kept thinking that, with just a bit more polish, it might have been something truly spectacular. Still, I think it’s worth recommending. If you’re in the mood for a compelling narrative experience, give it a look.
