New Release - Static Dread: The Lighthouse
Become a lighthouse keeper that has bitten off far more than they can chew...
I won’t claim to be a horror fan or enthusiast, but my taste in video games would beg to say otherwise. I spent have an obscene amount of time on Dead by Daylight and for the longest time I would have said my favorite games were rpgmaker puzzle horrors like Ib, Mad Father, or the Strange Men series. With the current state of horror games being reduced to jump scare mascots, it’s been hard to embrace the genre officially. Static Dread: The Lighthouse makes me reconsider this standing.
Released earlier this month, Static Dread is a psychological horror game developed by Solarsuit Games. Self-proclaimed as “Lovecraft meets Papers, Please,” Static Dread takes you to your new position as a lighthouse keeper guiding ships to safety using your radio and fax machine. Rather quickly, it becomes clear something else is pushing and pulling the tides, reaching out for you to do its bidding. You spend your time managing your resources in the lighthouse, making sure the powers-that-be don’t interfere with the safety of those around you… or you can do the exact opposite of that, if that floats your boat.
What I noticed when I played is that I had a very hard time putting it down. I couldn’t tell if that was some otherworldly-being sucking me in, or if I just really enjoyed the game; for the sake of the review, I’ll say it was the latter. In all seriousness, the gameplay was also pretty addictive for me, with the drawing mechanic for charting routes for the ships, flipping through the radio stations, and fixing up the lighthouse. There’s even a fishing mini game you can unlock pretty early on, and that’s the only in-game decision I will say you have to make. On top of that, the art style and atmosphere really captivated me, it was a great mix of 2D and 3D elements, something I wish games would play with a little more.
The one thing I will note is that pretty early on there is a constant static filter over the gameplay. The game increases and decreases it as needed, sometimes the static taking over your entire screen. It did add to the experience for me personally, but I found that my friends who watched my play-through got some eye strain from it after a while. Luckily, it’s togglable, as long as you turn off the film grain setting. But I didn’t figure that out until a few good hours of play, so here’s a heads up for those of you who need it!
Now, this is a horror game, and so far I think I’ve made it sound closer to a cozy management sim. The game takes you through fifteen shifts, each one growing more strange than the last. While I don’t appreciate the increase of horror games seeming to follow the Five Nights at Freddy’s formula of doing “nights,” I do think it’s done well in this game. Throughout these nights, you experience hallucinations, dreams, and have to actively work to hold the darkness from affecting your sanity. That’s the first half of the horror, and what I feel we’ve come to expect in games of this genre lately. Some of them did give me some goosebumps, but others ended up becoming a slight annoyance. Honestly, though, I needed the annoyance to break the tension I felt while playing. Sighing in exasperation because the entity that’s haunting me made another ritual circle in blood while I had my back turned helped me keep my head when the actual creepy stuff happened. It also made it clear that the monster works fast and has a pattern of behavior, so that when it deviates from it, it kind of freaks you out. At least, that’s how I felt when it started messing with my power and radio.
The second half of the horror kind of sneaks up on you. Yes, there’s a big eldritch being that’s upset you’re running the lighthouse and has no good intentions whatsoever. That was listed on the tin, and we are all here for it. But then you start listening to the radio, hearing messages from all over the bay. Some of them average, nothing to worry about. Others put a pit in your stomach. You’re isolated for the most part, so catching snippets of what’s happening on other ships or villages during all this turmoil really adds a layer to all of that, especially when you’re faced with the fact that you can’t do anything about it.
Static Dread does, however, give you a good amount of agency in other ways. But often it’s making choices that make you feel trapped between a rock in a hard place. I think the majority of the gaming community is familiar with games where choices matter, it seems like most games tout this as a selling point. This is an example of a game that takes this concept and executes it well, using it to amplify the horror aspects. You’re constantly making choices that affect not only yourself, but the entire bay, and often there is no “good” choice, even if there’s a “right” one. I tried to play my run like someone who actually was in a Lovecraft story, meaning I made a lot of questionable decisions that probably made my life worse. Even when I was intentionally doing what I felt was the wrong choice, each time I made a decision I felt like there was a rising sense of (excuse me for saying so) dread in my stomach that enhanced my experience. I encourage any one who plays to maybe do the same in their first run, enjoy what misery you bring yourself.
Overall, Static Dread is the perfect horror game to ring out the summer and head into the spooky season with. It's gorgeous, creates a compelling narrative, and I think it is a good marriage between resource management horror and psychological horror. Frankly, it’s what I wish to see more of in the future, a game that relies not on shock factor but building an atmosphere that can take over you. I still won’t claim to be a horror enthusiast, but I am adding Static Dread: The Lighthouse to my pile of games that say otherwise.
If you’re interested in the game, it’s available for purchase for PC on Steam, and is on sale for 25% off until August 20th!