Lighthouse / Sierra

                  Reviewed by Neil Shipman

It was a dark and stormy night ...

As a writer in search of inspiration you have headed for the coast
and rented a cottage within sight of a lighthouse. One night,
following a particularly vicious storm, you find a message on your
answerphone from the lighthouse keeper (aka mad scientist) with
whom you have made friends. His experiments have enabled him to
open a portal into a parallel universe of evil beings and alien
technology. Will you help to save his child (and the world) from
the Dark Being? Of course you will. And thus you start a
fascinating yet frustrating adventure to outwit evil in this
supernatural mechanical world.

Lighthouse is now nearly four years old and is a fairly standard,
linear, first person perspective, 2D graphic adventure. As such,
it will probably not appeal to RPG, strategy and action adventure
buffs and is more likely to be welcomed by those traditionalists
who delight in problem-solving at the expense of adrenaline rushes
and numb trigger fingers.

Oh that the problems were simpler! That's not to say that some
don't have reasonably easily discernible and, indeed, logical
solutions, but there are far too many situations where
experimentation is the name of the game. Noting the effects of
turning wheels, pushing buttons, flipping switches etc can be
interesting but, to enable the player to engage with the game,
these need to be kept at a sensible level. Whole evenings spent
trying to operate an alien submarine or open a puzzle box do
nothing to help the player suspend disbelief and feel part of the
storyline.

Most of the problems have graphical solutions which are often more
complicated than is at first realised. For example, simply getting
into the lighthouse at the beginning or assembling the gun at the
end require more than just pointing and clicking. Graphics are
state of the art for 1996 and there are a lot of visually
satisfying moments. Animation, particularly of the mechanical
contraptions in the alien world, is excellent and the musical
score and sound effects certainly enhance the feeling of
creepiness that dogs your every step.

But for any adventure to keep you involved from beginning to end -
and make you think, 'Just one more try' to find a solution - there
has to be more to it than just glossy pictures, difficult puzzles
and a good score. Lighthouse, unfortunately, is just too
frustrating and, unnecessarily difficult.

The popular reviews for this game range from 'masochistically
boring', and 'an insanely hard challenge' to 'better than Myst'.
I'd put it somewhere in between these extremes. If you can find it
for œ10 or less then it's worth taking a look at but you need to
be very determined and/or have access to the solution to enable
you to finish this adventure!

Pros: Quality of graphics, especially alien machines and
transport; sound effects; music; number of innovative puzzles.

Cons: Empirical problem-solving; one-way streets; difficulty of
puzzles; failure to engage the player.

PC system requirements are:
Windows 95 or DOS 5.0 or higher
486 DX66 MHz processor or higher (Pentium recommended)
12MB RAM (16MB highly recommended) (Win 95), 8MB RAM (DOS)
SVGA video adapter 640 x 480, 256 colours
Mouse
Double-speed CD-ROM drive (quad-speed recommended)
Windows or DOS SoundBlaster compatible soundcard







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