Lighthouse: The Dark Being

The Good
The year 1993 saw a puzzle-based adventure game called Myst released for every platform of the era, and other companies tried to capitalized on its success. One such company was Sierra, which released Lighthouse: The Dark Being to the public three years later. Now, I already played Sierra’s 1995 title Shivers, an adventure game that shares the same game mechanics as Lighthouse, but whereas Shivers has a horror setting, this game goes for fantasy.

You take control of a struggling writer who has bought a new apartment somewhere on the Oregon Coast. While exploring the countryside, you meet some interesting people, namely Dr. Jeremiah Krick and his baby daughter Amanda. Krick owns a lighthouse which happens to be five minutes away from you. One rainy night you receive a distress call from him, telling you that something has happened to her, and urges you to drive down to the lighthouse to investigate. There, something kidnaps Amanda and jumps through an open portal. You decide to follow it into a parallel world in an attempt to get Amanda back.

Like Myst, the game is presented in a first-person perspective. Like all Sierra games that were released around the same time, you control just one cursor which you use to navigate between scenes and interact with objects. It highlights when you hover over something that can be interacted with. Below the main part is the control panel (in the shape of the lighthouse), slots for four inventory items, and your purse. When you pick up a fifth item, you get to see a nice little animation of the last item you picked up being put inside it.

Much of the game is spent traveling between various locations and solving a series of obtuse puzzles. My favorite one has to be the sliding puzzle in Krick’s lighthouse. It is like the puzzle where you have to arrange the numbers one to fifteen in order from top to bottom, but in the game you have to arrange it in such a way that it resembles a bird, and the solution can be found early if you look hard enough.

In the earliest parts of the game, you can find Krick’s notes scattered around the lighthouse, giving you a background on the characters you will meet. Through notes, you find out about a creature known as “The Dark Being”, which happens to be the same one that kidnapped Amanda. As you explore the next location, you can see drawings of the Birdman, and read scrolls containing information about how this creature was corrupted and turned on its master. Then later you will meet Lyril, a paraplegic who goes around in this mechanical bubble, and through some effort, you learn about what happened to the Priests who perished, how their hunger for progress became their doom.

The highlight is the realism that the game has to offer. You drive a submarine to an abandoned building, and you control it just as you would do a real one. You set the navigation, activate pumps, fiddle with wheels, and open and close the hatch. If you don’t do that, you will never get anywhere with it. Likewise, the end of the game sees you negotiating a digger through mine shafts, where you have to drive it both backwards and forwards, change and repair tracks, go up and down platforms, and even dig earth.

The visuals are on par with Myst. The game’s outdoor scenes are just stunning, particularly where you are on this huge beach overlooking Martin’s Roost. The characters are well designed and have good animations. I like how the gorilla just smashes your bridge if you are going to use it to cross into the forge. Some objects present in a location can be seen in a close-up, and the way you get to see your character manipulate it with an inventory item reminds me a bit of Lost in Time.

The music is brilliantly composed by Victor Crews, who also did work for Sierra’s FMV-based games. The soundtrack blends in with where you are. For example, the submarine cave has this relaxing piece which happens to be my favorite. Intense music plays as you encounter one of the creatures you must get past. It is also neat that one piece of music dissolves into another as you make your way from scene to scene. Each piece is composed of short loops, but I am quite happy with this.

There are multiple ways you can play Lighthouse, and different endings you can experience. To get the best ending, the game relies on your skill at solving puzzles and assembling things, but you can complete the game without commandeering the sub or solving any puzzles, but you won’t achieve the best outcome. Because of these alternate routes, Lighthouse is worth playing again.

Lighthouse spans two CD-ROMs, and you have to swap between them when you arrive at a new location in the game. Although this is tedious, it is a much better experience than the disk-swapping in Phantasmagoria, where the game comes with a whopping seven CDs. Users of the GOG version or the SierraHelp installers have the added bonus of CD-less gameplay!

Numerous patches were released for the game, designed to make the game easier by adding visual clues to the tough puzzles. As well as this, help was available that will display some nifty artwork over a bunch of text, giving the players clues on what to do.

The Bad
I just got a bit confused with the navigation.

The Bottom Line
Lighthouse: The Dark Being received mediocre reviews but nothing but praise here on MobyGames. And no wonder why that is. The visuals are stunning and the soundtrack is excellent. This game begs you to replay it because there are multiple routes you can take and different endings you can experience. The highlight is navigating both the submarine and the driller, adding to the realism. It is such a shame that we will never see a sequel from the Bock/Brelsford duo.

The Good
Why so many developers and published have been criticized for making "Myst-inspired" games I do not know. I for one am happy that there was so much diversity in the mid-1990's in this genre. And I am so pleased by the resurrection of this genre by companies like Dreamcatcher games. That being said, let's talk about a fantastic adventure from one of the best developers and publishers of the early CD-ROM days: Sierra. This title followed the success of their previous "Myst-inspired" adventure, Shivers. Lighthouse expanded the breadth and scope of Shivers; instead of navigating the interiors and courtyards of a haunted museum of the strange and unusual, you must trek through a mystical parallel world to save the infant daughter of your friend, the lighthouse keeper. She was abducted by a strange creature, gaunt and covered in tattoos.

Much like in Myst, you play yourself, that is, you walk through the world in the first person, solving puzzles, reading journal and log entries, and soaking in the beautiful visuals. Rarely is there the pressing need to complete puzzles within a certain amount of time, so the pace of the game is quite leisurely. There is pleasant music to accompany you on your journey that befits each scene well. The designers were careful in understanding how to break up this game into acts, much like a play or a movie. There are segues embedded within the game that transition the story seamlessly. And because there is a story, Lighthouse is a linear game where you follow each plot point to the next, to the end of the game. But that is beneficial, because the world you trek through feels like a real living and breathing world, where you are one person catching a glimpse of only a small part of it at any one time.

At the heart of a game like Lighthouse is the puzzles. Like Shivers, the puzzles are more or less impediments in your path. Once solved, you can move into a new area and tackle more puzzles. Many times there is more than one puzzle for the player to solve, and here is the only bit on non-linearity. And as in Myst, upon solving a puzzle, the player is rewarded sufficiently. There is a part in Lighthouse when you must refit a glider and launch it successfully. After doing so, the player is treated to a truly majestic flight. (The designers were aware of how awesome this scene was, so they permitted the player to travel back and forth from the point of origin of the glider to the destination).

Some of the puzzles were challenging; some of the puzzles were quite difficult that required outside help, (see the bit below on the safe-combination puzzle). But overall there was a healthy balance of difficulty. No algebra is required to solve these.

The Bad
There are some detractors worth mentioning, but they are minor. In these point-and-click adventures, moving from one screen to another must make sense. There were some instances, (particularly towards the beginning of the game), where the navigation from one point to another was reduced to a few single clicks. This complicated matters, because while I understood I had reached my intended destination, I didn't really understand how I got there; even though when I turned around 180*, I could see where I started from. It is important to remember this was not common throughout the game, it just manifested itself here and there, and primarily at the beginning.

While I was satisfied with the frequency and difficulty of the puzzles, there was one that has infuriated nearly ever gamer that has tackled it: the safe-combination puzzle. When the developer of a puzzle game provides the solution to one of their puzzles, you know something is wrong. There are no bugs that inhibited the accomplishment of this plight, it was just a major pain that lacked common sense to solve it. You may be wondering what it is that has caused so many curses to be screamed at so many computer screens. Well here is the puzzle: you must unlock a safe that comes with a combination dial. Yes, that is it.

The Bottom Line
The game begins in the real world but quickly transport the player to a strange and mysterious land. Curiosities abound: strange mechanical birds, submarines and shipwrecks, a volcanic island, a wonderful glider ride to a strange island guarded by a young girl, and of course, traveling through parallel dimensions to save an infant child from a malicious being. The music, while sparse was very suitable, the visuals and animations were beautiful, and the puzzles were reasonable. All of this combines to make a wholly enjoyable experience for the length of game play, from start to finish. This is a jewel of a game passed over by many.

The Good
Long time since I played this; got here looking for a copy to play again. This is a very atmospheric and immersive game. I really don't remember anything about the safe puzzle that others gripe about, I do remember a lot of other brain-busters! I remember reading somewhere, at the time that this was being called the most difficult game ever (for the type.) I think I agree. I played this for weeks! Sierra actually released a patch that made some of the puzzles easier -- the only one I remember is an underground train where you have to go backward and forward and switch tracks, etc. The patch gave you a light to indicate where the switches were. Lots of memorable characters and puzzles -- the daVinci-esque mechanical man and his attack-hawk; Lyril, the adolescent cyborg girl; baby Amanda; the submarine; the ornithopter, etc. Beautiful scenery and good animation. Very dark and spooky. A game to be played late at night with the lights turned low!

The Bad
sigh The puzzles. Some of them were just ridiculously hard. I had already read of its already-legendary difficulty when I bought it. Poked around a bit, and thought I was doing OK -- that's when the opening title sequence started! Thought I was doing good and it hadn't even STARTED yet! Honestly, I cam looking for it again because I never finished it the first time. The end-game is assembling the several parts of a weapon to capture and imprison the Dark Being himself. I was trying to assemble it when I read the instructions, counted again, and discovered I still needed one piece -- in other words, I had to solve another puzzle. I started it, and just gave up -- you're in something like a magma-diving bathysphere I think, and the puzzle was something like lining up valves. Yeah, I just got fed up with it and never went back to it.

The Bottom Line
BUT NOW -- I'm setting up a Windows 98 computer to play a bunch of my favorite old games, and I'm hoping to get back to this, maybe even finish it this time! Anyway, bottom line -- if you ever liked the graphic adventure game, give this a try , if you can find it. Despite the difficulty, I would call this one of the best examples of the genre EVER. Well worth the challenge.

The Good
Wanted to try what's the difference between ordering a game from an online store, or directly from a developer. Surprise, surprise, Sierra even supported my country on their site, kudos for that, no doubt. Yeah, those were the times, paid $10 bucks for the game, and another $35 for the shipping, lol, only had the next day shipping option, lol. Still, the fact itself makes this game that more precious to me.

I'm totally in love with 3rd-person point-and-click graphic adventures, or at least there definitely was a time when I was, but couldn't stand any 1st-person one after my dreadful experience with Myst game. This game elevated my trust and lowered the fear, but it still proved this perspective makes the games that much harder.

The atmosphere was totally amazing, and the graphic was truly great. What few characters there were present left a solid impression and no need for any more. Ambient sound was cool, much on par with short themes they used for Gabriel Knight games. The game starts rather interesting and the whole setting was great. Then, of course, the fantasy takes the upper hand in all this and the more you progress, the less fun the game looks like, especially story-wise. From totally suspenseful and igniting plot to silly idiotic conclusion.

It's fantastic that game literally doesn't let you get stuck, there is solution to every doing, you can undo it one way or another, there are many ways to achieve same goals, although if you slip past the easy ones, you'll really have to think hard to find an alternate solution to your problem.

The Bad
Well, generally I never seek for things that I don't like in the game unless they present themselves up to the point of becoming frustrating and irritable. Since it's been a while, can't think of any except perhaps that this game, much alike many other 1-st person adventures, can be just as hard. And of course, to ruin such a fine story premise by going nowhere near brilliance is a real shame.

The Bottom Line
It has a fine covers ;) Probably one of the best looking design, right after ever so beautiful "Of Light and Darkness". For those who like 1st-person frame stepping adventures, this is no short of a delicacy, but I couldn't never understand how come such adventures can ever be so great until I played "Blackstone Chronicles".

Like certain Sierra's games from that period, game can be played under Windows' window which is great as you can do some stuff around, like browse online, then play a bit, then type something, then play again, and so on. Could be a bit more fun if the image wasn't consistent with its own resolution leaving black frame on higher ones than the one it's been using.

The Good
I agree with most, the music is superb.. the graphics were great especially the cut scenes! I loved the magical box for some reason! I thought it was extra special!

The Bad
The voices were ok.. for the baby, the creature... the girl in the life-support machine, and the way she twitched was cool (you gotta have a few twitches twitches to be what she' s been through, right???), but the NO voice was very impersonal for the writer whom you become.. didn't have inner thoughts, much less a voice! the professor's voice was nice, but when you finally see him toward the end of the game, he looks shockingly nothing like a inventor type... his voice did NOT fit his looks! I was looking for more of an Einstein, or Mark Twain look (looks like a pro-wrestler, or basketball player!), very disappointed in this character! then he just tells you to go home! where's the celebration-- the cake and ice cream!:(! after all you saved their lives!

The Bottom Line
Get one if you don't mind doing things over and over until you find a clue to a future, or past puzzle! and I'm sort of glad I have one in my collection! but I did purchase it at Savers for a whole dollar!:o! (saw one ad on the net for $16.95??), it took me 3 weeks to get through it, and I drastically needed help in 2 critical places, where little information is given! the newer version(s), and the down loading patches allow lighting up the cursor when over a critical place, but that's all I could tell any patches did for the game!

The Good
I thought that this was an excellent game at it's time. From the very first scene in your house, the atmosphere got scary and really draws you in.(considering i was only 10 when i first played it :)) The interface is quite good, while you can pick up some objects (or use, move) them with ease. The graphics are excellent with great animation and detail. The locations and puzzles are exquisite. The plot is great as well. Many endings are fun as well.

The Bad
Some of the puzzles are incredibly hard and challenging (hours and hours of thinking). Limited amounts of objects to use.

The Bottom Line
If you like freaky movies and a bit of logic, this game is for your taste. A well done game from Sierra. (although many will need a walkthrough for this)

The Good
God,i found this game horrible.Sierra,a developer house with such a proud heritage in adventure games tried to fit in the "mostlymystlike" games with releases such as this and the unquestionably better "Shivers".Almost everything is flawed,form the rediculous inventory interface and almost non-logical puzzles.Even for a die hard Myst fan,this game's puzzles really were a pain in the neck.

The Bad
Everything was awful,someone should really talk to developer houses about how THEY ARE NEVER GOING TO MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS BROTHERBOUND DID WITH MYST NOT EVEN IF THEIR NEW GAME IS BETTER THAT THE LATTER!!!!!!!!Sorry about the caps and all but i just really had to get it off my chest.

The Bottom Line
Well,the multiple cd's make good Frisbee practise...