Game Reviews

The Lighthouse HD

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| The Lighthouse HD
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The Lighthouse HD
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| The Lighthouse HD

If you've visited the App Store recently, you'll probably have noticed that some gaming genres are more saturated than others. Namely physics-puzzlers, endless-runners, and line-drawing titles.

Although The Lighthouse HD is probably closest to the latter genre, it offers a unique twist.

Instead of drawing a line with your finger and waiting for your vessel to follow it, you can indirectly control it by holding your finger over its bow and slowly dragging in the desired direction.

It's a nice change, which, coupled with great graphics, makes The Lighthouse HD worth a look.

Casting off

Your aim in this line-drawing-esque title is a simple one: slide your finger across your device's screen to manipulate the bright light of a lighthouse and use it to guide an array of ships in order to complete tasks and objectives.

These tasks, which become steadily harder as you progress through the game, include ensuring vessels don't end up at the bottom of the drink and dragging life rafts to the safety buoys that signal the end of each timed level.

You'll earn extra points and nab shiny medals if you manage to complete each stage's objectives while steering your ships through the glowing shipping lanes that litter each map.

Naturally, this isn't as easy at it would first appear. Each of The Lighthouse HD's 30 levels is packed with hazards and obstacles, such as islands, rocks, whirlpools, and even monsters.

There's a range of deployable aids - flares, buoys, etc - to help you overcome these, but they aren't that useful in the early portions of the game.

In fact, you can generally get by without using them, which renders them slightly useless until you begin to encounter the game's most menacing dangers.

You can't just worry about one vessel at a time, either. Multiple ships of varying speeds and sizes will fill your screen at once, meaning you have to think on your feet and alter their routes accordingly to avoid crashes and other accidents.

Virgin voyage

This all sounds fast-paced and exciting, but unfortunately it isn't. The action definitely ramps up as you begin to progress and more elements are added to each stage, but your early jaunts are slow and rather monotonous.

The ability to speed up your ships (and each level's timer) would be a welcome addition.

Moans and groans aside, The Lighthouse HD features some gorgeous visuals and animations, which look great on Apple's first-generation iPad.

The game's constantly lapping waves, rolling fog, glowing ship lanes, flares, and weather effects all look and sound stunning, and help to create an authentic atmosphere.

The Lighthouse HD offers a welcome twist on the classic line-drawing genre, but its maiden voyage is hampered by slow gameplay and a lack of levels.

The Lighthouse HD

The Lighthouse HD is a visually impressive and much-needed twist on the classic line-drawing genre
Score
Anthony Usher
Anthony Usher
Anthony is a Liverpool, UK-based writer who fell in love with gaming while playing Super Mario World on his SNES back in the early '90s. When he isn't busy grooming his beard, you can find him replaying Resident Evil or Final Fantasy VII for the umpteenth time. Aside from gaming, Anthony likes hiking, MMA, and pretending he’s a Viking.