'The Lighthouse' iOS Review

If ever you have had fantasies of steering navel vessels clear of jagged rocks, coral reefs and deadly ship eating squid with nothing more then a flare gun, fog horn and lighthouse then your in luck! The Lighthouse, developed by 4Door Lemon, offers a nice spin on the classic line drawing style game. For those unfamiliar with the genre, line drawing games allow the player to guide an object through a series of obstacles in order to reach an end point. The object follows the path of the line you are drawing, hence the cleverly worded game type. Although this style of gameplay has been on the market for some time The Lighthouse offers a fresh approach to the genre shining new light on a familiar game type.

As mentioned the concept is fairly straightforward. You take on the role of a lighthouse operator with the life and death task of guiding otherwise hopeless ships through the raging and dangerous costal seas. This game is about more then avoiding rocks though as you will also have to steer your vessels away from whirlpools, spooky ghost ships, unnatural fogs and the deadly kraken. To aid you in your missions you are armed with navigational buoys, foghorns and a flare gun all of which come in handy at one point or another throughout the game.

I really appreciated the detail in the area of visuals for the game. Using the classic top down approach to gameplay, 4Door Lemon has done a great job at creating a esthetically pleasing visual experience. The water specifically looks really nice with smooth animations and depth of color. I was also impressed with the weather effects, which were quite well presented, from fog to thunderstorms; it was quite a nice touch and added some tension to the atmosphere during my play through. I would say that this was one The Lighthouse’s greatest strength.

Gameplay was manageable but I did notice a couple of areas that became a bit frustrating. The first is more of a critique of the genre more so then the game specifically. Using single tap or figure drag movements you navigate your ships through the traitorous environment. The problem is that quite often I felt like my hand was blocking my vision as I navigated ships through the area.