‘Lighthouse of the Dead’ – A Goopy, Gory, Arcade-y Rail Shooter
Lighthouse of the Dead is a bloody rail shooter in the tradition of other dead domiciles, tasking you blasting things into piles of teeth and eyeballs.
Hanging out in swamps filled with zombies is bad enough, but what’s with the demonic frogs? I get that zombies want to eat my brains and flesh, but what do the frogs get out of this? Are they simply possessed? Am I a giant fly and don’t know it? It doesn’t matter much, but these were the things I kept wondering about while shooting my way through the grimy countryside as I tried to reach safety somewhere else. Not that it matters, as you’ll just need to keep shooting your way through these hordes of creatures as they pop up on your screen while you try to turn on a lighthouse beacon so you can board a boat and ex+scape.
These enemies work in clever, often surprising ways. I was expecting danger from all angles, but these monsters were very good at catching me when I was reloading or had dropped my guard. Luckily, if you can land four hits without missing, you’ll get some health back to reward your skills. This encouraged me to be careful with my shots, which I loved because I have a tendency to just pepper the screen with shots in these kinds of games. Now, I had a very good reason to take care (not that I was always a good-enough shot to take advantage of it). I also enjoyed the way the enemies exploded into teeth and eyeballs. Something about that was so gross and funny at the same time.
Lighthouse of the Dead is a ridiculously bloody shooter filled with clever, challenging shootouts and some mechanics that make you play thoughtfully and carefully. It makes me wish there were more horror rail shooters around.
Lighthouse of the Dead is available now (for whatever you wish to pay for it) on itch.io.
