Little Lighthouse of Horror Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published January 28, 2025 · Updated January 24, 2025

Little Lighthouse of Horror is a pixel art psychological horror game inspired by the Flannan Isles mystery. Manage a remote lighthouse, handle limited resources, and confront eerie occurrences as isolation erodes your sanity. Multiple endings await based on your choices and actions. Survival depends on balancing Lawrence’s mental and physical health as he contends with the haunting isolation of the island. The lighthouse becomes both his lifeline and his prison as he navigates the fine line between duty and madness.

Little Lighthouse of Horror Review Pros:

Decent pixel art graphics.
318.62MB Download size.
Steam achievements.
Controller support even though it doesn’t say it on the Steam store.
Video settings – fullscreen.
In-game cutscenes and interactions.
Impactful color palette.
Puzzle adventure gameplay.
You play as a new Lighthouse keeper and you are there for six weeks but the previous lighthouse keepers mysteriously disappear.
Multiple-choice encounters can happen.
Lightning-fast load times.
The music is minimal but very impactful and acts like a character in its own way.
You have a lot to manage – time, tiredness, hunger, insanity, etc.
Find tools to do jobs like cutting down trees for fire wood, stick the cupboards with food you harvest, keep the firing burning, repair items as they arise.
Lighting plays a big part with the darkness bringing dread and light making you feel safe.
Not having a load of tutorials popping up adds to the experience as you are a character left alone in an island so it makes sense you would have to piece it all together.
If you die you start again.
When sleeping you can choose the length of time and you are told what you dream about.
A 2D game world.
You can pause the game.
The game is a slow process but its unnerving lurch toward something is to be commended.
I love how the game makes you feel, you lose track of time, the time of day, every little interaction with someone or something is an event in itself.
You can be pottering around stocking the wood and food when all of a sudden something happens.
The cutscenes when they happen look great but also add so much, it’s weird how it does it, something so simple yet impactful.
You do feel isolated from the world.
It’s a game where having headphones on and absorbing it all will only enhance your experience.
The weather can change.
If you don’t keep the lighthouse running then you will get fired and have to start again.
Multiple endings.
A lot of replay value.

Little Lighthouse of Horror Review Cons:

Had the game booting up in Spanish a lot even though the menu said English.
All button prompts are for the keyboard even when using a controller.
Never found a way to truly save your game, but then you also have no way to reload a save in case you die or get fired.
No warning that if you die you have to start again.
Could never get the skip intro to work when using the controller and early on I watched that intro alot.
I do wish it had something early on to help you understand the icons and bars you need to manage.
It is aimless early on and the game slowly unfolds.