Windows 3.x

Lighthouse: The Dark Being

Lighthouse lyckas ge en filmkänsla och en spänning som överstiger det mesta idag, men jag kan bara rekommendera det till erfarna och tålmodiga personer. Andra ger nog upp innan man löst första stora problemet, som involverar ett trassligt kassaskåp.

In summary, Lighthouse: The Dark Being is a game of puzzles. A solid dose of puzzles is the main strength of this game, providing interest and enjoyment and a good challenge. Lighthouse is a fun game, but lacks considerably in the areas of story and acting, and, to a lesser degree, atmosphere.

With 14 solutions to this epic, it's obvious that Sierra has taken great care to craft a story it hopes will provide gamers with days and even months of adventuring pleasure. Even so, with the lack of some desperately needed direction, the average adventurer may decide the enjoyment is not worth the effort - and the game's depth will never be fully appreciated or experienced. While the complexity and lavish graphics of Lighthouse certainly raise the standard for adventure games, it might be beyond the abilities of the audience captivated by Myst. On the other hand, the mighty hard-core, adventure-loving gamer will probably see this title like any other adventure - a challenge to conquer no matter how obscure it seems.

Lighthouse, with one awful exception, possesses good puzzles, but its presentation of the story and use of music and sound pale when compared to the game Lighthouse aspires to be. Ironically, I felt Myst had consistently tedious puzzles. If you can get by the tedium of the Lighthouse's Chinese puzzle, you will find Lighthouse a grand adventure, despite a complete lack of innovation. True, Lighthouse fails to exceed Myst's multimedia highwater mark in telling a story with mood, but as adventure games go, this effort is good, but hardly epic.

Lighthouse lädt nicht zum Verweilen in der Spielwelt ein. Es ist ein puzzle- und zielgetriebenes Spiel, das eher an eine typische Adventure-Produktion erinnert als an ein Kunstwerk mit eigenem Charme. Aber kommen wir mal zu den guten Seiten: Das Adventure ist ordentlich ausgefallen; zwar sind mir schon originellere und kniffligere Puzzles untergekommen, vom typischen Sierra-Design Marke Unlogik hat man sich aber weit entfernt.

But this game's half-baked gothic plot (involving an imperiled infant and mysterious midnight experiments), ludicrous voice-overs (the hero's boss sounds like a Jon Lovitz impersonator, while the lighthouse attendant recalls a bad Bela Lugosi), and crude control scheme (using quirky, unsophisticated on-screen navigational icons) make it a near washout. Move the whole thing to Maine, and you've got a talentless rip-off of a Stephen King novel.