Horror puzzleHaunted housePsychological horrorMystery and detective horror
Dark Fall 2: Lights Out
Rate itA lighthouse whose keepers vanished, and the fog that came with it.
- Platforms
- PC
- Stores
- Steam, GOG
- Price
- Paid
- Rated
- Mostly Positive on Steam (73% of 131 reviews); Metacritic 66; 3.6 out of 5 from 263 GOG ratings
- Length
- about 4.5 hours
- Players
- 1
- Controls
- Mouse only: click to move between views, look at and use things; the cursor changes to show what you can do.
- Made by
- Jonathan Boakes (XXv Productions)
- Released
- 2004
On GOG: one of the GOG horror games.
No. 22 of the lighthouse horror games · No. 26 of the horror games set in England · No. 14 of the time travel horror games
What frightens A cartographer in 1912 Cornwall finds a lighthouse whose three keepers have vanished, as fog swallows the harbour town; empty rooms, ghostly figures, a foghorn in the silence and an evil presence that hides in the mist and follows him through time.
Content: ghosts, unsettling sounds, frightening scenes (pegi 7: fear), mild violence (esrb t).
Dark Fall 2: Lights Out is a first-person point-and-click ghost story by Jonathan Boakes. In 1912 a young cartographer comes to the Cornish town of Trewarthan just as the light of Fetch Rock Lighthouse goes dark, and to find out what happened to its keepers he must explore the lighthouse in four different periods of time.
About Dark Fall 2: Lights Out
Dark Fall 2: Lights Out was written, designed and scored by Jonathan Boakes and first released for Windows in 2004 by his studio XXv Productions, two years after Dark Fall: The Journal. The 2009 Director's Cut reworked the graphics and puzzles and added characters, dialogue and conversations with ghosts; it is the version sold today on Steam and on GOG.
Many lives have been lost on the rocks around Trewarthan. In 1912 Benjamin Parker, a cartographer sent to map the coast, arrives as a thick fog comes in, a foghorn sounds and the light of Fetch Rock goes out. Its three keepers have vanished, and Parker soon finds himself suspected. The way to the truth runs through the lighthouse itself, and through other times in its life, past and future.
It plays in still, pre-rendered first-person views. You click to move from spot to spot, the cursor shows when something can be taken, used or examined, and the inventory sits at the bottom of the screen. There is no journal and no clue log: codes, names and dates have to be written down by you. Boakes builds the fear out of sound and empty spaces rather than chases, and GOG's page suggests playing in a dark room with the speakers up.
Critics in 2004 gave it mixed reviews, praising its atmosphere and Boakes's work and finding the graphics dated; Steam players rate it Mostly Positive. It suits players who liked The Journal, Barrow Hill or The Last Door and want a slow, lonely ghost story with notes and puzzles.
Boakes took the idea from the Flannan Isles, where three keepers vanished from a Scottish lighthouse in December 1900, and from the poem that event inspired, which turns up in the game. THQ Nordic publishes it now. It came to Steam in December 2013, and a first run takes about four and a half hours by HowLongToBeat's count.
How to play Dark Fall 2: Lights Out
- Buy the game on Steam or GOG and install it on Windows.
- Click at the edges of the view to move through the lighthouse and the town, one still view at a time.
- Watch the cursor: it changes when something can be picked up, used with an item or looked at closer.
- Keep paper and a pen by you and write down codes, names and dates; the game will not keep them for you.
- Use items from the inventory at the bottom of the screen, and follow the story into each period of the lighthouse's past and future.
Screenshots
Tips
- Check every view from each angle: some objects only show from the right spot.
- Read every book, sign and letter; most puzzle answers are hidden in them.
- Play with headphones or the sound up: the ambient sound carries much of the fear and some clues.
Questions
Do I need to play Dark Fall: The Journal first?
No. Lights Out has its own story, set in a Cornish lighthouse in 1912, though it is by the same maker and shares the series' style.
Which version of Dark Fall 2 is sold today?
Steam and GOG sell the Director's Cut from 2009, with reworked graphics and puzzles and added characters and dialogue.
Is Dark Fall 2: Lights Out scary?
It is a slow ghost story told through silence, sound and empty rooms, with no combat and no chases.
How long is Dark Fall 2: Lights Out?
About four and a half hours for the main story, by HowLongToBeat's figure on GOG. Taking notes and rereading letters can stretch it.
Is Dark Fall 2 based on a true story?
Partly. Its vanished keepers come from the real Flannan Isles disappearance of 1900, though Fetch Rock and its story are made up.
Ratings and reviews
If Dark Fall 2: Lights Out frightened you
Dark Fall: The Journal
The first Dark Fall: the same maker's ghost story in an empty railway hotel, played the same…
PC
Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil
Jonathan Boakes's later Dark Fall, an all-night ghost vigil in a haunted house.
PC
Dark Fall: Lost Souls
Boakes's third Dark Fall, a return to the haunted station of the first game, played in the same…
PC
The Lost Crown
Jonathan Boakes's later ghost hunt in a fog-bound English coastal town, with gadgets, notes and…
PC
Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle
Another first-person Cornish ghost adventure of the 2000s, one night in the woods near an…
PC
The Last Door
A point-and-click ghost story of the late Victorian era built on atmosphere, sound and notes.
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