Cosmic and Lovecraftian horror Psychological horror Horror

Static Dread: The Lighthouse

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Keep the light on and guide the ships home past what waits in the sea.

Platforms: PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (90% of 1,537 reviews); Metacritic 75
Players: 1
Made by: solarsuit.games
Released: 2025

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store Xbox solarsuit.games

What frightens Alone in a lighthouse after a global cataclysm, you guide ships by radio past waters where crews vanish and things beyond science surface. Strange villagers knock at your door, eldritch sigils and tentacled shadows creep into the house at night, and you must keep the light burning and your sanity intact.
Content: disturbing creatures, cult rituals.

Static Dread: The Lighthouse is a Lovecraftian take on the Papers, Please formula. As a lone lighthouse keeper you check ships' papers and route them safely by radio and map, while sailors report creatures from the deep, a cult works in the village and the dark inside your own house eats at your sanity.

About Static Dread: The Lighthouse

Static Dread: The Lighthouse is the first game from solarsuit.games, published by Polden Publishing in August 2025 on PC and Mac and later on PlayStation and Xbox. After a global cataclysm the harbour authorities reopen an old lighthouse, and you are sent to the island to keep it. A wife and daughter wait for you on the mainland, and you can talk to them over the radio.

Each day has two halves. Before your shift you fish for food, answer whoever knocks on the door, hear the news from the port master and learn the day's rules for which ships may pass and where they must go. Then you power up the beacon and the night's work begins: ships call in by radio, you check call signs and captains' papers against your records, and you plot their route on a map around danger zones. The rules grow over the nights, and so does what goes wrong.

The horror is slow and close. Mariners report encounters with things science cannot explain, ships come back empty, and the villagers pray to sea gods and try to raise the dead. Strange visitors, some of them hardly human, turn up at your door with favours to ask, and factions pull you in different directions. At night the house itself turns against you: cobwebs and eldritch sigils appear on the walls, shadows with tentacles move in the dark rooms, and you have to keep yourself fed, awake and sane while the generator and the light keep running.

Players compare it to Papers, Please and DREDGE. It leans on atmosphere and pressure rather than jump scares, and the choices you make about ships and visitors change the story and its ending. It suits players who like a tense routine with a cosmic horror story growing around it.

How to play Static Dread: The Lighthouse

Before the shift, fish and buy supplies so the keeper has food and energy for the night.
Answer the door, talk to the visitors and read the port master's rules for the day.
Switch on the lighthouse beacon to start the shift.
When a ship calls, check its call sign and the captain's papers against the records and the day's rules.
Plot a safe route for the ship on the map, around the marked danger zones, or turn it away.
Between calls, keep the generator and the light running and stay in the light so your sanity does not drain.

Screenshots

Ship ID cards with call signs and captains' photos beside a map of the islands with marked danger zones

Looking up at the red and white lighthouse tower and its radio mast against a pale sky

A dark room in the keeper's house lit by a flashlight, with black tentacles rising from the floor

A bearded hunter at the door offering a shop of meat, totems and a revolver, with a dreamcatcher that protects the mind

Tips

Read each day's rules before switching on the beacon; new checks are added as the nights go on.
Stock up on fish and food early, since staying awake through a shift costs energy.
Stay in lit rooms when you can; players note the dark is what wears down your sanity.
Think about which visitors you trust, because your choices with them carry into later nights and the ending.

Questions

Is Static Dread: The Lighthouse scary?

It is a slow, atmospheric horror game more than a jump-scare one. The fear comes from the cosmic threat around the island, the strange visitors and the dark creeping into the lighthouse.

Is it like Papers, Please?

Yes. The makers describe it as Lovecraft meets Papers, Please: you check ships against the day's rules and decide where they may go.

Does it have multiple endings?

Yes, the makers list multiple endings, and your choices about ships and visitors shape the story.

What platforms is it on?

PC and Mac on Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox.