No One Lives Under The Lighthouse is a first-person retro-style horror game by the Indie Ukrainian group Sowoke Entertainment Bureau (renamed to Marevo Collective a few years later after the team was expanded from 3 to 6 developers). The game was released on Steam on April 21, 2020. On September 12, 2021, a "Director's Cut" update was released, completely changing the 2nd half of the game and significantly expanding the overall experience.
The game features graphics reminiscent of PS1-era horror games or CD-ROM era PC games from the turn of the century, and is described as a slow burn experience. Players take the role of a lighthouse keeper taken to a small island to maintain the lighthouse there, after the previous keeper disappeared. It will be at least a week until an assistant keeper can be found, so you'll be on your own until then. Don't lose your mind from the loneliness. And don't try to open the door leading to the lighthouse basement. No one lives under the lighthouse.
No One Lives Under The Lighthouse contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Exactly what was going on is left open to interpretation. This is doubly so for the Director's Cut, which significantly expands on and complicates the background details of the scenario.
- Anti-Frustration Features: If you fail an action sequence repeatedly you'll be given the option to skip it.
- Decoy Protagonist: The prologue has you playing as a lighthouse keeper already on the island. It ends with the message "Previous Keeper Disappeared" and has you take control of a new lighthouse keeper just arriving on the island, who will be your main character for most of the rest of the game.
- Lighthouse Point: You take the role of a lighthouse keeper on a remote island, and it quickly becomes clear that there's something out of the ordinary going on.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The original version of the game made it pretty clear an encounter with an eldritch being was occuring. The Director's Cut muddies up considerably, leaving it ambiguous whether the game was happening literally (with the lighthouse keeper struggling against eldritch horrors dwelling in the ruins of an ancient insectoid civilization beneath the lighthouse), or whether the whole thing was just the rowboat man secretly killing all the lighthouse keepers he took to the island as a twisted way of coping with his son's accidental death in the lighthouse basement.
- Monster Delay: The first half of the game is all about sharing a tiny island with an unknown presence that seems to hate you in a very passive-aggressive way. On the few occasions in which the monster outright attacks you openly, the camera shows the monster's point of view, so you don't actually see what it looks like as you run away from it. You never actually get a clear look at the monster until the second half of the game.
- Perspective Flip: The Director's Cut climaxes in a duel between the lighthouse keeper and the monster deep underneath the lighthouse. If you defeat the monster as the lighthouse keeper using the shotgun, the game ends with many questions unresolved. If you try to escape the fight by jumping down the hole to the very bottom of the labyrinthine abyss beneath the lighthouse, you end up playing as the monster, stalking the lighthouse keeper on the island and culminating in the same duel, only this time played from the monster's perspective.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: A shotgun and a couple of shells can be found inside the locked chest in the lighthouse keeper's house. It's your sole means of defense against the island's other inhabitant. Unlocking the chest requires you to find all four medallions overall the various days you stay on the island.
- Shout-Out: If you carry the cross around for long enough, you will eventually hear a computerized voice say "Mortis".
- Skull for a Head: In the Director's Cut, the monster is completely redesigned and now has a human skull for a head, with a bifurcated lower jaw.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the original game, the monster could be taken out with a single shotgun blast, ending the game. In the Director's Cut, the monster is fought in a full boss battle, and takes 8 point blank shotgun blasts to bring down.
- Vicious Cycle: Fairly clear in the original game. A lighthouse keeper who goes into the basement falls down a hole and is captured and transformed into a half-insect servant by some eldritch being living there. The servant-creature then stalks and harasses the new lighthouse keeper, eventually chasing them into the basement so they can fall down the hole and be turned into a new servant. The cycle is broken either by you as the lighthouse keeper killing the insect-like creature, or you as the insect-like creature killing the new lighthouse keeper rather than let them be turned into the next servant. Either case ends the cycle and causes the lighthouse to collapse. The Director's Cut makes things somewhat more ambiguous due to the major changes it makes to the 2nd half of the game.
- Was Once a Man: In the original game, the creature is heavily implied to be the previous lighthouse keeper, transformed into a insect-like humanoid servant by the eldritch being living under the lighthouse. The Director's Cut also indicates the creature was previously human, though its former identity is somewhat more muddled and ambiguous.
