My playthrough

[notbobsmith]

Got the sub to move! I actually had everything I needed a while ago, I just needed to plug one thing in.

With the patches you should have the highlighted cursor when hovering over a hot spot. It might seem like pixel hunting, but it can give you a clue as to you need to interact with in every room.

I do have the highlighted cursor on. The trouble is the color change is subtle, from gray to a slightly lighter shade of gray. For me, it's easier to click around instead of floating the cursor around trying to notice the color change.

[notbobsmith]

Continuing to make progress. I actually just caught the Dark Being a la Ghostbusters. I would think that this is the end of the game, but it seems that there are a few more things to do and a few inventory item that I haven't used yet.

[Tawmis]

Continuing to make progress. I actually just caught the Dark Being a la Ghostbusters. I would think that this is the end of the game, but it seems that there are a few more things to do and a few inventory item that I haven't used yet.

Wow! I am looking forward to your overall opinion of the game once you're done, since I've never beaten it myself.

[notbobsmith]

It's been a bit of a slog, but I'm glad that I haven't resorted to any hints since the trouble I had at the beginning.

[Tawmis]

It's been a bit of a slog, but I'm glad that I haven't resorted to any hints since the trouble I had at the beginning.

You're a stronger person than me.

[Datadog]

Much respect for getting that far without hints!

[notbobsmith]

So I just finished last night. Wow, this was a pain. It wasn't just that the puzzles were difficult. There were a bunch of control issues and design choices that made everything a challenge. For starters: picking up and interacting with objects. I mentioned this before, but objects are scattered all over the place surround by other objects that you can't take, so finding things is a matter of clicking around until you pick up something you need. The cursor does change color slightly when you are over an object, but it is so subtle that it was easier just clicking around. Scenes will also have random levers and wheels that are just part of the artwork and you can't interact with. This is further complicated by the fact that there are some levers that also look useless, until you activate them from somewhere else. Navigation was also a problem. The cursor seems to do what it wants and I found myself hunting for the proper location to go the direction that I wanted. Scene transitions left me wondering where I was in relation to the previous scene. Sometimes directions you can travel are hidden. In one case, there was a hallway with a another hallway to the side. Only you can't actually see the side hallway in the artwork. You have to float the cursor over and have it turn into a turn arrow. Surprise! Hallway. In another case, I was in a tower that had two doors. For some reason, the second door could only be seen from a particular place in the room. The other door can been seen in several locations. It took me a while to even figure out the second door existed. Even after I discovered it, I had to hunt around to find the right location to get to it. To put it bluntly: I got lost in a small, circular room.

It's impossible not to draw comparisons to Myst. Myst stuck with one gameplay mechanic: puzzles. Adding inventory items just complicates things. Where Myst was bright and colorful, everything in Lighthouse is drab. This makes the aforementioned item hunting that much more difficult. There were also times I just wasn't sure what I was looking at. Myst also clued you in on important things by zooming in when necessary. And where the puzzles in Myst followed a certain logic, I just didn't get that from Lighthouse. A lot of times I found myself stuck simply because "Oh, you can move the lever in another direction" or something. The plot of Lighthouse was fine I guess, but I don't think it's really too necessary for a game like this. Myst, for the most part, barely had one.

So that pretty much wraps things up. Other observations:
You don't give a baby milk from a refrigerator! (Even scary babies. Yeah, the CGI did not age well.)
In one location, there's a windmill that drives a gear. You use it to power a drive shaft. But the animation shows the shafting moving in the wrong direction relative to the gear. They are both moving clockwise.
The protagonist is very... bold. Enters an interdimensional portal, uses strange flying contraptions, pilots a sub, makes a bomb, electrocutes people... that she is trying to help.
Spoken in the final scene by the professor: "I couldn't have defeated the Dark Being without your help." I couldn't have defeated..? Help? HELP! What did he do? It's like being in a hospital waiting room and saying to a surgeon "I couldn't have done the surgery without your help." He was strapped to a chair the whole time!

So next up is a playthrough with the aid of a walkthrough and maybe find some alternate endings, though I think I know what some of them are already. As promised, here's a file with my saves.

[Tawmis]

So I just finished last night. Wow, this was a pain.

Heh. Well... congrats... with a loss to your sanity?

It wasn't just that the puzzles were difficult. There were a bunch of control issues and design choices that made everything a challenge.

Kind of like the sub in Codename: Iceman?

For starters: picking up and interacting with objects. I mentioned this before, but objects are scattered all over the place surround by other objects that you can't take, so finding things is a matter of clicking around until you pick up something you need. The cursor does change color slightly when you are over an object, but it is so subtle that it was easier just clicking around.

Yeah it'd be nice if it was more obvious. I wonder if we could decompile it and change the mouse as a patch?

It's impossible not to draw comparisons to Myst.

Without a doubt.

Where Myst was bright and colorful, everything in Lighthouse is drab.

Very true.

You don't give a baby milk from a refrigerator! (Even scary babies. Yeah, the CGI did not age well.)

[notbobsmith]

So I just finished last night. Wow, this was a pain.

Heh. Well... congrats... with a loss to your sanity?

None the worse for wear. Besides, what's wrong with a little insanity?

It wasn't just that the puzzles were difficult. There were a bunch of control issues and design choices that made everything a challenge.

Kind of like the sub in Codename: Iceman?

To be fair, at least the sub in Lighthouse just goes where it's supposed to... once you get it running. I'll give this point to Lighthouse.

[notbobsmith]

Just finished my second playthrough. Nothing much to add. The Dark Being really isn't that menacing of a villain. For a creature that everyone seems to fear, he pretty much just cackles and waves his arms about. It's a little hard to take him seriously. Also, why go through the trouble of building the cannon? A mob armed with clubs ought to do the trick.

[Tawmis]

Just finished my second playthrough. Nothing much to add. The Dark Being really isn't that menacing of a villain. For a creature that everyone seems to fear, he pretty much just cackles and waves his arms about. It's a little hard to take him seriously. Also, why go through the trouble of building the cannon? A mob armed with clubs ought to do the trick.

If they broke off his arms - would he then be...

Disarmed?

Get it? Because he's flailing his arms? And if they took it off - he'd have no arms. And no weapons! So he'd be... disarmed!

Man, I crack myself up...