An Anomaly Spotter with BioShock Vibes
It is so hard to second-guess gaming trends and determine what, exactly, people will respond well to at any given moment.
We have seen so many different trends rise and fall over the last few years. The Battle Royale phenomenon, for instance, is now slowly shifting towards the hardcore extraction shooter. We’ve seen cycles of survival horrors, and then there are the Metroidvania platformers, which seem to be as hard as nails by default.
In the last year, one of the more niche trends that I have personally taken in is that of anomaly spotting. This is a type of game where you are walking through the same environmental loop, over and over again, and your sole task is to spot any differences, from the biggest, most obvious change to the tiniest, most obscure detail.
P1: Anchor Light is the latest to emerge from this trend, and it may just have something else to offer to the party.
The Looping Lighthouse
You play as an unnamed protagonist who, for some unknown reason, ends up in a strange, towering lighthouse. The entire place has this beautiful Art Deco design aesthetic applied to everything, which immediately gives off very strong BioShock vibes. But rest assured, you won’t be hunting Splicers or firing fireballs from your hands in this game. Instead, you will be venturing up the lighthouse, one floor at a time, to a specific room that you will become intensely familiar with after just a few hours of play.
This room serves as your primary looping environment. Inside, you’ll find tables with flowers on them and various pieces of Art Deco furniture dotted around. The walls are adorned with different posters, from expressionist art to propaganda-style designs promoting “a better living.” There are also a couple of imposing statues in the corners of the room, lit ominously by flickering candle flames. Beyond this main chamber, there are some side rooms to explore, which contain a little cabin with a mini-TV in it, a storage area, and an office.
Green Door or Red Door
Your job is to take note of absolutely everything in this room, from the smallest detail in the expression on a poster to a different flower arrangement on one of the tables. You must look at everything, scrutinise every corner, and commit it all to memory.
At the far end of the room are two doors: one marked with a green light and one with a red light. If you feel, after a thorough inspection, that the room has no anomalies and is exactly as you remember it from the last loop, you must go through the green door. If, however, you feel something is not quite right – that something is missing, new, or has moved – you go through the red door. Get it right, and you complete the loop and proceed to the next, slightly harder one. But get it wrong, and you are treated to one of several different gruesome deaths, after which you have to start the entire sequence again from the beginning.
Stress, Story, and the Giant Hand
Story-wise, P1: Anchor Light delivers its narrative to you in intriguing fragments as you progress and try to get to the tenth level. It’s a compelling way of delivering the narrative, and it was this drip-feed of information that kept me coming back for more, even though the frequent deaths were frustrating. There are also 12 floppy discs hidden throughout the world for you to find, adding another layer of mystery to keep you occupied.
However, one of the biggest new additions this game brings to the anomaly-spotting gameplay mechanic is the “death by musical statues” section.
Here, at random intervals, the music will stop playing. When it does, you must freeze completely and not move anything on your controller while an eerie vocal countdown takes place. If you so much as twitch a thumbstick, a giant, terrifying hand from an unseen entity comes down from the ceiling and kills you instantly. It’s a clever and stressful gimmick that adds something extra to this burgeoning genre.
The core question is whether these types of games interest you. The repetitive loop run will undoubtedly frustrate some players, and the minute details that you might need to spot at times can be incredibly hard to see. But for me, this was the fun of it all. The challenge, combined with the powerful lure of getting to the top of the lighthouse to finally uncover the complete narrative, is the most exciting part.
I think the game’s visuals are stunning, and as mentioned, I just love the BioShock vibes it has with its Art Deco design. The developers do a fantastic job with the environment and the lighting, which they deliberately make gloomy and atmospheric to ensure you will have to work hard to spot those subtle differences. The different death scenes you’re subjected to when you choose badly are well-designed and visceral, as is the scary giant hand of the entity itself.
The sound design is also excellent, from the retro music playing throughout to the creepy voice work, counting down in the strangest, most unsettling way possible.
A Visually Stunning and Stressful Climb
As I said at the start, there is a vogue for this genre of game, where you are tasked with spotting anomalies in a short, repeating loop. Some are very scary, but P1: Anchor Light feels quite unique with its strange set-up, the terrifying hand from the sky, and the fragmented narrative that needs to be unlocked piece by piece.
I love the look of P1: Anchor Light, and I truly enjoy the core mechanic of looking for the differences each time in the loop. It will frustrate some, of course, because it is undeniably hard, and I will admit that I did just guess once or twice – getting one right and one wrong. But ultimately, P1: Anchor Light is a game that will keep you interested all the way up to the top.
Important Links
P1: Anchor Light Brings More Horror to Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/p1-anchor-light-brings-more-horror-to-xbox/
Anomaly-Hunting Horror P1: Anchor Light Gets Staggered Xbox, PlayStation & PC Launch – https://www.thexboxhub.com/anomaly-hunting-horror-p1-anchor-light-gets-staggered-xbox-playstation-pc-launch/
Buy P1: Anchor Light on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/p1-anchor-light/9PF6R09W96HN/0010
