The Red Lantern

The Red Lantern is a charming minimalistic "survival" game that puts you in the role of a woman who has decided to leave her old life behind and start over in the Alaskan wilderness all by herself and her new dog. You will immediately be asked to choose the rest of the pack, selecting individually between a selection of dogs. Pick half a dozen, strap them to your sled and get going into your new little hut! The dogs are really the heart of the game. Each one has their own personality, quirks and little stories to uncover. However, this is not really too significant. Their traits will matter only in some dialogs, specific events that trigger and possible outcomes for others depending on who you chose to form your pack. More on this later on. The gameplay itself is essentially a roguelite driven narrative. You travel along branching trails through the woods and periodically you will encounter some situation and have to decide how to respond. For instance, you might find a squirrel and choose to ignore it, hunt it or if you have certain dogs, other outcomes might become present. You make a decision, you get some outcome, and the cycle repeats until the next encounter. As events or time pass, you have to manage yours and your dogs' hunger, which is the main thing to worry about. Night will eventually come and you will set a camp. Here is the opportunity where you will actively interact with the dogs and can pet them, feed them, take care of injuries, etc. To keep some emotional attachment, the main character is very verbose and will talk frequently to herself or with the dogs, cheering and worrying for them. The roguelite happens because the main character is still learning and resources are quite limited, so every choice involves some degree of risk. She will begin her attempts with not enough provisions (you or your pack will starve early), she will start with too few bullets (thus unable to defend herself or hunt for more provisions), not being able to start enough fires to cook food or to fight the cold, etc. Every run she will learn something and adapt by bringing either something else that is necessary or some key item that was found in the previous run. Each successful run gets you a little further, while failure teaches you how to make better choices. It's a relatively simple game mechanically, but there's something very relaxing and memorable about watching the dogs run through the snow while you slowly piece together their individual personalities and stories. You barely really do anything in terms of action besides choosing how to deal with those events and feed your dogs in camp. There aren't that many runs required to reach your house, and there aren't that many different events happening. Very quickly things repeat themselves, you know the outcomes, and you even start detaching from the dogs as even the camps are strategic stops. So the game never sets itself to last too long in the basic run. It's done in a couple of hours and, quite honestly, it probably wouldn't sustain itself further. What it tries to do for longevity is that after you reach your house you can reselect your pack and try the run with new dogs. For every encounter and outcome the character writes in a notebook an entry about something she learned, and the completion of this journal is part of the full progression and requires you to try with all dogs for all events and outcomes. What makes The Red Lantern stand out is that it isn't really about some strategic roguelite precision and instead about enjoying the ride, appreciate your pack and journey on. And it is a nice ride. The concept is cute, the presentation is charming, and the relationship with the dogs gives it some genuine emotional appeal. But it is ultimately a very simple and short game, and, at its selling price, I don't think there is enough here to recommend it.

good game

amazingling game would recomend :D

❤️

Joguinho muito gostosinho de viagem com cachorros na neve... .......................... .......................... E de escolhas também

oyun siyah ekranda kalıyor

Tohle je chladivá pecka v hork7ch letn9ch dnech a nebo pohodovej zimní zážitek s teplým čajem u klávesnice. Rozhodně hra pro pejskaře, protože aby se člověk dostal do cíle, musí respektovat osobnosti těch chlupáčů, co jsou jak mazlíčci, společníci zimních dnů ale i spolehliví tažní psi. Příjemnou grafiku dokresluje mrazivá atmosféra a důležitost každého rozhodnutí. Je dobrý si pamatovat, kde co člověk potká, protože na první pokus je nereálný to dohrát. Čím více pokusů tím více zkušeností pro odhad situací, více zásob a někdy i prostě lepší vybavení. Nevím, jestli jít úplně do plný ceny, ale každopádně milovníci pomalých her by to braly za půlku hned :)

Such a lovely cute game. It combines casual story telling with roguelite survival mechanics so well. Every dog has their own personality and little storry connected to them which makes playing through the game multiple times still a bit repetitive but not too bad. Also there are quite a lot of random events that can happen which keeps the runs fresh. Really wish there was more of this. Also Barkley is the bestest good boy out there. Fight me over this.