The Red Lantern Review
Do you ever find yourself lost in thought, thinking “how did my life end up here?” Consumed with the anxiety of the possible judgement of your peers and the uncertainty of your next move? Developer Timberline sets out to address ideas within mental health and the quest for a fresh start in their latest title, The Red Lantern.
The Red Lantern is a narrative based rogue-lite where your character ventures out into the Alaskan wilderness to assemble a sled dog team and find a new life with a sense of inner peace. With a unique gameplay experience and a relatable and engaging protagonist voiced by Ashley Burch (Horizon Zero Dawn, Life is Strange, TLOU2), The Red Lantern is a journey well worth taking.
The game differs from other rogue-lites of recent years, as its emphasis is placed almost entirely on the story. The Red Lantern is an excellent choose-your-own-adventure narrative with some unique twists along the way. Each time you fail to complete your journey, you restart from the beginning. While this system may sound tedious to some, the game cleverly allows the player to learn and better prepare for your next run. You keep a journal in the game that allows you to remember past encounters and decide what you want to do next. I was really impressed by the variety of encounters that I experienced in my roughly five hours with the game. From getting attacked by a bear in one attempt to starving to death because I couldn’t catch a squirrel fast enough, each encounter felt unique and was always engaging enough that I wanted to keep playing. The narrative enhances the emergent gameplay experience as each time you fail, your character is able to learn from the encounter and better prepare for next time. The themes of mental health are addressed within the gameplay through the trial and error the player uses to learn how to cope and exist in the world. These feel like the genuine experiences of someone learning to deal with anxiety in everyday life.
The story opens with our unnamed protagonist heading out into the Alaskan wilderness with her trusty dog Chomper, seeking new adventures and an escape from her stressful life in the city. As you travel you get to recruit sled dogs for your team and prepare for the journey ahead. Each dog has its own personality and adds instant connections to your team as you recruit dogs like the fun-loving Noodle or the hungry good boy named Bodega. You then set out on your sled to travel to your new cabin home across the dangerous Alaskan bush. The story is simple in premise, but the idea of escaping the stress of everyday life to live among nature is so relatable and adds a layer of authenticity to the game. Mental health is something that is rarely explored in games, though it is becoming more common. As someone who struggles with thoughts of self-doubt and anxiety, I found it refreshing to see a protagonist struggling with issues of identity and social anxiety. From here, the game branches out and you choose how to interact with the world.
The Red Lantern draws inspiration from a variety of genres in addition to that of the rogue-lite. It has the interactivity of an adventure game as you explore the world and make choices that affect your outcome combined with the emergent gameplay of a rogue-lite. The Red Lantern reminds me a lot of playing The Oregon Trail as a kid, however the story of the game has grown up with me. The Red Lantern addresses adult themes of mental health in a way that feels real and personal. I walked away from this game feeling optimistic about the future and eager to jump into another playthrough to see what lies ahead in my next adventure.
Amidst an absolute garbage fire of a year, I found my time with The Red Lantern to be a great escape into a unique experience. The game is short but sweet and the rogue-lite nature of the game adds a good amount of replayability to explore different scenarios that can occur. The engaging and poignant tale of a woman seeking a fresh start from the stress of everyday life struck a chord with me in an unexpected way. I hope to see more titles tackle mental health from new perspectives. Timberline Studio has made a name for itself with The Red Lantern, and I look forward to their future projects and their unique narrative experiences.
