The Call of the Wild
As you first start up The Red Lantern you immediately get a sense of adventure. Driving through a snowy Alaskan night and chatting with your faithful side-kick, a white and grey husky named Chomper, you begin to understand what stands before you. The Musher, our spunky, unnamed 20 something protagonist, has decided to drop the hustle and bustle of life in San Francisco in favor of leading a team of sled dogs in the Alaskan bush. Played by Ashley Burch, the dialogue is relatively simple, but masterfully performed. Initially armed with an old rifle, a small amount of ammo, food, and medical supplies, you begin your trek into the unknown. You won’t realize at first, but at its core The Red Lantern is a rogue-lite run based game to reach the abandoned cabin with the red lantern hanging at the door.
Puppers, Assemble!
The first step in your quest for your new life in the wilderness is assembling your team. You make 8 stops, meeting a unique dog along the way. You’ll get a brief explanation of some of the pros and cons of the dog, then decide if you want to adopt or leave the dog. Each of the dogs truly feel unique, both in look and ability. With your team selected (mine was Iggy, Gale, Fin, Stilton and of course Chomper on my first complete run) you’re ready to start your expedition into the Alaskan bush. The beautiful, visually captivating style translates very well to the depiction of the harsh winter woodlands. The dogs are beautiful and distinct with each having their own personality and vibe they bring to your expedition. Landscapes, day or night, are breathtaking. Seeing the Northern Lights for the first time is one of the most visually compelling things you will ever experience in a game. Though the game’s art design is simplistic, it’s one of the biggest reasons you’ll keep coming back for more.
Gee or Haw?
Your protagonist makes great effort to narrate the basics of dog sledding, as well as what encounters means for you and your team. As you reach split points you will call out “Gee” or “Haw” to denote left or right turns respectively, which will guide you along your path ultimately leading you to your final destination. Along your path, you’ll encounter trail markers (denoted as a red icon) and random encounters that will cost you and your team of dogs energy. Typically encounters are some kind of meeting with a wild animal or discovery of supplies left behind by previous adventurers. Encounters with animals give you a few options. You can either observe the animal and try to learn more about it, or expel some ammo and initiate a simple hunting mini game. Based on the dogs you have, different outcomes may occur as well.
Day Dreaming
The “Live, Die, Repeat” flow is present in The Red Lantern, but it’s very different from games like Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells. Any time you reach a fail state, which you absolutely will, instead of actually dying you wake back up in your van and realize what additional supplies you need to bring. This is an incredibly cool way to explain the repetition of each run and keeps you more immersed in the narrative. Starting resources are tied to different outcomes of random encounters with the different Alaskan wildlife. As you experience elk calls and the cutest bear snoot boops ever, you’ll unlock more and more materials to bring with you to start out your adventure. In addition to starting with additional resources there are tools that can help you in a myriad of ways that you can find along your way. From an axe that makes it so you don’t expend energy while harvesting birch bark to start fires to a trap that helps you catch food while you rest at camp, these are permanent unlocks that will make your path to the cabin much easier. As you continue to push further and further into the Alaskan wilderness, you’ll start to see a number of random encounters that build a strong bond with your furry companions. The encounters start becoming very repetitive as you get later in the game however. The amount of times you will hunt the same deer, or have your dogs eat the same squirrel becomes tedious at best and incredibly annoying at worst. Even with the repetition in encounters, the dialogue you experience and bond you build with your dogs are incredibly rewarding. Even after you reach the end, there is still more to discover. There are over 100 unique encounters, each slightly different depending on which dogs are in your team, as well as a number of tools and upgrades for you to find.
Greater Than the Sum of its Parts
Though The Red Lantern isn’t the greatest game if you look at each of its individual aspects, this is a perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The encounters are repetitive. The writing is fairly minimal. The hunting and fishing minigames are really simple. Regardless of all of this, the game leaves a lasting impression with its captivating charm and beautiful visuals. The way that the bond with your animals, the wilderness, and your protagonist grows you really begin to feel an emotional attachment to the experience. The Red Lantern is truly one of the most unique experiences in 2020 and is recommended to anyone who enjoys a different take on the rogue-lite genre.
