Radiolight – What’s the frequency?

Radiolight lands the atmosphere and intrigue, but its story just can’t quite tie itself together.

Firewatch was quite the talking point when it came out all the way back in 2016. Exploration, narrative, and a lovely visual style came together in a way that really hit home, and it’s still talked about today. I mention this because I’ve seen talk likening Radiolight to it, and whilst it has some similar mechanics, it feels far more like Oxenfree as you unravel its story. Whilst it’s not on the same level as these, Radiolight has an interesting premise and feels good to explore even if it can’t quite stick the landing.

It’s 1985 and you play as Ethan, a police officer involved in the search for a missing boy scout named Elliot. Elliot went missing in the nearby Ashwood Creek National Park during a camping visit, and now Park Ranger Harvey, who initially started searching for him, is missing too. Ethan sets off to investigate, taking with him a portable radio his daughter gave him, and his walkie-talkie to keep in contact with his boss Rob. Obviously things aren’t what they seem, and something very strange is happening in the park, something that Ethan will need to get to the bottom of if he’s to find Elliot or Harvey.

Ignoring the narrative for now, Radiolight feels a lot like Firewatch to play. The gameplay mechanics mostly involve walking through the park using a paper map to navigate, and calling in unusual discoveries using Ethan’s radio where you then get a little more narrative development from Rob. It’s clear that the game is very much inspired by that near-decade old game, and anyone who played it will recognise those mechanics. There’s a lot less inter-character relationship building though, with most of the dialogue being very much about the situation at hand and only a little about a character’s past coming up beyond that.

Exploring the park itself is quite nice. Whilst you do have a map that includes your exact location on it, it feels as though you can get lost due to how wide each area is. Gamers have an instinct to follow the path that is least obvious for the sake of finding secrets. And secrets you can find, as there are a lot of items you can report to Rob to get a little more background on the case. Honestly, a lot of this stuff is somewhat meaningless, but it is nice to come across something that you might have missed, even if it adds little to the plot. 

The risk here is that you can end up finding something long before you’re supposed to do, which happened to me on a few occasions. It means that the story can become a bit spotty as you discover things in the “wrong” order, or indeed miss something that makes the plot more coherent. And this is something of the biggest problem with Radiolight. The plot is a bit all over the place, with multiple threads left utterly unanswered, and an unsatisfying conclusion that left me cold and a little confused.

This is a shame, as things up until the find twenty percent of the game were really quite engaging. You find yourself questioning whether the odd events you’re coming across are the results of something actually supernatural, or if you’re just conflating things because of your knowledge of video game plots. Even when things do seem a little unhinged, maybe it’s just a case of the environment getting to Ethan. Suffice to say, you do at least find out if anything genuinely odd is going on, it’s just a shame that the elements you’ve come across can’t be put together at the end. This may be down to the fact that the solo developer tried to pack too much into a three hour game, but that doesn’t make the finale feel any better.

Still, there are some really enjoyable moments of strangeness that are really well sold due to the atmosphere of loneliness and vulnerability you feel whilst lost in this wilderness. At one point, a crow taking off made me legit jump out of my seat, which is a rare occurrence with even heavy horror games. I especially liked the moments where your radio could be tuned to strange frequencies that pick up voices that seem to be trying to speak to Ethan. Even when you aren’t meant to use your radio for this purpose, you can still listen in on some local stations. It’s a nice use of an otherwise simple mechanic.

I also liked the look of the environment. The park looks great, with an almost cartoon aesthetic that seems all the more foreboding in the darkness. There are some great vistas here and there as well that are clearly wallpaper bait. Sadly, the character models are pretty weak and all seem to fit into different visual styles. Firewatch avoided the issue of character models by keeping them in shadows and locking the only communication you had to your walkie-talkie. Meeting a man at a woodland lodge was practically laughable as he looked like something out of Hello Neighbour rather than an actual human.

Sounds are well done though, with some really solid voice acting throughout. Ethan and Rob do a great job of coming across as actual people, and the environmental noise works really well. There’s some fabulously bassy sounds when tuning your radio to one of those frequencies that are communicating with Ethan. I liked the music too. It’s fairly generic, but suits the atmosphere well, and the songs you can pick up on your radio certainly seem to fit the time period.

Radiolight is a solid setup that just can’t quite hit everything it wants to by the end. There’s clearly a desire to create this conspiracy laden story with lots of parts that come together into a surprising finale, but it feels much too messy by the time you hit credits. Everything up to that point is solid though, and whilst it doesn’t hit the heights of those that inspired it, you’ll likely have a good time up until that point.

Radiolight is available now on PC.