After a mysterious force damages your sailboat, you find yourself washed up on an island dominated by a looming lighthouse and a sprawling, sinister manor known as Beacon Manor. What begins as a simple fight for survival turns into a nightmare. The manor is crawling with undead creatures and worse, the building itself seems to be alive with malevolent intent. As the malevolent will that governs the island asserts itself, you must unravel the manor’s secrets, solve puzzles, and dodge or fight off horrors in order to escape.
Dead Beacon is a first-person survival horror game developed and published by SelianiDEV, released on November 18, 2022. It is available on PC (via Steam), with support for several languages. Drawing inspiration from late 1990s horror titles, it combines exploration, combat, resource management, and puzzle solving. The game leans into retro horror style, aiming to evoke dread through atmosphere, limited resources, environmental hazards, and the constant threat of hostile creatures rather than non-stop action.
Gameplay
In Dead Beacon, players explore Beacon Manor and its surrounding environs, discovering hidden rooms, locked paths, and keys or important items needed to unlock new areas. Resource management is essential weapons, ammunition, and healing items are scarce. A simple interactive map helps as you explore new floors are revealed over time, and you can place notes, pins, or markings to keep track of where you’ve been or puzzle elements you need to return to. The game balances danger with tension: every area may hide enemies or traps, puzzles may block progress, and you must make tough decisions about when to push forward or retreat. The Developer recommends taking multiple enemies with a single shot if you can!
Visuals & Style
The visual design embraces retro horror sensibilities, reminiscent of PS1 or early PC horror lowish fidelity in textures, deliberate grain or visual roughness, and lighting used to create shadows and uncertainty. Beacon Manor is labyrinthine and oppressive, full of winding corridors, decrepit architecture, and hidden spaces that feel more threatening because of what they hide rather than what they show. The lighting, sound effects, and creature design work together to maintain a dread filled atmosphere, creaks, sudden noises, limited visibility, and ambiguous shapes all play a part. There’s gore and dismemberment in the game, but much of the fear is psychological what you anticipate is often more frightening than what is shown outright.
Importance in Survival Horror History
Dead Beacon is part of the renewed interest in retro-styled horror games that draw heavily from classic eras rather than modern action horror. It demonstrates how smaller indie developers can still successfully recreate genre hallmarks limited ammo, exploration of haunted mansions, maps, resource constraints while adding their own twists. For fans of survival horror, it’s another example of how atmosphere and design can matter more than high fidelity or big budgets. It helps preserve the feel of older horror titles, showing that the foundational elements of dread, isolation, and careful pacing are still powerful.
Reception vs Historical Value
The game has been well received among its community. User reviews are “Very Positive,” with many players praising how Dead Beacon captures the old school horror experience: the tension of exploration, the fear of being under prepared, and the satisfaction of solving puzzles under stress. Some criticisms include that the game can feel short, or that certain mechanics (such as combat or movement) are rough around the edges. Historically, Dead Beacon will likely be remembered as a strong indie horror title for its price range something appreciated by those who love retro horror, even if it doesn’t break entirely new ground.
Availability & Collectibility
Dead Beacon is available digitally on PC. The price is modest, making it accessible for many players interested in indie horror. There is no known physical edition. For collectors, its appeal lies in its retro horror aesthetic, attention to atmospheric detail, and features such as map annotations and alternate puzzle routes. Over time, it’s likely to become one of those smaller titles that horror fans revisit when exploring the evolution of indie survival horror.
Get it on:
Steam: Dead Beacon on Steam
Gameplay: