Will: Follow the Light Review
The Most Tedious Puzzle Game of the Year?
Title: Will: Follow the Light
Release: May 7, 2026
Platform: PC PS5 Xbox Series X|S
Developer: TomorrowHead Studio
Publisher: TomorrowHead Studio
Genre: Action-Adventure Exploration Atmospheric
ESRB: E
Reviewed on: PC
Time Played: 6 hours
--- A FATHER’S LACKLUSTER SEARCH ---
Searching for a missing child in the aftermath of a massive mudslide should be a frantic, desperate race against time. But in Will: Follow the Light, it feels like a casual weekend chore simulator. This game takes a genuinely gripping premise and buries it under hours of menial tasks, robotic acting, and some of the most frustrating puzzle mechanics I have encountered in a long time.
The story puts you in the shoes of Will. You are a lighthouse keeper who initially just needs to check some weather equipment during an incoming storm. You learn through your town contact, Cass, that your estranged father took your son Thomas out on a boat right before a major storm is about to hit. Then a massive mudslide rips through and destroys a lot of the town. Will discovers his family never returned and sets out to find them.
That is a fantastic hook for a plot. The problem is the monotone voice acting, which completely drains every ounce of emotional weight from the journey. Will sounds like he is reading a grocery list instead of expressing genuine worry for his missing child or anger at the upsetting situations around him. He is supposed to be on an emergency hunt, but he is so easily distracted by reliving his past and doing menial chores that the entire premise falls apart.
This game takes a genuinely gripping premise and buries it under hours of menial tasks, robotic acting, and some of the most frustrating puzzle mechanics I have encountered in a long time.
--- CHORES AND COMPASSES ---
The gameplay loop is heavily focused on first-person puzzle-solving and tedious traversal through spaces that look large but are ultimately empty. The opening town section is an absolute slog to get through. You have to prepare a boat and figure out the aftermath of the storm. All the while, you are forced to listen to a highly annoying, constant helicopter sound flying around town. You are basically doing chores for lazy NPCs who should have handled their own busywork long before you arrived.
Once you finally get on the water, the boat demands active mechanical management. You have to constantly adjust your sails, steer the wheel, and toggle the motor, sometimes through deep, obscuring fog that absolutely tanks your visibility. Frankly, it is a massive relief when the skip-sailing button pops up after you get it going.
Then we have to talk about the color-adjusting lantern. Shining the correctly colored light on crudely scratched images floating in the air or etched on walls reveals memories you can use to solve puzzles or expand the backstory. Sometimes you see a memory of Will’s father talking to someone, leaving a key behind that you need to open a door. Other times, it just shows a conversation that explains a lock combination. And the lantern can only hold so much charge. When it inevitably dies, you have to find a charging station and solve a minor puzzle by aligning frequencies. It’s quite a bother when a required item runs out of juice and you have to track down a spot to charge it.
The absolute worst offender in the entire game is the Azimuth compass puzzle. I had to look up the definition of “Azimuth” outside the game just to understand my object,ive and even that was a tad confusing. Then it required frustrating, pixel-perfect precision to find the direction of a lighthouse beam. I spent ten minutes running around, watching lines on a compass, waiting for the center to light up, and carefully aligning a bezel to the north position. It was completely miserable to figure out.
You are basically doing chores for lazy NPCs who should have handled their own busywork long before you arrived.
--- SURREAL SHIFTS AND UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ---
The journey also leans heavily into bizarre, surreal territory. One minute you are navigating a seaside village in a boat. After a bit of walking, you suddenly find yourself at the top of a snowy mountain, hopping onto a sled pulled by dogs. The sledding section is short and easy to manage, since you just have to steer the dogs and follow the flags. But the shift is so jarring that it makes you wonder how your father and son got there on a simple boat ride.
The game never fully resolves the ambiguity of whether this journey was real or a hallucination. The mystery of how it concluded was the only thing keeping me going, but the ending gave me zero answers.
--- CAN THE KIDS WATCH? ---
There are no major concerns regarding inappropriate content. The language is very mild, and there are absolutely no scary or unsettling scenes. But the slow pacing, lack of entertaining sequences, and constant menial tasks mean that any kids watching the game will likely get extremely bored very quickly. Who knows what they’ll get up to then while you figure out what the hell an azimuth is.
--- RECOMMENDED? ---
I would not recommend this game. Some puzzles were interesting, but most of it felt like I was doing chores for lazy NPCs while I was supposed to be on an emergency hunt for my missing child. The story was the best part, but it still could have been told or packaged better. There are much more entertaining and fun indies out there for a much lower price.