Before its official release, I had the opportunity to try out the upcoming project P1: Anchor Light and its bizarre gameplay filled with an infinite loop, anomalies hiding in plain sight, and a memory game in which if you forget, you perish.
During my time with P1: Anchor Light, I tried out as many different loops as I could in an effort to see all that I could see within the game, as well as risking my sanity by even exploring the different losses that could take place within the game.
P1: Anchor Light’s Gameplay May be a Loop, But There is Plenty to Find and Fear
A big part of P1: Anchor Light‘s gameplay is the fact that players will progress through different floors on a lighthouse that all share the same floor layout, but in some circumstances, these floors may have one small change that the player must discover.
During my time with P1: Anchor Light, I attempted to see as many of the variations as I could regarding these different anomalies. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple, as they are randomly chosen. However, the ones I did come across were quite challenging as well as haunting in some situations.
Whether it be a statue facing the wrong way, a few chairs disappearing, a door slamming nonstop, or a haunting presence lurking in the shadows, there were plenty of different scenarios that I found myself in that kept the game interesting.
The main aim of P1: Anchor Light is to find the anomalies, if one is present, in order to progress up the lighthouse to the top floor to disable the lighthouse. This may seem like a simple task, but it sadly isn’t, as the floor is rather large, and you are required to memorize as much of the room as possible to figure out what has changed.
As said above, these changes could be relatively obvious in certain situations, but this wasn’t the case the entire time, as the game doesn’t specify what an anomaly is. During my first few runs, I found myself constantly failing, as some of the anomalies were so minuscule that it would be nearly impossible to notice unless you knew what you were looking for.
This was even more challenging with one game mechanic that has the player stop moving entirely when the music stops within the game. Due to this, I found myself panicking on a few occasions and causing myself to perish due to silly mistakes and the stress of finding the anomaly, if one was even present.
For me, this added to the tension of the game and made it even more fun to search around, as it felt as though I was constantly being hindered in my search for answers, but it also slowed down my progress in terms of having to stop and just wait around for the next opportunity to move.
P1: Anchor Light’s Story is as Elusive as the Anomalies You Need to Find
In all honesty, during my time with P1: Anchor Light, I didn’t manage to find a lot regarding the story, as it is hidden within data disks that you find during your runs within the lighthouse. Although the disks I did find alluded to a rather intriguing backstory within the game, along with the different anomalies I came across during my different loops.
Without going into spoilers, there are a few anomalies that the player can come across that crank the horror vibes up a lot further than the majority of the different loops you can come across, which all have some form of connection to the game’s backstory, which, to me, was a good incentive to keep searching.
From what I have read within the games’ data disks, there is a lot to unpack within P1: Anchor Light, and it does intrigue me enough to keep wanting to search further, but unfortunately, it will take a lot of runs to do so, as searching for this lore does solely depend on the game being generous enough to give you the correct anomaly that is hiding the data disk within, or at least from my experience, this seems to be the case.
Overall, I found the story of P1: Anchor Light to be an interesting one that has led me to continue searching for the hidden lore pieces throughout the different floors of the lighthouse, as well as using this as a good incentive to continue trying out the different anomalies that lurk within each loop.
P1: Anchor Light is set to release at the time of writing on September 10th on Steam, October 14th on PlayStation 5, and November 11th on Xbox Series X/S.
P1: Anchor Light
P1: Anchor Light is an anomaly hunting game that tasks the player with memorizing a floor within a lighthouse as they search for anomalies that may or may not be present while playing a game of musical statues with deadly music.
Summary
During my time with P1: Anchor Light, I found myself enjoying the constant challenge of discovering what anomaly was hiding from me within the looping lighthouse, but I also found myself struggling at the start due to the lack of information.
In terms of story, I didn’t manage to delve too far into discovering its secrets due to the hidden lore, but what I found was quite interesting and disturbing.
HOURS PLAYED: 2
PLAYED ON: PC
- A fun gameplay loop providing plenty of replayability.
- Plenty of creepy moments that stayed with me for a while after playing.
- Due to lack of explanation would lead to a lot of failures in the beginning attempts.
For more Thumb Wars Gaming coverage, check out our review of Hell is Us, or check out what we thought of the game Serial World that we tried at Gamescom 2025. Otherwise, follow Thumb Wars on X, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram to keep up with the latest news, reviews, and interviews.
Liam is a Senior Editor, Writer, and Critic for Thumb Wars and has been working with the team since day one. Liam is a big fan of all things gaming, as you will catch him playing all of the new releases from every genre you can imagine. Whether you find Liam gaming just for fun or spending his free time streaming, you will always find a smile on his face when it comes to all things gaming.
