Creepy games… I love them. And a title that mentions the occult, paranormal and a tense atmosphere right on the box cover will definitely get my attention. But I’ve learned not to judge a game by the cover, so let’s have a look to see what’s inside.
Darkness Within is a first-person point-and-click adventure. You are Howard, a detective who lives in a creepy town in a vague undisclosed location. Your job was to track down an escaped murderer, Loath Nolder, wanted for killing a wealthy man with a thing for the occult and paranormal, apparently connected to a strange cult.
The game takes place mostly indoors, sending you from area to area in search of your suspect. Everywhere you go, the environments are gloomy, sinister and dark. Caves, catacombs, mansions and cabins, not to mention places in your own nightmares and visions.
As in any adventure game, you will be doing a lot of reading. There are diaries, articles, poems and letters that contain important clues and advance the story, and you can even underline passages that you find relevant to the investigation. Although there isn’t much voice acting, what is present is well done. You can also replay a conversation, in case you missed something important.
Gameplay combines exploration with puzzle solving, as it is the point-and-click adventure tradition. Examining areas looking for clues, solving inventory puzzles, deciphering a cryptex, the works. Fortunately there are different difficulty settings and a hint system, since some of the puzzles just don’t seem to make sense.
And interesting aspect of the puzzle-solving process is how you can use your thoughts as inventory items, combining them to reach other conclusions. The thing is, sometimes the solution becomes completely obvious to you, but the character won’t make the connection through reasoning.
Sound plays a most important part in the gameplay, and you can tell the developers paid special attention to the audio. The ambient sounds are spot on and make everything seem quite eerie: creaking doors, a clock ticking, strange knocks, a crow cawing, muffled voices. The music is quite varied as well and seems to blend in with the sound effects just right.
The graphics are nicely done as well. The interiors are very detailed, and little things like carved wooden desks or paint peeling from the walls are worth looking at. Every environment plays with light, shadow and particle effects in its own way, making each area distinct.
A free-roaming camera would have been perfect to explore your surroundings, but unfortunately you are limited to clicking pre-determined spots to move your view.
More character interaction would have made this investigation a lot more interesting and realistic. The plot gets confusing and I think certain details are left out on purpose just so that you don’t know enough and are still left wondering.
There are a few moments where you spot something moving in the corner of your eye, and that’s about it. Unless you’re easily impressed by the heavy breathing and pounding heartbeat effects, and that soon becomes trivial. But in the end, while Darkness Within does have some interesting concepts and a great tense, mysterious atmosphere throughout, it just never got half as creepy as I expected.
Special thanks to Lorraine Lue and Lighthouse Interactive for providing a copy of this title.