The game follows the story of Eric Bane, a newly turned vampire suffering from amnesia. He learns that his transformation is not complete and that, if he does not drink the blood of his sire, he will mutate into a mindless ghoul. In order to avoid being such a foul creature, he receives missions to drink ancient vampires' blood. However, an angel in Eric's view appears to guide him to the righteous path, and ease intolerable pain that comes from not drinking appropriate blood as it disappears. With a question of this vision, he tries to recover his deleted memories and his true-self 'vampire.'
The gameplay of Dark is based on stealth combat. Eric has many supernatural vampiric 'skills' at his disposal; he can use Shadow Leap to quickly teleport to different areas and to perform stealth finishers, make himself temporarily invisible, see in the dark and slow down time. His abilities are linked to a certain amount of 'blood points' which are used up each time Eric uses a skill. He can drink blood from his enemies to restore his health and blood points.
Not to be confused with the Netflix original Dark (2017).
Tropes present in Dark:
- Artificial Stupidity: Enemies cannot see Eric if anything blocks their line of sight, including glass.
- Asshole Victim: Blooming, Vlad, Steiner, and M17 are all assholes.
- Benevolent Boss: Rose is beloved by all of her employees despite all of them being vampires.
- Coolest Club Ever: The Sanctuary. It is a converted Gothic church, has classical statuary, and is run by vampires. Too bad about the one song always playing.
- Dark Action Girl: Rose, a technophile and nightclub owner. She can still hold her own, though, because, well, vampire.
- Dirty Coward: Blooming runs away from you as soon as you deal with his guards despite being a much older vampire.
- Does Not Like Guns: You can't use any weapons or equipment whatsoever in this game. The closest you can get to a "gun" power is either the leap or Darth Vader choke ability that kills something distant from you.
- Dull Surprise: The characters have no facial expressions or line deliveries other than this.
- Excuse Plot: You are to track down and murder other vampires in order to become a full vampire and not degenerate into a ghoul. Until M17 reveals itself.
- Foreshadowing: Before going into Steiner's club, the game's dialogue emphasizes the upcoming sunrise (referencing how vampires are Weakened by the Light), and mentions how older vampires are particularly vulnerable to it. Immediately after this line of dialogue, we see Steiner in his office, looking at the glass dome of his office. Now why would Steiner, one of the oldest vampires, who the game has just stated would be extremely affected by daylight, have something that lets his biggest weakness into his private abode? It's almost as if he doesn't need to worry about it...
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: The Sanctuary vampires seem to just want to make money with their club, play music, and not hurt anyone. Averted with Eric Bane himself as he has a wholly self motivation (don't become a mindless ghoul) and murders a whole army of guards to get to the vampires he intends to devour. Played straight when he shows the willingness to rescue the Sanctuary vampires from M17.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Eric Bane can get distracted by a statue of lesbians making love in a fountain (of red wine).
- I Drank WHAT?!: Eric's reaction to getting a Bloody Mary... House Style.
- Mook Horror Show: The game is all about stealthfully murdering your way through guards until you reach your target.
- Perky Goth: The vampires of the Sanctuary are all unusually friendly, cheerful, and happy with their lot.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: It doesn't matter who the guards are working for, Eric will devour them. Mind you, the guards' ambient dialogue suggests they're perfectly aware they work for vampires and turn a blind eye to them killing the innocent.
- Show, Don't Tell: Averted, sadly. The game's tutorial tips are painfully transparent substitutes for showing the player what to do.
- Take That!: The game's manual includes a paragraph ripping apart vampire-focused media at the time, primarily that of The Twilight Saga.
- Take That, Critics!: In the basement of the Sanctuary, you can find a "Wanted!" Poster for someone wanted for "Severe case of games journalism". The bottom of the poster includes a notice stating "If you see this criminal, Lethal force is authorised. Shoot on sight." This notice is placed between two Realmforge Studios logos.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Eric's internal monologue tells us what he feels instead of letting the game show us.
- Urban Fantasy: You are a vampire living in the modern era, so it comes with the territory. There's no sign of anything non-vampire related supernatural-wise, though.
- Vampires Are Rich: Played with. The ones at the Sanctuary are all working class stiffs except for Rose. Played straight with Blooming, Vlad, and Steiner.
- Vampires Own Night Clubs: The Sanctuary is owned by Rose.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: M17 is a massively well funded vampire hunting organization that creates Eric Bane as a weapon against Steiner, a vampire who is too powerful for them to defeat alone. They immediately go after the Sanctuary vampires afterward, despite the fact they're completely harmless.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Rose is a computer genius with powers related to hacking. She coaches Bane through his various missions.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The game explains that since Eric's blood was drained by a vampire and he then died, he's a half-vampire and needs to drink the blood of the vampire that killed him. While the game later explains that Eric was specially created by M-17 and no longer needs to try to find the vampire that bit him, Eric drank blood from and killed an unknown number of people in order to fuel his vampire powers. Will those guys become vampires too? Are they going to turn into ghouls?
- You Kill It, You Bought It: Eric Bane is seeking other vampire's blood to steal their power.
