From L-R: Karl, Carol and Matthew. And Hazel the kingpin as an Evil Overlooker.
Dark Judgement is a Beat 'em Up indie video game made by Korean studio Sinnesloschen and Frankenstein Studio, with gameplay mechanics and aesthetics inspired directly by old-timey arcade action games.
The plot's pretty barebones, as expected for a game of it's type. When Hazel, a powerful mob kingpin made an alliance with a rogue military unit to take over the neighborhood, it's up to three heroes named Matthew, Karl and Carol to stop him by ambushing the unit's base, take out their leader, and confront Hazel in his penthouse office.
This game contains examples of:
- Amazon Brigade: There's plenty of female mook enemies in the game, from the women personnel in the military outpost, right in the first stage, to the triplets Sumei, Leca and Lila, and their degraded counterparts later on.
- Angry Guard Dog: Guard dogs are recurring mooks in the military compound and the final stage.
- Attack Drone: Hovering drones are a recurring enemy in the factory levels, some of them armed with flamethrowers.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: After defeating Hazel in the final level, the game then ends with the three heroes walking away as a cutscene showing the police arriving, with Matthew, Karl and Carol practically finishing their jobs for them by taking down the entire mob.
- Chain Pain: The muscular, bare-chested foremen in the factory and military base wields heavy chains to smash you to a pulp. You can collect chains from destroyed crates or from these enemies, to use as melee weapons later on.
- Degraded Boss: The triplets, Sumei, Leca and Lila, are a difficult boss on their first encounter. Later their sprites are recycled to create lesser Elite Mook enemies in the final stage.
- Elite Mooks:
- The enemies in commando armor, who comes with their default machine-guns and aren't afraid to use it. They can also sneak on you from above via cables and pummel your health to almost nothing in seconds. At least you can keep their guns after killing them.
- The downgraded copies of Sumei, Leca and Lila are still as agile as their boss forms, and can use pistols from a distance with great accuracy.
- Excuse Plot: The plot is barely touched on within the game itself, and nearly non-existant with the cutscenes filling the players with zero background information. You get thrown straight into a pack of mooks and keeps going forward to beat up more mooks.
- Giant Mook: Muscle-bound foremen mooks some five times larger than your characters are enemies that shows up periodically between the smaller mooks.
- Fiery Redhead: The redheaded Carol can kick a ton of ass. Note that none of the other playable characters or any of the mook enemies have red hair, she's the only redhead in the game and one of the feistiest, most aggressive members of the cast.
- Flunky Boss: ALL the bosses - except, strangely enough, Hazel the Final Boss - have tons and tons of mooks flanking them.
- Katanas Are Just Better: The ever-reliable katana is one of the melee weapons players can use, and they're capable of slicing huge chunks of life away from enemies.
- King Mook: The first boss, appearance-wise, is just like the regular commando-class enemies, except slightly taller. To make things even more confusing there are regular commando enemies assisting him (alongside the lower-class personnel), having you wondering if you're fighting their leader or just a henchmen.
- "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop: Every now and then enemy commandoes armed with machine-guns will drop down on ropes and spray bullets all over the area with their weapons. They're slightly harder to reach than the ground-level mooks, and will continue firing until they're knocked down by jumping and punching or until they have finished their ammunition. In the case of the former, you can collect their guns to use on other enemies afterwards.
- Ms. Fanservice: Carol, oh hell yes. Her outfit shows the most amount of skin, including her midriff and if you finish the game with Carol, you get a screenshot of her undressing just... because
◊. - No OSHA Compliance: The factory contains catwalks without railings, and plenty of moving crates that constantly threatens to knock anyone on it to their dooms. While it may be justified that the factory is staffed usually by hovering drone enemies and you're an intruder, occasionally you'll also be fighting human personnel on those walkways.
- Pre-Final Boss: Before fighting Hazel, you'll need to confront his personal bodyguard, Franks, who's flanked by tons and tons of mooks. Strangely enough, Hazel fights alone despite being their leader.
- Retraux: The graphics and gameplay feels like like one of those old-timey Beat 'em Up arcade games, despite being developed in 2011.
- Sarashi: Carol's outfit consists of bandages around her chest, with her midriff exposed and a jacket over it.
- Shock Stick: You can collect electric batons from enemies to taze other mooks.
- Super-Deformed: Chibi-Carol is one of the unlockable characters in-game (by entering a code on the player select screen).
- Throw a Barrel at It: The factory, military base and streets have plenty of barrels which can be flung at enemies for points. Sometimes the muscular foreman enemies will grab and throw barrels as well.
- Tom the Dark Lord: Hazel the criminal kingpin who is the Big Bad of the game. Also overlaps with Gender-Blender Name, depending on how "Hazel" is usually perceived as a name (the character in question is an overweight male mob leader).
- Two Guys and a Girl: Matthew, Karl and Carol are the three playable characters, with Carol as the sole female. Though it's subverted if players unlock "Frankenstein", a girl with green hair (whose real name isn't revealed at any point of the game).
- Villainous Valor: After defeating waves and waves of his mooks, and all his previous enforcers, you then confront Hazel, the Big Bad, in his penthouse. He's all alone, with no backup, and he willingly fights you all by himself.
- Wolfpack Boss: Muscle is flanked by the triplets, Sumei, Leca and Lila, all four of them attacking you at the same time.
- A Winner Is You: After defeating Hazel, the Final Boss, you are then treated to... a three-second clip of some police cars arriving while the three heroes had a conversation that has zilch to do with the plot. Notably Matthew saying he needs to use the toilet. Roll credits!
- Karl: Hungry, Carol?Carol: Nope.Matthew: I wanna go piss.
