VideoGame Interesting take on Souls-like genre
When it comes to the Souls-like genre, there are two kinds of players: the ones who want the fast-paced action and get themselves iced by face-checking traps, and the ones who are methodical that have their shield raised up whenever exploring unchecked territories. The latter is who Darkwood caters to, and it shows because of the slowed down action system it has.
But that’s not a bad thing. Darkwood chose the horror survival theme after all, and slower gameplay ramps up the tension. The devs promised a horror experience that eschewed “jump scares,” and I can say the devs did a good job. The environment has the “everything has gone to shit” feeling with abandoned houses, mutating monsters, a mysterious plague, and come nighttime you get to experience the thrill of ambience horror. Sound is key in this game, because you’re given warnings that something dangerous is lurking in the darkness, the catch being that you won’t know where if you have no light.
The action harkens back to the ye olde days of horror survival gaming where players; weren’t expected to kill everything, instead doing their best to dodge trouble. This is another strong point; the Protagonist feels like someone who is undergoing the beginning stages of the plague, having to rely on their savviness with traps and ambushing monsters with melee combat not being ideal. Even the dogs in the starting area show little mercy if you mess around them for too long, and they’re smart enough to swarm you, giving you a small taste of what’s to come. Until you get your hands on a reloadable gun, you’re at a disadvantage and should do your best not to attract enemy attention, which is classic horror survival mentality.
The item crafting system is what I’d consider the weak point of the game. It’s rather basic, and since you’ll have to experiment with everything yourself most first time players can get discouraged. I learned after beating the game for the first time that not only were there recipes during the beta that you had to find instead of being handed to you after upgrading a workbench, there was even a potion system, and I feel that could’ve added more depth. The limited items you can make are helpful though, and since looting is an integral part of the game it does feel rewarding making it back to your hideout with a full backpack. This also leads to players having to decide whether to focus on crafting what will make their time in the wildness easier, or spend more resources fortifying their current hideout to make the daunting nighttime more manageable. Furthermore, if you continue to lose loot from dying or carry too much gear to keep yourself safe and thus can’t pick up much loot, then you’re going to have a bad time. Then again, this is a Souls-like game, so mercy should never be expected.
I’d say this game isn’t what I’d recommend to first time Souls-like players, especially those who are impatient and hate slow pacing. But it’s definitely an interesting take on a genre that is being copied to death right now ever since Dark Souls took off, so for those looking for a quality throwback to the horror survival genre with a rich story waiting to be uncovered I’d recommend this game.
VideoGame Niche of a niche of a niche.
For years I've heard about Darkwood, how it was a haunting experience and something superb, revitalizing the horror genre like Resident Evil 4 revitalized the franchise. I've followed a bit of the development and saw some videos of the protagonist exploring a haunted church. Finally, I got enough time and money to get it, and started playing it right away.
Everything worked very well for the horror. The top-down perspective that is limited by the line of sight and light, lack of colors, superb ambience with a really good sound direction, keeping me in my toes. The slow motion of the protagonist meant that I'd have to be careful and choose sneaking over barging in, since I couldn't run away, and the combat focused in precision hits meant that it would be better to avoid it altogether unless it was crucial.
Then I started the first day as the protagonist.
"Barricate your windows to prevent monsters from coming in." The game said. "Oh well, some tower defense elements are good. Perha-" "To make boards for the windows, you need wood and gasoline." "Wait a minute..." "Your weapon will break after five swings." "This isn't a Horror Game with Crafting Elements! This is a crafting game with horror elements!" "To make more inventory slots you'll have to craft a pouch"
And then, all elements that made this a great horror game, made it an awful crafting game. Crafting games are carefully crafted (pun intended) because of their repetitive nature. Protagonists in those games are generally fast and/or resources are close because you'll have to get back and forth, resources are colored or easy to spot, even if you're unarmed you can either easily craft a weapon or do something with your bare hands. Darkwood's protagonist is slow as molasses and runs as if he smokes five cartons per hour. If he doesn't have a weapon (which is hard to find), he can't fight at all, meaning that he shouldn't go to places with obvious enemies, eliminating part of the exploration. The shift turns less to pay attention how horrifying everything is, and 'where the goddamn hell I will find more nails?' making me lose interest in the sketchy figures running in the woods. With slow movement, exploration is already a slog, and the map won't pinpoint where the character is, and there aren't options to mitigate that, like a compass item (like Hollow Knight does), and this is a crafting game, you'll need to go back and forth due limited inventory space.
The gameplay ended absurdly slow and absolutely boring.
To make things even worse, the game boasts about 'not holding your hand', its fine, its ok. Dark Souls didn't hold your hand, just telling you 'go ring the bells' and left you to explore on your own. The problem is that this isn't a linear game, this is an open-world crafting game that by nature needs to give the player more help. And one thing is 'I won't fill your whole screen with tips, advices and an arrow' and the other is 'I won't tell you crucial details because (bleep) you' I didn't even know there were skills till after I quit the game! All this just forces the player into checking wikis, turning everything into a gigantic {{Guide Dang It!}}. I basically gave up after the first night defense, not because it was hard, but because it was so absurdly LONG AND SLOW. I nearly thought of just letting the creatures kill me to speed up the process, but just gave up. And the cherry on top of the cake is that nearly everyone you meet is an asshole, including the main character, making me stop caring altogether about the narrative.
If this is your niche, or want to try going deeper into the niche of a niche of a niche of a horror-crafting-slow-paced-wiki-based game good for you! Go ahead and enjoy the game, but for everyone else, beware the woods.