The Darkside Detective

The game consists of 9 "cases" - episodes of varying length. The first one got me hooked: it was self aware in a non-obnoxious manner, hilarious and did not overstay its welcome. Puzzles were straightforward, very simple and made sense. It all felt like adventure game formula stripped to the very basics and delivered in small, narrative chunks, which was exactly what I wanted after long day of work. Well, it seems that creators changed their original vision considerably along the way. Later episodes got longer, started to involve truly bizarre logic and extremely random puzzle solutions. The worst thing in the latter half of the cases was a need to do things in a very specific order: for example, there is an item A. You can't pick it up, character delivers some flavor text about it. Your brain labels it as "not important". However, later on that item becomes essential to progress - you have to backtrack, click on it again and now the character decides to pick it up. This game design decision is incredibly frustrating. All in all, what began as "back to basics" approach at some point inherited all the usual sins of the old-school adventure games. And worst of all, it seemed to lost its humor. Humor is very subjective, so maybe it was just me. Still, I haven't smiled or chuckled anytime after first ~4 episodes. Story-lines are also not very interesting - basic "monster of the week" type of scenarios akin to X-Files or Supernatural with an irreverent twist and a bit of Twin Peaks seasoning. Hardly something original, which would be fine if execution would not be lacking as well. Had more fun with "Blackwell" series.

Not an horror game :) This game is pretty short and easy but it is worth its price (when it's on sale). The graphics are nice, simple 8bit that works well, dialogs are funny, and the cases you "solve" are pretty wacky. Situations are original enough, characters are funny, there are many small easter eggs. There are some puzzles and basic point-and-click mecanics but nothing really complicated. Ideal if you just need to spend a few minutes or a few hours with no stress nor complicated thinking. Waiting impatiently for the sequel since this opus does build an interesting setting (surprisingly intriguing, given the lack of a "serious" storyline) for a sequel!

I liked it a lot - great graphics, music and topics. UI for the adventure game is great - totally frustration free, don't need to click on everything with everything. All puzzles are logical, maybe a bit too easy, but still a lot of fun.

There are reasons why this game is nearing a 5 star rating! Great job on the pixel art that is not limiting regardless of little to no animation. Nice SFX, music and rough around the edges script, making it all come alive and appreciated. The game was well thought out to be lighthearted, fun and short (unfortunately), and it lived up to its objective because you are left wanting more. I hope the next one will be longer. Great job!

9 bite-sized episodes, they added three more since release, (one of them VERY short) that will entertain you for a few hours. Funny lovcraftian-detective point and click. Not especially hard, a little moon logic in parts but given the subject matter some out there solutions to the puzzles kind of fits the mood. Overall great, but there is a kind of anoying issue in some of the episodes where you can only interact with some objects at certain times, the first time you get some dialogue but nopthing more, it's only later where you will actually pick up the item or do whatever it is you need to be doing. So you will constantly have to click on the same objects and use items on them, even if it didn't work the first time and even if you know it's the correct choice. Some times you will get a promt hinting that you should try that later but other times there is just no logic at all behind it, the game doesn't let you do it untill the time is right, i wonder if it might be an intentional design decition to not clog up your inventory too much. That would be a cardinal sin for an point and click but the game is funny and enjoyable enough that I can look past that. Thats the only issue I have, otherwise well worth it.