Darkwood

This review is based on only the first few hours in the first area of the game. I've had my eye on the title for a long time, back in its days on Steam as an Early Access title, but had refrained from buying as I did not want to spoil the experience for myself by trying the incomplete title. So, seeing that it had been released, I bought it immediately and thus far am very satisfied with the purchase. Thus far I have been enjoying it a lot and look forwards to completing it, it has a very nice art style which reminds me of the STALKER series crossed with Silent Hill with a top-down view. The story is interesting and dark so far, tense and leaving a lot to the imagination whilst giving you good direction in a rather open world. Combat is pretty simplistic but has a nice, weighty feel to it and revolves a lot around timing. The experience so far has been foreboding, especially as I am playing on the permadeath difficulty, I find myself trying very hard to avoid being caught outside when night falls, even spending a few seconds in darkness is a very uncomfortable feeling. The game does not hold your hand any more than is absolutely necessary and I think this is a good thing. It's a fairly creepy game with a foreboding atmosphere, but I've yet to have any reason to actually scream my head off, so for anyone with some experience with horror games, or nightmares, it shouldn't be too hard to handle. Choosing the permadeath (Nightmare difficulty) option certainly increases the level of fear felt throughout the experience and I would certainly recommend selecting this difficulty for those who are fans of difficult games, and I'd also recommend you play it with a controller, just because it feels nice and that's what I am doing. All in all, if you are a fan of horror games, I would highly recommend purchasing this game. I see no reason why you'd regret it, I haven't enjoyed a game this much in quite some time.

Darkwood is a top-down survival horror game, ok but what more? The game is weird, a lot. It's dark, it's awful, unforgiven and it make the player be in a state of tension, astonishment, discovery and not knowing very well what are seeing. In the survival section we find things like crafting, use components, place barricades, traps... but it is not necessary to eat, drink or sleep, something wich is habitual in this kind of games. The game has a "basic" mechanic: during the day the player has to explore, find resources, talk to whoever it finds, scavenge for supplies, it must to prepare itself (but you can die here too, the danger is everywhere)... because at night, it will be better to be safe ... because the darkness holds horrible surprises. The game has an utterly dark plot, very lovecraftian. It's weird and twist, made up of shifting perspectives, sometimes the player will not know what just happened, but it will have happened and you will have participated in one way or another. Has three different difficulties, one of it is permadeath. The game doesn't led you by the hand in any moment, it's unforgiving like i said. It knows how to use the sounds, the music, to maintain a constant pulse between fear and paranoia. Staying self locked in a room, and hear how the adjoining door it is opening... the game played all those elements better than other "main" games about survival/terror. There some events that just happens when you do not expect them and everything change and become bizarre. You can upgrade your character, trade with another characters, and other things that probably can imagine, but better don't reveal all the surprises. You can use melee and fire weapons to defend yourself too. It a mix, a good one, between Subterrain (the core game is practically the same), the paranoia and mysterious plot of Sunless Sea (of course without the astounding and smart writing of that one). If you like the kind of game with an interesting and weird plot, survival kind, with extreme difficulty, and you like the view and visual style you can see in the pictures, I recommend the game.

I've played 8h hours on the 1.0 version. Don't be fooled bu the top down view, this game is scary as hell and really polished

The games' design and atmosphere is top notch, the setting sufficiently dark. However, this game is for few people. Most will not progress. Looking at that most of my achievements are rare, and only 6% came as far as Chapter 2 (my current chapter), it just goes to show that this game is not able to keep the player entertained persistently. Chapter 1 is long enough, believe me, and I can see why people lose interest. The game mechanics. The fact that you constantly have to survive a night, boarding up your current safe house, placing traps, or just wait it out, is getting boring. It may also be frustrating, since whatever comes at night can be anything from nothing, to all hell, and you're not going to survive. Now, I don't play permadeath mode, because I don't feel like grinding my soul into oblivion. Because the controls will most certainly cause certain death. They are slow, clunky and unfair. So if you are in for the story, stay clear from permadeath. Without that, you may die (and this will happen a lot!), but you will respawn at your current hide-out. You will need to go look for some of your belongings though, because when you die, random stuff will be taken from your inventory and dropped at that location. I found myself constantly dying at the same place, just to try and get some valuable stuff back. And then night fell, and I first had to board up and wait for night to pass, die during the night (yep), wake up with no "reputation" (the game's currency to buy stuff from traders) as I was a weakling who didn't survive a night. (These traders will appear at each dawn, but you need "reputation" to buy stuff from them. If you survive a night, you gain reputation, if you die during the night, you get nothing.). The clunky survival mechanics, and the unfair control scheme are probably what is keeping 94% of progressing to Chapter 2. So chances are that you may buy this game, as the story is really interesting, but will never ever complete it. Be warned.