It's entertaining in a high-school-goth-phase kind of way but that's also the kind of cheesy that makes The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo seem subtle. You play a suicidal middle-aged woman turned unkillable vigilante that learns to deal with her depression by hunting down serial killers (comprised of her entire apartment complex) with the help of a scrappy goth sidekick (complete with a tragic backstory). It's the sort of campy where a door-to-door florist brains you with a hammer but then you reanimate and feed him to your cats while playing the piano. It's heartfelt but inconsistent tonally in not being able to decide how real or fantastical the horror elements are. Looking past the story however and seeing it purely as an adventure game it's a very competent and engrossing experience. The art style is abstract but the puzzles are logical and it never becomes frustrating. If you're a horror fan it's definitely worth your time but while entertaining it never feels like a game that truly thinks outside the box.
This is one of the best, most imaginative, and downright exceptional Horror shooters I have ever played. It's the first FPS I know of to dual-wield weapons and magic. The ability that allows you to see ghosts and the supernatural is nothing short of brilliant bridging the gap of experiencing the story rather than just being told it. Skinless ghosts chase you, tentacled monstrosities warp in from other dimensions, you do battle with a pirate king and his crew, packs of wolf creatures prowl every corridor, and all in a big scary mansion. Did I mention the main boss is basically Hastur? The game has literally everything you could want as a fantasy horror fan. By the time you're in a Yithian floating city wielding a cursed Celtic scythe (which you got through time travel) having an aerial battle with Mad Arab Alhazred you will have been glad to have bought this game.
This gory, open world, fantasy hack & slash was revolutionary for it's time but twelve years later is undeniably archaic. It controls adequately, it gives you a nice choice of characters, it's even pretty tough, but there's an emptiness and lack of narrative that makes it meandering and trite. Without this it's unlikely we would have the Assassin's Creeds or Skyrims of gaming but also because of how far the medium has come it's difficult to go back with modern eyes and really appreciate Blade Of Darkness. It's certainly an excellent curiosity for students of gaming and hack & slash aficionados but most may find that it hasn't aged well.
