I used to feel that top-down games had there day, that was until I played Hotline Miami. When I saw the trailer for Acid Wizard Studio's Darkwoord I thought to myself, 'Horror version of Hotline Miami? Count me in'. It was special on the PlayStation Store for half price and thought why not treat myself?
Every now again I like eating those microwaveable Rustler Rib Burger. I know what you are thinking, how can someone who enjoys food so much eat that watered-down burger-alikes? Nostalgia is a powerful thing and growing up working in SuperValu I ate more than my fair share of them. I don't want I was expecting, they look like the real deal but was never that tasty. Play Darkwood I found myself asking was I eat a real Rib Burger or a watered-down version of one?
Story
Ever woken up strapped to a chair being beaten by a 'doctor' in a creepy looking house? Me neither but it sounds awful, and I'm sure our protagonist would agree. His job is to find a way out of the Darkwood which is truly a place of nightmares. There are a number of people/things to interact with who have some strange stories and, requests for you. Like the gangster fox with an AK47, or the elephant people who are strange folk who wear gas masks (it's weirder than it sounds).
Overall the story is less of a story a more a bunch of concepts. The events that transpire are interpretative, perhaps everything is real, maybe it's not, maybe some of it is who knows? The issue is that I never really cared about the protagonist or any of the other inhabitants of the Darkwood, I wanted it to but was bizarre to point where I was neither intrigued to know more or found it entertaining like the game Strange Flesh for example. The ending left me shrugging my shoulders and going 'meh'.
Visuals
The visuals are dark, gritty and kind of cool, well it started that way for me anyway. The visuals like many other elements of the game provide a level of disorientation and reminded me a little of those used in the original Postal game. There are trees that are alive and things around the pulsating, old ruined building, and people being absorbed into the earth (while still alive). The visuals made it hard to sometimes work out where I was, and more than an hour or two of playing really killed my eyes.
Overall the visuals left me feeling conflicted, while they did look cool to start with very quick they felt hampering, and instead of enjoying them I felt annoyed by them.
Music
If I had to describe the soundtrack in one word I would say unnerving. The sounds climbed up my spine and made me feel uncomfortable, but in a good way. The score was created by Polish composer Artur Kordas who is part of Acid Wizard Studios. I had a look around but could not see him credited for any other games.
The soundtrack is just shy of an hour but rarely did I feel the music repeated itself. The soundtrack is certainly one of the stand out parts of the game and am curious to hear what else Artur Kordas does in the future.
Gameplay
Darkwood is a top-down survival horror game. The game provides you with a small health bar and a stamina gauge that can be depleted real quick if you are not careful. Each area has a hideout and you are going to want to set up camp there as soon as possible. It is great for storing your gear, cooking up crazy vials of what looks like blood, and trying to survive the night. Let's break it down.
The game is broken into four areas of sorts, each of those areas is pretty big, or at least it feels that way when something tries to kill you every few feet. If you do get killed you will be respawned at your hideout and lose some gear. Similar to Dark Souls you can run back to your body or in this case backpack and retrieve your goods. Even as I got better at the game I grew tired of this so just carried items in my Hotbar (which you can't lose even when killed) and went back to my hideout regularly. The hideout is where you go to survive the night, if you can, often even with traps enemies broke into it and killed me which was annoying.
Weapons and other supplies to patch you up and your hideout can be found in the world but can also be made at your workbench in your hideout. Upgrading your workbench is very worthwhile as it allows you to build more items. Then there is cooking which can be used to unlock both negative and positive perks including one where you can replenish your health by eating wood, very handy.
The weapons and tools are okay but break regular, my favorites were the shovel and automatic pistol as they seemed more efficient than some of the others. Combat is a mixed bag due to you eating through stamina for doing anything, meaning if I got attacked by three enemies I was likely going to die. Hitting enemies could be a little awkward and some weapons like the axe and even the shovel took a second or two to make an impact which ended up sometimes being too late.
Overall the gameplay is okay but can be a little frustrating at times and being killed happened so regularly it started meaning nothing to me.
Final Thoughts
So, after twenty hours how did I feel? Disappointed. The story seemed like it could have been something interesting but never quite got there. The visuals are okay but are a little hard on the eyes and sometimes makes navigation difficult. The music is creepy and horrific and suits the game well. The gameplay is okay but could be a bit fiddly at times. Overall, this one gets a 2 out of 5
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