Darkish and Deep is a sport I’ve been trying ahead to ever since seeing the primary trailer for the sport and studying it was being helmed by a solo developer. The trippy visuals and weird tone of the title piqued my curiosity. As somebody who performs so much of generic first particular person horror video games, I’m at all times looking out for one thing distinctive throughout the style.
Walter Woods, who additionally teaches on the Savannah Faculty of Artwork and Design, is the thoughts behind Darkish and Deep. Whereas there are clearly influences of individuals like Lars Von Trier, David Lynch, Gasper Noe, and Panos Cosmatos right here, Woods nonetheless manages to tie all of those influences collectively in a method that makes the tip product really feel like its personal distinctive idea.
Once more, as a result of I play so many horror video games, it’s uncommon that I really really feel worry whereas enjoying by way of them. Whereas Darkish and Deep did impressively handle to pierce by way of that layer of tolerance I’ve constructed up a few occasions, it’s nonetheless not removed from an ideal horror expertise.
In horror video games, I a lot choose enjoying as an everyman who’s in over his head and simply making an attempt to outlive versus some genetically modified macho tremendous soldier. That is precisely what Darkish and Deep affords, putting you in the shoes of a silent protagonist who begins the sport at the back of a van, heading to an unknown vacation spot.
Alarm bells are set off instantly by the sight earlier than you; a physique bag containing a corpse and a podcast enjoying from a pc divulging conspiratorial authorities secrets and techniques. Simply as you’re attending to grips with what is going on, the van veers off a cliff, sending the participant plummeting into a wierd trying cavern.
The Sport Is Titled Darkish and Deep For a Motive
The lighting helps create an eerie environment. Picture credit score: Walter Woods.
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That physique bag seems acquainted… Picture credit score: Walter Woods.
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Framing the horror. Picture credit score: Walter Woods.
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These purple visuals are intense. Picture credit score: Walter Woods.
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Shadows are used successfully. Picture credit score: Walter Woods.
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Wandering by way of the depths beneath, you discover a floating body to work together with. Sadly, this results in a white-haired girl showing who pushes you even deeper into the cavern, leaving you remoted and confused.
Darkish and Deep leans heavily on psychedelic visuals and disorienting level design to keep the players on their toes. Visuals shift between weird rock formations, visions of the principle character’s residence, and what seems to be the internal workings of his thoughts. The sport usually makes use of contrasting white and purple lighting towards a darkish black void to assist information the participant by way of this surreal world.
Puzzle-solving and, (utilizing this phrase very loosely,) ‘fight’ revolve across the aforementioned image frames that you just gather. These frames enable you establish key factors within the setting to work together with and supply cryptic background info.
The sport’s narrative progresses by way of periodically discovering computer systems dotted all through the setting the place you hearken to extra of the podcast launched on the prime of the sport because it delves deeper into paranormal. The difficulty with that is that it does create considerably of a seemingly unintentional disconnect between these exposition dumps and the extra ethereal sections between them.
Hiya Darkness, My Previous Pal
The sport makes use of shadows cleverly to disclose the threats chasing you together with different parts. While this does help to induce a feeling of paranoia that the sport’s freaky crawling enemies are consistently in your tail, it’s also very clearly used to assist disguise a number of of the sport’s technical shortcomings. The psychedelic visuals are used similarly, mixing intentional visible trickery with poorly applied parts.
The sport’s fight that I referenced earlier might be damaged right down to primarily a fundamental tower defence problem the place you will need to use your trusty body to fend off enemy creatures, whereas defending a pc terminal because it clears rocks and particles blocking your path to development. Annoyingly, the sport’s considerably awkward digicam mechanics do considerably get in the way in which throughout these segments.
Though there are points I’ve with the sport’s storytelling approach and fight mechanics, by far probably the most irritating side of Darkish and Deep is its platforming. The mix of complicated visuals and relatively uncooperative motion controls makes balancing on slender pillars and leaping throughout gaps to achieve ledges one thing of a headache.
Regardless of this shortcoming, and all the different components of Darkish and Deep that aren’t fairly as much as par, I nonetheless respect its ambition and I’m glad that it exists. From its robust visible id, to its unsettling environment of supernatural intrigue, Walter Woods has created one thing right here that has true potential, even whether it is considerably unwieldy at occasions.
Darkish and Deep – 7/10
