DARK Review

About

It’s here!!! The new stealth action role-playing game DARK; unfortunately there seem to be little to no games of this genre on the market presently. The only other games series that springs to mind are the Splinter Cell games and maybe the Batman Arkham game. Dark is based around a newly turned vampire Eric Bane. Yes I said vampire but not like the stupid vampires you see in Twilight. He is a proper bad-ass vampire who is suffering from memory loss and finds out that his transformation isn’t complete. Help Eric to complete his transformation before his time runs out and is turns into a ghoul which is a vampire with major anger issues.

Game play

Dark relies on the player to use the shadows and surroundings to complete the tasks that you are assigned, without being captured by the guards in the area. To complete each stage you have to reply on skills to achieve perfection in stealth, this is required so you will not give yourself away easily or make a big scene. Use Eric’s various vampire skills to progress through the story and complete missions. The main attacks that Eric will use throughout the game will be kill and feed. Kill will simple take out the enemies so you can progress forward whereas feed allows you to eat your victims’ blood which allows you to use one of the various main moves that Eric possess as a vampire.

The game is very difficult at times in my opinion. When you kill somebody you have to then try and hide the body much like that in Splinter Cell and or the Hitman series, if you don’t then other guards can come across them and they will all become alarmed and start looking for you. When guards find you it is very hard to lose their attention, as you have a hostile meter that appears when guards are looking for you which is the same as other games in the genre. The player needs to stay hidden because you can’t really put up a fight against them; this is mainly because you rely on the shadows to kill them. Once the hostile meter goes down then you can carry on killing but it sometimes takes ages and if you don’t hide the dead guard bodies and the patrolling guards find them, then expect the metre to keep going up. This I thought was rather funny at times yet annoying at other times.

AI ‘artificial intelligence’ in the game can either be really dumb and easy to kill or very difficult and frustrating to win against. Some AI in missions have patterns they follow that you have to try and figure out so you know when the right time to strike is but it can take a while to actually get the pattern correct right. You can’t just run in and kill in this game because you basically die instantly, you have to take your time and actually plan you attack and also figure out the best places to hide the bodies so they so they will not be found.  AI are really funny in a stupid way, they will see you kill one of their fellow colleagues and just stand there and do absolutely nothing , or even be like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s terminator and “take you down” which can be is really annoying. Even though the AI on time does feel rather dumb the developers Realm Forge have done a pretty good job regardless.

Darks animation lacks in comparison to some of the games that are currently available on the market Some of the character and camera animations pans could do with some improving, for example there was one part of the game where a guard shot another guard but thegun itself wasn’t even facing the guard, so he basically l1ooked like he died because someone farted in the direction of the wind or something else. Some of the guards would do the famous moonwalk and glide across the floor; this added a sense of humour to the game but seriously needs to be sorted ASAP. The cinematics could have done with some extra oomph just to make them a lot more dramatic, personally currently they not perfect, but they are ok. I personally feel that cut scenes in most games could make or break a game, as I feel that this is a big feature that players will notice or could pick up on when playing the game

The vampire skills in this game have been perfectly designed to aid you with the missions and tasks that Eric will have to undergo. I won’t give away all of them but I will mention two that I feel are really handy and clever to use in the game. These are shadow attack and seduce. Shadow attack allows Eric to transform himself into a shadow and kill a guard when attack, with this attack though you have to make sure that the guard you are killing isn’t to close or else he will hear and get alarmed. Seduce on the other hand allows Eric to confuse a guard for a short period of time but long enough for you to either kill him or feed of him. If you kill him then fair but if you use seduce and feed in a combo then you will all ways have the opportunity to use seduce again. With all the skills though you can only use them if you have feed, this make the game more challenging because it makes you think about how you going to take on each element and scenario in the game.

Positives

+ Gameplay, the way the game makes you play stealth through all of it is amazing
+ The skills that you have as a vampire are cool and brings an original feel to the game
+Missions make you think about them before actually doing them

Negatives

– Animation is poor (character animation)
– Cut scenes are poor (cameras and animation)
– Some of the AI seemed too hard for me to get pasts (personal problem)

Overall

DARK in itself was a really fun and interesting game. Just the way the game plays out and keeps you interacted with it at all times is amazing. Also the way that they make vampires look like feared creatures and dangerous beings not like twinkling pansies from other franchises or series. The only downer this game had in my honest opinion is the animation and cut scenes but it makes up for it and more with its gameplay and hours of fun. It is worth every penny and I would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the stealth action genre or as a first one in that genre. For these reasons DARK will be getting a massive and well-earned 4/5.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.