Despite appearances, Darkwood wants you to survive as much as it’s determined to kill you, but it wants you to earn every life-fortifying dawn as it emerges from the darkness. Much like the Five Nights at Freddy’s games and, to a less extent, the central crux of Minecraft’s Survival mode, Acid Wizard Studio’s top-down offering is all about fortifying a small hideout against things that go bump in the night, while attempting to avoid getting bumped off yourself by the time morning comes around.
This is very much a horror game, but not one that relies on the often cheap thrills of jump scares. Instead, Darkwood aims for a slow sense of dread that unfurls itself more and more with each passing night. It’s often the things you don’t see to begin with – or the ones that are half-glimpsed, like nightmares lurking at a glance – that are the most frightening; as are the long, dead silences that follow. Because you do eventually come face-to-face with what lurks in the thickets and bracken beyond, you’ll soon start longing for the days of audio-only terror.
What Darkwood does really well is that it emphasises your isolation. You’re a man lost in a set of corrupted woods somewhere in the Eastern Bloc, and it's the densely-crowded of trees that are the game’s most compelling 'character'. Looming from every corner, they’re a timely reminder that the world of Darkwood is indeed full of terrors, and they’re always getting closer. That feeling of utter helplessness and lack of direction extends from character to player. There’s a very brief tutorial designed to guide you on your first ‘quest’ to locate a stolen item, but after that, you’re very much left to work out what to do next and how best to defend yourself. Those first few nights are designed to spook you, but also to galvanise you to prepare sufficiently for the task ahead.
Of course, just because a game is purposefully obtuse doesn’t mean that the effect is always going to play out in its favour. For the first hour or so, that lack of direction and hand-holding really works, but after a while having to work out where you are on a hastily-drawn map based on not-so-easy-to-distinguish landmarks can sometimes make for a needlessly frustrating experience. Darkwood does, however, try to punctuate this sense of unknown exploration with the handful of characters you’ll meet along the way. Each one offers quests that will shape the final outcome of the story, and while you can opt to just treat Darkwood like a traditional survival game, there are some really compelling narrative beats to be earned that help flesh out the nightmarish story unfolding within that titular forest.
Working on a day/night cycle, it soon becomes clear you need to arm yourself and fortify the small house that serves as your base. A trader will visit you every day to help replenish specific items you need for crafting, but most of the things you’ll utilise will be found in cupboards, in abandoned cars and near the remains of some poor soul. The map itself – as well as the flow, timing and intensity of encounters – are all randomly generated elements so no amount of prior map knowledge will give you an advantage on each new run. So when day comes, and the monsters are banished back into the corrupted woods around you, you’ll need to head out and scavenge for parts and resources.
It’s these resources that become a vital part of your nighttime defences. Darkwood’s simple crafting system enables you to upgrade the strength of your hideout, construct new weapons, build traps and even brew potions with temporary effects. Resources are, unsurprisingly, rather limited so each night often boils down to using what you have most effectively – and how often things descend into anarchy once the beasts are unleashed. It’s at night that Darkwood really shows its true nature.
From rabid dogs and mindless savages to things of a decidedly more Eldritch nature, the enemies you encounter know where you are and they come for you without pause or mercy. There’s something intrinsically frightening about barricading windows, setting traps and even pulling furniture in front of a door in order to slow down an enemy’s pursuit of you. More often than not, you’ll take a few out with your traps, but there are always more that get through. Combat is simple but effective, so when you are forced to defend yourself – be it with an axe or a gun – every move as a deliberate weight to it. You only have so much stamina, so you can’t just spam the triggers in the hope of getting a lucky hit.
The Nintendo Switch port of Darkwood has had plenty of patches and support from the developer right up to the point of its release, and these updates have helped improve its overall performance. However, there are still a few technical problems, such as seemingly inexplicable periods of slowdown and the game’s physics often playing by a series of ever-changing rules. When items you’re trying to drag or interact with fail to respond, it can get very frustrating – especially when you’re trying to defend your ramshackle home in the dead of night. These niggles take the shine off what is otherwise a very assured experience, and we hope they can be ironed out over time.
Conclusion
Darkwood is, thankfully, rather unlike any other horror game on Switch. Those with a taste for survival games will appreciate the constant pressure to salvage parts and craft new items while a clock ticks down in the background, while those with a love for all things sinister will really appreciate some of the truly disturbing moments. Despite the occasional technical flaw, the result is a purposefully slow experience that rewards multiple playthroughs with a storyline that branches depending on just how far into madness you’re willing to tread.
Comments 27
This has gone strait to my eshop wish list to wait for an eshop discount or announcement of a physical copy. Witch ever one come first.
Sounds right up my alley!
Wish I had purchased this instead of Lovecraft's Untold Stories. That game is a mess.
I backed this years ago and then never really played it when I got my copy because I don't do much PC gaming. But I really did dig what I saw. Now I'm going to probably buy it on the Switch and really dig in. Because I heart Switch.
I was really looking forward to this until I came across two things: crafting and roguelike. Now I'm not so sure anymore..
@OmegaDestroyer Absolutely not worth the price?? That's good to know
Looks like I'll be picking this one up, too. Fun fun!
@ShaiHulud don’t think it’s a roguelike? It has random generation, but that’s all I got from this review...
@McDerbert Ehm... that's ROGUE. Rouge is something that women smear on their cheeks in an attempt to look nicer...
This looks like a great game. I’ll check it out at some point.
Another horror game I noticed was The Last Door coming on the 22nd. I hope NL is able to put a on spotlight that game as well because I loved it on PC. It doesn’t deserve to get lost in the shuffle.
When this originally released the devs had actually uploaded a torrent of the game themselves saying "if you enjoy this game, buy it!"
Always had massive respect for them from that
Iirc the devs of this game are super nice people. I recall them releasing their game for free on a separate site after they apparently made a fair enough profit on the game.
@-Green- they uploaded it onto piratebay, i paid full price for game on gog drm-free to show my support
Never got far in the game but first impressions were good.. none of tht cheap jump scare stuff but atmosphere and the stuff ud expect from a good horror game! Had a great sense of dread when i played it haha
Been on the fence with this one since it was annouced for Switch but I think I'll buy it now. Seems like something I'll enjoy if I take the time to get invested.
@OmegaDestroyer Don't knock twice was terrible also. Not sure why I bothered to buy that game, the movie was meh. My bad
@ThanosReXXX 😆 good spot. Edited 👌
@ThanosReXXX Or it just means Red in French.
For the night is dark and full of terrors
@McDerbert Ah, that's a bit better I suppose. Still prefer environments where some thought has been put into though.
@IceEarthGuard Not or, but AND.
@McDerbert You're welcome. Glad you aren't offended by a little constructive criticism, even if it was a bit tongue in cheek. (rouge-related pun intended)
@ThanosReXXX not offended at all, I have a bit of a mental block with certain words and rogue/rouge is just one of them!
@ShaiHulud I’m the same. I almost always prefer hand crafted levels/environments...
@McDerbert Well, then you should feel right at home here. And you're far from the worst offender, in that respect. Some people can't even spell 'Nintendo'...
I really liked the premise of games such as Don't Starve that are about survival and crafting in a randomly generated world.
How is crafting in this game compared to Don't Starve?
OK.... I bought this yesterday, and let me preface my response with this: I love survival horror games, particularly the early Silent Hill games, and RE (original and 4)... I had to stop playing this last night. I'm only going to play this during the day. Hands down, the scariest game I've ever played. Probably didn't help that it was thundering and dark and rainy and windy outside last night. But da3n, it's good. For $15 it is a no-brainer.
nobody talking about the lag and really bad loading times?huh
Tap here to load 27 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...