DARK (2013)

 PC
User Score
4.2

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 272 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 272
  2. Mixed: 64 out of 272
  3. Negative: 153 out of 272

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  1. HELLruler
    Jul 4, 2013
    5
    The game looked cool, and I bought it before the release. Started playing, the characters have that bold lines like borderlands, I like that.

    After some minutes, the dialogues started, but they dont feel natural. When one person finishes what he/she was saying, the other one starts it like when you are pressing a buttom to skip dialogues. That's a bit odd. The gameplay isnt something    The game looked cool, and I bought it before the release. Started playing, the characters have that bold lines like borderlands, I like that.

    After some minutes, the dialogues started, but they dont feel natural. When one person finishes what he/she was saying, the other one starts it like when you are pressing a buttom to skip dialogues. That's a bit odd.

    The gameplay isnt something new. If you played Dishonored, you'll feel familiar with the game. One let down is that you can only either instantly kill your enemy or suck blood to get "mana" to use powers.
    The enemies arent really smart, they follow the same route, so you just have to wait until they turn and kill them.

    In the end, this game could be a success, but it isnt. I'm not saying that this game totally suck, it has some good things, but you should not pay so much for a game when you have better options (Dishonored has better graphics, better mechanics and better story for instance)    … Expand
  2. Tosecitas
    Sep 10, 2013
    7
    Its a good stealth game, It lacks in many aspects (graphics, writing, the final boss battle but I enjoyed It overall, I would totally look after a sequel.
  3. Cingz
    Jul 17, 2013
    5
    The game has a few good concepts to make the gameplay interesting, sadly there are many flaws covering up the good things. Pros: Power ups, dialogues with jokes.

    Cons: 1.Obviously overpriced 2.Standard graphic 3. Not enough characters and places to make a good story 4.Ridiculous gameplay mechanics, e.g. sometimes it's frustrating when you want to quickly kill an enemy near a corpse    The game has a few good concepts to make the gameplay interesting, sadly there are many flaws covering up the good things. Pros: Power ups, dialogues with jokes.

    Cons: 1.Obviously overpriced
    2.Standard graphic
    3. Not enough characters and places to make a good story
    4.Ridiculous gameplay mechanics, e.g. sometimes it's frustrating when you want to quickly kill an enemy near a corpse because the kill and drag enemy dead body button is same
    5.Every characters talked like they doesn't need to breathe because of the gapless dialogue
    6.Mediocre sounds
    7.There are PDAs to collect and few side quest but you don't have a journal to keep it in mind
    8.Limited save (only 2 on normal difficulty) regardless how big is the area

    Conclusion: though i'm able to enjoy some parts of the game, it's not worth the price and not worth to be recommended unless you really want it.    … Expand
  4. Zri
    Jul 9, 2013
    7
    Very decent sneaker with some interesting twists to the genre in the form of different vampire powers. Teleportation, distraction, domination, confusion and even using shadows to kill someone from a distance. The stealth is pretty well done, being comparable to other good sneakers before it like Thief, Splinter Cell and so on. It's let down a little bit in that department by enemies notVery decent sneaker with some interesting twists to the genre in the form of different vampire powers. Teleportation, distraction, domination, confusion and even using shadows to kill someone from a distance. The stealth is pretty well done, being comparable to other good sneakers before it like Thief, Splinter Cell and so on. It's let down a little bit in that department by enemies not being able to follow you past area borders, so you can be cheap and run back to the last area until the alarms die down if you screw up (which is tempting with the limited saves per area).

    The good parts are that stealth is done very well, if you like Max Payne's noir feel then the story feels quite decent too [see below for a couple of exceptions] and it looks quite pretty with its Borderlands style artwork and some nice lighting effects. When I first saw some of the trailers I was unsure about the combat mechanic of everything being an insta-kill, but they made it work.

    The game is let down by a few minor issues: it doesn't really take good advantage of some of the things you can do with the teleport ability like being able to bamf up or down levels in an area. Generally the levels are quite well designed, but given what they let you do, they could have done better in my opinion. Secondly their enemies tend to be quite tightly clustered, meaning it's quite difficult to play with stealth as your primary mechanic and end up having to kill people. I know, you're a vampire, you need blood and stuff, but when presented with a sneaker I feel like I should play it like a sneaker first and a vampire second.

    There were two pretty big annoyances in the story. One is the ending being a bit of a let-down, climactically with a super lame boss battle. At least it's short. The second comes right at the beginning when you're told that people who are killed by vampires but not given their sire's blood are destined to become mindless ghouls... then you spend the entire freaking game draining folks of their blood. Perhaps they're planning a followup game where you play the cleanup crew who has to take out the whole mess of ghouls you create.

    Anyhow, overall a good short game, probably a bit on the overpriced side. If you dig sneakers wait til it's on sale.    … Expand
  5. Mic7
    Jul 8, 2013
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Graphics (not a fan of the Borderlands style) and animation aside the game is a solid stealth game. There are two endings (neither of which explain how Bane will prevent himself from becoming a ghoul). For the most part it played smooth...a few game freezes in the club areas (ctrl alt del fixed it for me easily...didn't even have to reload). The gameplay is the game's strong point..the vampire powers are the highlight...made even more interesting by the fact that you have to feed in order to use them. I was surprised that it was harder than I thought it would be...be warned patience will be required.… Expand
  6. Dereck
    Jul 12, 2013
    6
    DARK is not inherently bad. It is, however, quite bland. The leaders on the market (MGS, SC, Hitman...) all have their own way of approaching stealth. DARK's mechanic is simply bland: stay under cover all the time and study your enemies' route. Then when you've got everything figured out, try not to mess it up.

    Thing is, the AI is just too good. It doesn't feel human. Enemies are too    DARK is not inherently bad. It is, however, quite bland. The leaders on the market (MGS, SC, Hitman...) all have their own way of approaching stealth. DARK's mechanic is simply bland: stay under cover all the time and study your enemies' route. Then when you've got everything figured out, try not to mess it up.

    Thing is, the AI is just too good. It doesn't feel human. Enemies are too quick to respond when sighting you, and seem to have quite a wide field of vision (I figured pretty much 180°, which is strange because supposedly you're less visible due to being a vampire).
    Therefore, when even a single guard finds you out, you're pretty much dead. Most stealth games simply have your pursuers forget you and go back to their routine, not DARK. The countdown during which they'll look for you is incredibly long, and I don't think I ever had guards drop their search for me in DARK (usually they kill me or there's only one guy looking for me and I manage to kill him). It would have made sense for once to have them forget about you, what with your vampire powers....

    You have some powers you can unlock but it doesn't feel like they're really helpful either they don't last long enough, or they only target one enemy and most of the time you'll have to take care of a dozen. Maybe there's a certain skill development one can take to make the game easier, but it certainly doesn't feel like there is one.

    But as I said, DARK is not inherently bad. Everything else about the game can be quite enjoyable, we're going back to the roots of vampires blood drinkers and outcasts of society. The only thing that needs to be fixed is the AI.    … Expand
  7. Cay
    Jul 15, 2013
    5
    I went and got this game with a healthy amount of skepticism, and as thus wasn't the least bit surprised when it turned out to be pretty average, maybe even a bit below.

    First of all, the game is terribly overpriced. Having to pay 45 euros for this is just awful, but it *might* be worth getting at 50% off. Now then; the story is pretty boring, there's no reason to care about the    I went and got this game with a healthy amount of skepticism, and as thus wasn't the least bit surprised when it turned out to be pretty average, maybe even a bit below.

    First of all, the game is terribly overpriced. Having to pay 45 euros for this is just awful, but it *might* be worth getting at 50% off. Now then; the story is pretty boring, there's no reason to care about the characters at all since they only serve to advance the story(and the dialogue is terrible, it feels forced and unnatural), many things are left unexplained, the animation quality isn't anything to write home about, the AI is pretty ridiculous and doesn't pose any real challenge since they ALWAYS follow the same pattern and if you get discovered you're pretty much dead, and sometimes you have only a split second to find cover before you're spotted and instakilled by some guy half a mile away. Targeting the teleportation skill is also tremendously frustrating, and you will often be ripping your hair out trying to place it properly.

    But it doesn't completely suck. The abilities are fun to play around with, even though you might not have any reason to use more than two or three of them. I like the art style and the levels look good, so you'll at least have something pretty to look at until that guard circles back into position. The gameplay isn't *really* bad, and while the AI is pretty predictable, you can have a bit of fun finding different routes to your objectives, or issuing various challenges to yourself to spice the game up a bit. The universe itself has some rather interesting sides, but they just aren't fleshed out enough and there might be a million reasons that they weren't, but the result is the same. You're left with a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of potential dropped right on the floor..    … Expand
  8. DeliMontana
    Jul 5, 2013
    7
    If you like Vampire The Masquerade Redemption or Bloodlines you'll probably like this since the ambient feeling is there! Even though it's not a AAA-title it's definitely decent enough even though it lacks some polishing. But since all games are more or less the same now days this feels fresh.
  9. Bloodbutterfly
    Jul 6, 2013
    7
    I really liked the concept of vampire and stealth because I think it is really a perfect combination if you think of the basic vampire such as Nosferatu^^ I liked the different kind of graphics that looked simulair to walking dead. It did not destroy the game play and still made you get the feeling of a dark environment. I also liked the story line because it gives you a differentI really liked the concept of vampire and stealth because I think it is really a perfect combination if you think of the basic vampire such as Nosferatu^^ I liked the different kind of graphics that looked simulair to walking dead. It did not destroy the game play and still made you get the feeling of a dark environment. I also liked the story line because it gives you a different perspective of the vampire franchise and it was also the reason I kept playing all the time. I simply wanted to know what would happen to the main character. I also disagree a bit towards the other reviews considering the npc:s. Yes they are dumb, they do not for example look into a bush if you have killed tons of guys walking past it. Although if you set of the alarm they will come after you and walk around the place where they saw you or where they found a dead body of another guard so I would say yes they are dumb but they actually do change routes if you make the enemies hostile. It is not really like in Skyrim or Oblivion where you can shoot one of the npc:s friends that is right next to him and he goes all like. Did you hear something? xD. BUT! What I did not like was the saving system and that they obviously did not really have a system with hard, easy and normal. The only differences of these degrees of difficulty is the saves. Easy is that you can save whenever you want, while normal only gives you two saves per stage off the mission. It does not differ in game play at all which I think takes away the point of having a difficulty system from the start. Also that you are not able to save at all at the club is kind of a bummer for me when saving is so important in these kind of games (a least that is what I think). I also did not like that fact that it seemed like it was very lined up. It was like walking on lava. Step one step our of the line of what the path the developers have planned for you in order to make the mission and you need to do it all over...unless you played it on easy so you could save whenever you wanted. Also the mission seemed kind of repetitive and it got kind of boring doing the same thing over and over. I still recommend the game for everyone that likes stealth games and are good at them^^ Because that is probably what it will take to play it on normal and not get pissed every 2 minutes because you stepped out of line again. And if you play it on easy I more or less recommend it for everyone that likes vampires^^ Not the twilight vampires then :/...if you even can call them vampires...no offense^^ well I liked the game and a recommend it for stealth gamers and vampire lovers^^ Good game but could do so much better if more thought was put into it. And please next time you make a game give us more freedom and more saves!… Expand
  10. Gfunk839
    Jul 9, 2013
    6
    In Reach of Greatness

    The game has a great premise but the execution lets it down a little. Maybe because of the budget constraints. All I see when I play the game is an awesome stealth RPG but sadly it never comes into fruition. Main issue is the lack of enough transversal options leaves you flatfooted or cornered very often. The general stealth gameplay is fun and the powers are    In Reach of Greatness

    The game has a great premise but the execution lets it down a little. Maybe because of the budget constraints.

    All I see when I play the game is an awesome stealth RPG but sadly it never comes into fruition. Main issue is the lack of enough transversal options leaves you flatfooted or cornered very often. The general stealth gameplay is fun and the powers are useful. Use of powers is too clunky. Simple jump mantling is sorely missed. Would be great if you could move around the environment with the ease of say dishonored. Graphics are fine if unspectacular. Sound design is generally good. Voice acting is poor to avergage. Other than that the game is enjoyable, but it commits the cardinal sin of leaving you wanting much more, showing you it's potential but never realising it. The approach to stealth is great though.    … Expand
  11. rabidclock
    Jul 10, 2013
    7
    Well, it's not a triple A title, and the end product does show that. It's not as well polished nor is the art/voice acting spectacular. But from a small developer, I thought they did quite well. I don't normally play stealth games, and was looking for a casual RPG when I ran across this. I though the story was decent compared to some of the crap that gets toted around in games. TheWell, it's not a triple A title, and the end product does show that. It's not as well polished nor is the art/voice acting spectacular. But from a small developer, I thought they did quite well. I don't normally play stealth games, and was looking for a casual RPG when I ran across this. I though the story was decent compared to some of the crap that gets toted around in games. The character development could have been done a lot better, I really didn't feel much attachment to any of them. As far as RPG elements are concerned, some basic character building is there, but you wind up unlocking most of the powers by the end anyways, so it's just a timing thing. I would recommend it to others, I felt it had a lot of potential but was either limited by time or too small a budget to really hash it out. A bigger focus on character development and AI would really have made this a great game, but I'm happy with my purchase.… Expand
  12. Geekcrux
    Jul 16, 2013
    7
    Good: Design Style is awesome
    Good: The game is fun to play.
    Good: I love all the abilities and normal difficulty feels pretty balanced. Good: I like how you are limited on your quick saves so it adds another challenge to the stealth style game. Nothing breaks the risk than having a quick save before every kill. Hard difficulty is even better as you only get auto saves and every mistake    Good: Design Style is awesome
    Good: The game is fun to play.
    Good: I love all the abilities and normal difficulty feels pretty balanced.
    Good: I like how you are limited on your quick saves so it adds another challenge to the stealth style game. Nothing breaks the risk than having a quick save before every kill. Hard difficulty is even better as you only get auto saves and every mistake might mean killing 13 guys all over again.
    Good: The story mixed in with gameplay to remind you constantly what you were doing in these locations.

    Bad: Normal difficulty and Hard difficulty have the same enemies and they have the same patrol patterns. If you play pure stealth, then hard isn't much different than normal other than how fast they kill you.
    Bad: Really short. I beat the game on Normal and then Hard. One day of playing for each.
    Bad: Challenges might have been fun, but forcing us to redo our abilities before each round is stupid. Just give us some abilities and make us deal with what you give us.
    Bad: Becoming a Vampire that can do it all removes the replay of this game. If picking different skills actually means I would not get to have others would limit our characters and cause us to play differently each time through. As it is no matter what by the last level you have capped out all abilities.    … Expand
  13. TheWhiteRose000
    May 15, 2014
    7
    The game although good with story lacked a true realness with its combat mechanics.
    Mainly the fact that you can kill any enemy with one hit and maximize your health at the start.
    So you can simply just tank them all to continue with the story. All in all I give it a 7/10 because the story is good, character development is good, combat system needs work. If you want a video review    The game although good with story lacked a true realness with its combat mechanics.
    Mainly the fact that you can kill any enemy with one hit and maximize your health at the start.
    So you can simply just tank them all to continue with the story.

    All in all I give it a 7/10 because the story is good, character development is good, combat system needs work.

    If you want a video review to my thoughts on this game.    … Expand
  14. jseph1234
    Nov 8, 2013
    5
    I think this game is worthy of an "8" because while it is not a AAA game and has the LEGENDARY
    Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines game to compete with, it is overall a good game. Not perfect but worth the price.
  15. Tziwen
    Oct 30, 2013
    5
    This is based on a great idea, in a great world and background but... Oh boy, poor execution.
    The game is a mess and bugged and dirty. The story is.... Pffff... Clumsy and a bit "stupid" but the world and the background of this world is neat. Matter of fact, this game could have been so nice... It's a shame.

    Good ideas, good background, bad realisation, bad story...
  16. BladeOfDarkmoon
    Dec 11, 2013
    6
    maybe a little like Hitman blood money and Dues Ex: Human Revolution. Graphics like Borderlands or Darkness 2. decent enough if you want a different game to play.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
41

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 21
  3. Negative: 13 out of 21
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 19, 2013
    40
    Initially a terrible thing that becomes a relatively entertaining stealth action game, if you manage to (literally) bite your way through. Unfortunately, excellent ideas are screwed up by their problematic elaboration. [Issue#232]
  2. PC Gamer
    Sep 13, 2013
    43
    A work of sulky blandness that does itself no favors by latching onto better games and cooler vampires. [ Nov 2013, p.68]
    Read full review
  3. CD-Action
    Aug 28, 2013
    35
    There are some mildly satisfying moments in Dark, but most of the time you’re stuck between boredom and frustration. [CD-Action 10/2013, p.67]
See all critic reviews »