I've been an avid Thief and Hitman gamer since those games hit the market and I love stealth games. When I saw the cover art of Dark it immediately reminded me of Thief, the reviews however made me hesitant. After really wanting to like Remember Me and realizing that the game sucked, I didn't wanted to be disappointed again, yet I don't judge a book by its cover (or other reviews) and gaveI've been an avid Thief and Hitman gamer since those games hit the market and I love stealth games. When I saw the cover art of Dark it immediately reminded me of Thief, the reviews however made me hesitant. After really wanting to like Remember Me and realizing that the game sucked, I didn't wanted to be disappointed again, yet I don't judge a book by its cover (or other reviews) and gave it a shot.
I was pleasantly surprised. The game uses a cell shaded look, probably to hide the fact that the developers didn't have high-quality textures available. In the end the game gave a very even look without mushy and pixelated textures, so I guess they achieved their goal.
This is a low budget title and for what it is, I found it to be impressive. The voice actors are generally okay, only some of them delivered a cringe worthy performance, but nothing too bad to make you turn off the game. The audio engine itself lacks the ability to dampen sound in relation of the player's distance to the sound emitting object, so if you talk to someone and move away the speech will not be muffled. Also, there's no positional audio. The latter isn't really needed, but the former is just a necessity for modern games.
As people have already pointed out, the animations are not always up to par, mainly those for blood sucking, but most of them do look realistic enough to enjoy the game. I played the game on hard and tried to avoid alarms and found the game to be easy, yet enjoyable. Apparently people are split on the difficulty as is apparent from some reviews here. Some find it too hard, but then there's a reason for having a difficulty setting. Also, some people seemed to have struggled, because they couldn't adapt to the gameplay necessary to get the most out of the game.
FMVs were crisp and not the pixelated mess I usually get to see from big titles. The story had me roll my eyes at the beginning, but after a while I kind of warmed up to it. The story isn't actually bad, just the way the lay it out feels kind of clumsy at times, but that's what to be expected from a budget title. I've got the feeling that if the game would have had the kind of money in the back the big companies can spend, then this would have been the start of a new IP. May be it still is. After all, other games with similarly limited gameplay and storytelling (the first Call of Juarez comes to mind) managed to step it up tremendously in the sequel.
I found the gameplay to be quite addictive. The first level didn't really click with me. Mostly, because I didn't really have a clue which situations to expect and which powers to upgrade, but by the second level I was really enjoying the game. I was powered up enough to do cool stunts and take out enemies effectively. Also, later on the game manages to keep things fresh by challenging the player with ever new situations forcing you to explore new tactics (if you want to keep it alarm-free that is).
Also, the level design was pretty good. The levels are huge without loading zones. There are plenty of details, so the game doesn't feel empty. All in all, the game creates a believable world. There are shortcomings though. Apart from the superficial ones I mentioned, there some gripes with gameplay. In level 2 there's a section where while you're trying to take out a guard a cutscene will interfere. The game tries to incorporate sound by using littered floor as sound source which you should try to avoid. Thief implemented this a whole lot better. They could have left that feature out for all I care since it's barely game defining and only rarely encountered. Your attacks and actions create sounds too and those are traceable by the enemy. Too bad there's no indicator how much you're audible. At least they found a clever way to indicate visibility. Whenever an enemy starts to spot you, a circle appears that goes from green to red. If you manage to break line of sight before it's red you're safe. Simple but efficient. The game made several hints that shadows have an impact on visibility, but neither does it explain this feature, nor will you encounter many shadows. While the game uses light and shadows throughout, they don't seem to play a role and if they do, I didn't need to stick to the shadows to beat it.
All in all I have to say I liked the game. It offers replay value: I can't wait for a second run through to beat it even more perfectly, now that I know what to expect. Ghosting through the levels will also be fun especially with the teleport power and so will be a violent playthrough where I can ignore stealth completely and take enemies head on.
Is it a genre defining game? No.
Was it fun to play? You bet!
Did I feel I wasted my time? No!
Even with more advanced stealth games around, there are still far too few to cater to the genre and this game sure does give fans of the genre some fun before Thief 4 comes around. As simple as it is, as enjoyable is it. You need a knack for patience and stealth though.… Expand
DARK (2013)Your Score0 out of 10User Score
