Darkwood's public alpha appeared on the scene way back in 2014 and I remember it well. It sounded cool: dark, surreal horror survival game, set in a mysterious forest, with influences from film noir, cosmic horror, but also that Texas Chainsaw-style bayou creepiness. I remember checking out a couple YouTube videos/gameplay of the alpha and I was intrigued but mostly unimpressed. The top-down view made it look/feel like GTA1. The game also included a bunch of heavy survival elements: like a bargain bin 2D Minecraft, punching trees, fetching logs and crafting wooden swords, keeping a vigilant eye on your thirst, hunger, sanity, ammo, bladder, etc. meters. Plus the game had rogue-like elements, randomising maps and events for each playthrough. Honestly, it looked like a bit of a mess and I dismissed it, forgot about it.
(TL;DR version: if this review is too long, you can read a tiny summary here, it's just 1 short paragraph)
However, a month ago I learned something interesting: the developers, upon launching the full release, also launched a DRM-free torrent of the full-version fully-patched final product on PirateBay (ref: PC Gamer article). Apparently the sales have been poor, and the devs simply wanted people to play their game! This seemed like such a noble act of a group of artists, who just really want people to experience the thing they've spent half a decade on, ignoring profits completely in favour of wishing to share their art. With the torrent file they attached a link to this page, (I'd highly recommend giving it a look) which gives a little story about the development of their game and themselves, their aims and such. I was so moved by the whole thing that I bought a copy immediately. But anyway, I digress, what about the actual game?
Darkwood took me totally by surprise. Much had changed since the early builds. Still, this top-down crafting-survival thing; I didn't expect to get much out of it. But it hooked me in DEEP. I literally could not put it down, I spent every waking moment on it. 27.5 hours in the last two weeks, 32.1 hours in total, finally completing the game yesterday with a sigh of relief.. but I already miss it, and I'm tempted to journey back into that macabre void with its towering firs and its mysterious, often malevolent inhabitants.
On paper, it definitely shouldn't work. Darkwood is a genre-mash like no other: within that game we see elements of open-world survival, base-building/tower defence, crafting, rogue-like exploration, ARPG elements (random loot drops, looting, top-down combat, character upgrades/perks), visual-novel-style narrative sections, puzzles, resource management, and the list goes on. It sounds like a dog's breakfast but it isn't: these elements somehow blend together and it feels like an entirely new genre, and the whole thing is strangely intuitive. And this is coming from someone who generally despises crafting/survival games.
You, "the stranger," find yourself deep within this forest. There's a day-night cycle, and you've got very little time to barricade yourself within one of the decrepit huts before nightfall where the local fauna will roam the darkness. You fumble around for bits of wood and nails, crude traps, a stick for a weapon, find an old generator to keep the lights on, push a rusty old bathtub against the door and wait. In my headphones I hear footsteps circling the house.. strange howls.. was that a quiet knock at the door? Possibly a scream in the distant hills? And now, was that something scratching on my real window, IRL? It's without a doubt the scariest game I've played since Alien Isolation, in fact I'd say it's more spooky, perhaps the spookiest game I've ever played. Haven't been so spooked since playing System Shock 2 as a preteen. As you travel deeper into the woods, and more time progresses, these nightly "barricade and hunker down" furniture arrangement sessions become increasingly tense and dangerous as more ferocious creatures or roaming supernatural things take notice of you presence.
The crafting is simple and I picked it up easily. It's intuitive and logical: a rag makes a crude bandage, or petrol+rag+bottle+match makes a molotov cocktail. Wooden logs can be sawed into planks, and so on. It never outstays its welcome, it adds a sense of realism, and it's never pointless busywork; it's sensible, logical crafting as a minor, agreeable gameplay element. I haven't progressed far into my second playthrough but already I can tell that things are very different, given the map randomisation. Apparently some special events, rare game world areas and story elements are randomised too. Exploring the woods is a terrifying and exhilarating experience. You have a rough map, but your location isn't marked and most navigation is made through landmarks and guesswork; getting lost is a regular occurrence, or a terrifying occurrence as night approaches.. These woods are corrupted by some strange and horrifying force, and you slowly uncover these chilling, surreal mysteries as you delve deeper. As you stumble across key characters or important events, the game suddenly switches to a closeup of beautifully-rendered and animated art, like a visual novel, allowing the player to speak with an NPC or make certain plot decisions (which, I might add, can lead to many branching paths within the story/outcomes). These story elements, like everything in the game, are lovingly crafted in their gruesome detail whether it's the snail man or the chicken lady or the multitude of unsettling denizens of the forest. The writing is also superb; these little touches really solidify that deep immersion and work together to make one deeply invested in the game world, the plight of the protagonist, and it's why I haven't seen daylight in two weeks.
I was initially wrong about this game: it's not another survival game, or a run-of-the-mill horror game. It's a very rare kind of horror game: there aren't jumpscares, there isn't violence, gore, VR chase scenes or detailed high-poly renderings of spooky things. Instead the horror creeps along the base of your skull, through shadows of the things untold and unseen. Eraserhead (1977) comes to mind, or Jug Face (2013), Blackwood's The Willows, some thoughts of Lovecraft of course (the unseen, unfathomable horrors beyond description). Some of the gorgeously distressing art is reminiscent of Zdzisław Beksiński, James Gleeson, Odd Nerdrum, but I'm just reaching: the vision of the creators is very much unique. It was so refreshing to play a this game without a single zombie, or evil marine, skeleton, demon, ghost, creepy black-haired little girl, none of those cringe-inducing cliches; instead the entities and characters are peculiar, original, otherworldly, and yet they fit seamlessly into this corrupted forest where nothing is quite as it seems.
I won't mislead you: Darkwood is a very challenging game. To the devs' credit, even using a guide/walkthrough won't offer much help, as the game fiendishly rearranges itself for each player/playthrough. Resources are very scarce, enemies are ferocious, weapons are weak and even single bullets are extremely scarce; and that's assuming you can acquire a gun somehow. Navigation is difficult, the forest is dark and perilous, clues are cryptic, items and pathways are deeply hidden, weird characters will betray and mislead you. But all this works together, like in early Resident Evil games to magnify the horror, to bring a sense of urgency, to place pressure upon the player. I loved every moment of it. Ultimately, though I adored the gameplay and I'll not soon forget those nights in rickety shacks, cowering in the corner and praying for the reddish light of dawn, the highlight for me was: the story and its delivery. The many and varied characters are brilliantly conceived and bring this gruesome, gloomy world to life, whether friend or foe, I got to know these bizarre inhabitants and their sad stories, and how they link to each other and to the collapsing, strangling corruption around their little towns, shacks and hovels. There are probably multiple endings, but when I finally reached the end (after 32hrs of gameplay) my jaw was firmly upon the floor. It's rare to see a game with such polished mechanics, fun addictive gameplay, while also being genuinely unsettling/creepy, furthermore maintaining a truly deep and engaging storyline filled with these colourful characters and a memorable story arc.
I'll not soon forget my time spend in Darkwood, and I'm both yearning and dreading my return for my second playthough, hard mode, to see what further horrors are lurking amongst the boughs. Highly recommended, 5 stars, easily my favourite game of 2018 so far, and better than most games I played last year too. Highly recommended, but only if you're a weirdo and you're into this kind of thing.
