The Darkside Detective (2017)

Spooky Doorway

Android · Google Stadia · Linux · Mac · Nintendo Switch · PC (Microsoft Windows) · PlayStation 4 · PlayStation 5 · Xbox One · iOS

3.51 from 162 ratings

1534 members have it in their collection · 11 playing now · 980 backlogged · 68 wish listed

How long? Main story 5h · with extras 7h · 100% 6h (from 17 logged playthroughs)

Join The Darkside Detective, Francis McQueen, as he investigates the bizarre, the supernatural and those missing cat cases that keep getting dropped on his desk.
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Release dates

  • Jul 27, 2017 (Full Release) (Worldwide) Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows)
  • Feb 07, 2018 (Full Release) (North_America) Nintendo Switch
  • Aug 01, 2019 (Full Release) (Europe) Nintendo Switch
  • Apr 08, 2021 (Full Release) (Worldwide) Google Stadia, Xbox One
  • Apr 08, 2021 (Full Release) (Europe) PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
  • Apr 23, 2021 (Full Release) (North_America) PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
  • Aug 08, 2024 (Full Release) (Worldwide) iOS
  • Dec 09, 2025 (Full Release) (Worldwide) Android

Related

Bundled in

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Rating distribution

5 stars
28
4 stars
62
3 stars
42
2 stars
22
1 star
7
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Community All Reviews Statuses

cwknight

Review cwknight 3/5 · Feb 15, 2026

Sixth game finished for the year: The Darkside Detective

Nice little funny episodic point-and-click. It reminds me of a more elaborate and more traditionally point-and-click McPixel.

A couple of the bonus episodes had some arcane sequencing requirements that I kinda disagreed with from a point-and-click design perspective, but, hey, that's a part of the genre.

chickens26

Review chickens26 4/5 · Jan 18, 2026

This is a very charming supernatural detective point & click game, in a nice pixel art style.

The writing is surprisingly great, not overly wordy, just straight to the point effective. It pokes fun at many supernatural & horror tropes in simple ways, creating a unique brand of humor that hit right for me. In particular the characters, especially detective …

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This is a very charming supernatural detective point & click game, in a nice pixel art style.

The writing is surprisingly great, not overly wordy, just straight to the point effective. It pokes fun at many supernatural & horror tropes in simple ways, creating a unique brand of humor that hit right for me. In particular the characters, especially detective McQueen and Officer Dooley, and some reoccurring npcs were all very endearing.

The gameplay itself is quite typical point and click gameplay. Some of the puzzles are quite clever, but you have your usual guess which items to keep combining and clicking on to get the solution eventually. Nothing particularly difficult though. It's not reinventing the wheel with gameplay, but it's effective. The 100% achievements for the game was also pretty easy and fun to get.

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Gothd011

Review Gothd011 3/5 · Jan 10, 2026

Meh I'll play the next one

You can kill time with this at the doctor’s office, the DMV, or when you can’t sleep. It was completely free to play for me. The puzzles are simple, nothing complicated. The supernatural theme is right up my alley. I’ll go ahead and play the second one too since that one’s free as well.

Sepix

Review Sepix 4/5 · Jan 5, 2026

A nice surprise!

A surprisingly sweet and competent adventure. Great graphics, nice humor, and the episodic storytelling keeps it engaging and enjoyable even over a longer period. The music is absolutely fantastic. The lack of animations felt odd at first, but it doesn’t really detract from the visual experience. For me, it’s a wonderful little surprise hit—and now I’m checking out the second …

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A surprisingly sweet and competent adventure. Great graphics, nice humor, and the episodic storytelling keeps it engaging and enjoyable even over a longer period. The music is absolutely fantastic. The lack of animations felt odd at first, but it doesn’t really detract from the visual experience. For me, it’s a wonderful little surprise hit—and now I’m checking out the second part! :)

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GigaDeathNullGolem

Review GigaDeathNullGolem 3/5 · Apr 14, 2025

Short, Simple and to the Point *Click*

half a dozen episodes with some bonus content. Not overly hard. Doesn't require lots of reading. It was alright but not that substantial. If you get 20 mins to play a game this might be a good pick to complete an episode from start to finish

Vakil

Review Vakil 2/5 · May 20, 2024

Try something else

The puzzles are easy but the humor is exceptionally dumb. I admit it got a chuckle out of me once or twice but even my sense of humor can only take so much juvenility. If you’re interested in supernatural pixel puzzle games, there are hundreds of better ones out there. At least this one isn’t scary and my 11 year …

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The puzzles are easy but the humor is exceptionally dumb. I admit it got a chuckle out of me once or twice but even my sense of humor can only take so much juvenility. If you’re interested in supernatural pixel puzzle games, there are hundreds of better ones out there. At least this one isn’t scary and my 11 year old beat it.

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amar

Review amar 1/5 · Nov 19, 2022

Can’t figure out who this is for. The puzzles feel like they’re for kids, the puns feel like they’re for adults. Neither work too well.

pixelcrypt

Review pixelcrypt 2/5 · Aug 28, 2022

The puzzles and writing need work

This game could’ve been great if it had solid challenging puzzles. Funny enough, the 3 bonus episodes nailed it. They were hard but logical and super fun. But the base game puzzles were super easy and required no effort.

The art is great, the comedic writing is ok, and that’s all you get here - puzzles, nice pixel art, and …

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This game could’ve been great if it had solid challenging puzzles. Funny enough, the 3 bonus episodes nailed it. They were hard but logical and super fun. But the base game puzzles were super easy and required no effort.

The art is great, the comedic writing is ok, and that’s all you get here - puzzles, nice pixel art, and jokes. The jokes have the typical comedic point and click meta humor that is decent, sometimes gets on my nerves though haha. But again, if the puzzles actually challenged you it would be easy to overlook the writing.

I am excited to play the sequel, given how great the bonus episodes were in this. I really hope it offers more of a challenge to keep the game entertaining.

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totalbehaved

Review totalbehaved 4/5 · Mar 4, 2020

"There are no genders in the Bloodwolves. It started as a cost-cutting scheme, but ended up being strangely progressive."

A punny point-and-click adventure with lots of character. The pixel art is really well done. The different settings you explore throughout the game are eclectic, and inspired. I'm looking forward to the next installment. 08/10

Dallen

Review Dallen 2/5 · Jul 10, 2018

Funny, but not Really Worth the Trouble.

If you have money to spare, don't want puzzles that challenge you at all and don't mind very linear and segmented gameplay this will get a few chuckles out of you (assuming it doesn't crash or softlock on you like it did me more than once). For anyone else, I would probably pass.