When the Darkness comes (2019)

First, this game bills itself as an 'experience' on the main menu, so with that in mind, lets dig into this weird, dark, morbid walking sim...

Do what you're told... Or don't! How you live in this world and what it will mean is going to be up to you.

Overall, I am quite impressed with this game. I would rate it three stars, but there is so much thought and clever ideas put into it, that I feel it deserves at least four. In many ways, Stanley Parable is genius, but it's also at times very shallow and goes for nothing more than a belly laugh or gimmick to solicit a response from the player. When the Darkness comes pulls no such punches... This is a dark game that attempts to convey feelings of hopelessness, emptiness, and a life devoid of meaning... I am definitely in the camp that would say that the game doesn't actually do this, but how exactly are those feelings translated in a genuine way?

Much of the game is styled like a medicated creepypasta. It's a nice aesthetic but some bits I felt fall a bit flat and feel a little cheesy.

This game was most likely made from someone struggling with those things in their own way, and this was their personal way of expressing that in their own way. No, I cannot relate to everything in this game, but I can relate to some of these things in my own way enough to see the sincerity here. Difficult experiences that lead to depression or the lingering consequences of social anxiety are difficult to discuss (ditto for being understood, as I just mentioned in the previous paragraph), I've seen other games more well known for this effort try to do this and I thought this one did a better job of it... The gameplay is a confusing mess of light and dark. The player has to navigate a shifting, deranged world that conspires against you... Or did i just imagine that was what this developer was going for, and it was just me?

Sometimes they really are out to get you.

I only have two gripes with this that make it short of perfect: First, the game is a bit TOO dark for two sections of the game... And this was obviously done on purpose to make it intentionally hard for the player to progress (fortunately they aren't nearly as hard as they could have been made, I've been through much worse elsewhere) and second, the game creates a weird save file structure that causes controversy (it also will change your desktop background if you get the bad ending, which i did and lock you out of the game.) I personally like stuff like this, a lot... and I wish I saw more games go with this approach because i'm nerdy, but I didn't like the fact that if you get certain endings it will lock you out of other endings (and force you to replay the whole game again) Subsequent playthroughs are slightly different and I suspect that is why, but the game really would benefit from a simple chapter selection feature (I am pretty sure it doesnt have this) rather than 1. lock you out of the game unless you delete your save. 2. delete your save (some endings will do this, i think all based on a let's play i watched) and 3. Do it all again from the very beginning (I hate that introductory beginning sequence)

Unless you think it will break your brain I'd recommend at least looking at it if you liked Stanley. And if you are curious about some of the Technical design aspects regarding the save game structure and the hidden easter eggs. Here's a fun forensic guide to what it does