Dead of Darkness (Switch)

Eastasiasoft, always looking for unique and fun titles, has decided to take a dive into the world of macabre survival horror with Dead of Darkness, a pseudo-RPG Maker style survival horror that gives Resident Evil on SNES vibes. Is it a successful mission, or is this just a pile of Biohazard? 

Giving Goosebumps

Dead of Darkness stars private detective Miles Windham, a tortured soul who has quite the dramatic backstory, he’s contacted by a doctor who works on the mysterious Velvet Island, offering answers to Miles in regards to his family if he comes, ignoring all the warning signs Miles decides to take the job and takes the one every two day boat over to the Island where absolutely nothing happens and he gets the answers he wants…. 

Instead of that dream scenario Miles is thrust into the mystery of Velvet Island, two warring families and the small addition of the army of the undead that just popped up overnight and decided to turn the island into an all you can eat buffet, it’s a cliche but interesting story that has plenty of twists to keep you engaged, well written characters and some rather choice and dare I say “british” dialogue, certain words and phrases that are rarely heard in games that aren’t either set in ol’ blighty or developed here. 

The plot does venture quickly into cult and is almost Lovecraftian at times making it like the love child of Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark, two of three titles credited with creating the genre, the third I would even suggest was also an inspiration in regards to visuals being Sweet Home but 100% the Resident/Dark vibes are free flowing with this one and as a fan of both I drank it all in. 

All we are missing is tank controls

Dead of Darkness does nail the pacing of a survival horror, running initially at 12 hours and managing to create an outstanding level of tension considering the “limited” tool set used here, it wouldn’t be a long shot to suggest the game may have started life as an RPG Maker game before changing engine but it still manages to keep the tension and horror of it’s PsOne styled kin.

Now, if you have ever played a traditional survival horror, you’ll know exactly what to expect here: limited resources, nerfed combat, and more puzzles than a jumbo book of Sudoku, and I couldn’t have been happier with what Dead of Darkness brought to the table. At the same time, it was a familiar meal of gameplay; sometimes, familiarity is just what you want. Since the genre isn’t quite as abundant as it was back in the PSOne era, it was almost like a palate cleanser. 

You have two health bars, one for your physical and one for your mental the latter feeling slightly like an afterthought as I never had to really deal with that meter throughout my “Normal” playthrough, potentially it’s something that comes into play in one of the several higher difficulties, Combat is your standard fare for the genre, you stick in one place and either fire or swing your weapon at your encroaching enemies, some will take damage from you and some are annoyingly insta-death, the combat does feel a little limper than usual for the genre but it’s not egregious. 

Puzzles are fantastic here with the unique “Clues” system in which you can note several clues from various files you find throughout the game that pulls the bigger puzzles together and also unlocks some you may miss naturally, emphasizing reading those files you’ll find all over the Mansion and its grounds rather than just quickly flicking through and ignoring completely. 

You have limited resources and limited inventory space making it a juggling game of what you take with you at all times, what enemies you kill and what you ignore and if you heal now or wait until you can find some more painkillers, it helps create a tension with the difficulty but also the annoyance if you don’t have the right items and have a trek back to the save room to find the item box, yes we are going that deep with the references, all we are missing is a stray Carnby running around the place with amnesia. 

Horrifically beautiful

The game absolutely eats up the 16-bit pixel art design, and despite this still manages to be genuinely tense and very capable of making you jump. Clock Tower would be proud!. The areas of the Mansion are well designed and the sprite art on the characters is fantastic, the character art isn’t quite as consistent and looks a little too “Clean” compared to the rest of it, almost like it fell out of Corpse Party or something, that aside visually Dead of Darkness absolutely nails the retro horror vibe using a style that isn’t often associated with the genre. 

In terms of music we have some nice ambience going on as you explore, plenty of groans and the like from the undead, loud crashes to catch you slipping and what I wasn’t expecting was the amount of voice acting in this one, it was nicely done with only a slight air of cheese and was a much welcome inclusion. 

The End?

Dead of Darkness is a fantastic homage to a much beloved genre, the solo developer Retrofiction Games clearly is a fan of the classic horror titles and managed to create an endearing and gorgeous love letter while leaning slightly too safely into the genre thus lacking any real originality in the gameplay, still as mentioned previously, sometimes it is refreshing to go back to a favourite meal and Dead of Darkness provides something to eat for all fans of the survival horror genre.