Dead of Darkness - Switch Review
"Everything is done extremely well and faithfully to its source"
Dead of Darkness is a 2D pixel art survival horror title from Retrofiction Games, which looks creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, and altogether ooky.
The survival horror genre has significantly moved on in the last couple of decades, preferring more action-oriented titles. This means ‘proper’ old school survival horror, where you’re one gunshot away from potentially soft-locking yourself by running out of the finite ammo at your disposal, feels like a distant memory. Dead of Darkness promises to hark back to the good old days so let's hope they’re right!
The Good
In Dead of Darkness, you play as private investigator Miles Windham, and it begins with him waking up in his grotty apartment while another ‘job’ comes in. He is dispatched to the mysterious Velvet Island, off the coast of England (woop, woop, my home country), where he is to investigate a missing person’s case. You learn as the story progresses that Miles’ own daughter is missing; are Velvet Island and his daughter’s story interlinked? Well, you’ll have to play to find out. Dead of Darkness is also underpinned by full voice acting, which really develops the immersion. Miles slowly descends into madness and it feels like the world is closing in around him; by the end you’re not sure who to trust.
Velvet Island is the perfect setting for the sinister happenings in Dead of Darkness, and you spend most of the time exploring various different mansions, buildings and hospitals across the island. They are all interconnected but each building is its own metroidvania-like space, just like the mansion in Resident Evil 1 or the police station in Resident Evil 2. The pixel-art graphics may look slightly cartoony but make no mistake; Dead of Darkness is scary stuff and the atmosphere and story keep you on the edge of your seat. There’s also a ‘mental health’ element whereby Miles’ mind will deteriorate as well as his physical health. While it is possible to heal his mental health, it means that certain visual tricks start happening on screen when it’s low. If you’ve ever played the classic Eternal Darkness, you’ll know exactly what I mean; sometimes it looks like the game is loading a new screen, or you see demonic faces flashing up for a second. You’re never quite sure what is part of the game and what is happening in Miles’ mind, and it’s frankly terrifying.
In case I haven’t made it clear, Dead of Darkness is basically a 2D version of the first Resident Evil and it’s not ashamed to hark back to its roots. RE1 remains one of my favourite games of all time and Retrofiction Games does a fantastic job of honouring it. Ammo is scarce, the enemies are slow, and the inventory space is limited. It all blends together to create an experience, which means you must be strategic. If there’s an enemy you feel you can run around instead of engage with, then that’s exactly what you should do; ammo is a commodity as valuable as gold in Dead of Darkness. The puzzles in each mansion-type area are also genius; working out which item or key to use in the right place is really fun, and the level design is intricate. It’s incredibly satisfying bringing up the map and working out where to go next and which route to take, especially when you factor in how many health and ammo resources you have left.
TL;DR
- Fantastic story with full voice acting
- Edgy horror atmosphere
- Classic PS1-era survival horror gameplay, perfectly executed
The Bad
Well, this is tricky. I really enjoyed my time with Dead of Darkness so will struggle to find any fault in it. The aforementioned mental health element is ambitious and amazing, but there are one or two of the mind tricks that are slightly frustrating. For example, there’s one where Miles is unable to open any doors for a minute or so and it’s kind of like, ‘OK, I get it. Can we move on?’ But that feels like nitpicking.
It should also be noted that when playing my pre-release review copy of Dead of Darkness there was a game-breaking bug whereby when I picked up a particular key (which is needed to progress), the game would crash every time. In fairness to the publishers, Eastasiasoft, we reached out to give them a heads up and their response was exemplary, and they said it was already known and should be fixed in the release patch. And you know what? That’s completely fair enough; these things happen and the important thing is how you address it. Other than that, Dead of Darkness ran as smooth as glass.
TL;DR
- Some mental health effects are slightly annoying
- Game-breaking bug experienced but fixed
Final Score: 9/10
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and perhaps that’s why I have scored Dead of Darkness so highly. Nothing in Dead of Darkness is particularly flashy, but everything is done extremely well and faithfully to its source.
If you prefer the Resident Evil series from 4 onwards, then this will not be for you, but fans of Resident Evil 1, 2, and maybe even 3 need a piece of this blood-curdling action!
Thank you for checking out our Dead of Darkness Switch review, thank you to Eastasiasoft for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:
- Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
- Bel Cubitt
- Bobby Jack
- Jack Caven
- Nintendo Maniacs
- RedHero