Fear of the Dark Reviews

So, this is not a write-off of this game. Instead, on day one, it's hard to recommend it. It seems like it has potential, and I'll definitely be checking in again after a while. Check out our play of the first half hour or so to get an idea of where we think things could improve, even if it's just pointing us in the right direction: https://youtu.be/R_WFTVkeJT4

[h1]It's far from perfect, but it's a fairly enjoyable start[/h1] https://youtu.be/dJ4dNVvcuV8 I [b]shouldn't[/b] like this game. It features many gameplay mechanics which will frustrate many. The battery life is a cruel joke, you can barely run at all, only hold a measly 3 items at a time, the AI is simple... And yet, I recommend it. Why? I enjoyed finding each new item and trying to figure out where and how it gets used. I quite liked the monster that occasionally pops up and forces you to retreat to safety. The puzzles, though simple, feel fairly rewarding to complete and gaining access to new rooms and new items was exciting throughout. It's certainly a flawed game with a lot that needs changing or tweaking, but ultimately I found it kinda fun. Maybe I'm just a masochist. I hope more areas will be added later.

As said below, this game suffering from jittery camera movement and frame rate drops. Puzzles are quite good, but monster is unforgiving. Stopped playing because of that.

its another "escape room with angry friendo" but i had fun with this one, interesting puzzles too

I played this game on stream after seeing a fairly popular YouTuber play it. Overall, there are quirks. It's not hard to get away from the "monster", the "puzzles" (running around finding random items and trying to figure out where random items go) are fairly easy. I feel almost embarrassed to say, but I spent way too long over thinking some of the things and how to use them and wasted about 20-30 min at the end trying to figure out the last puzzle (which was super frustrating since it was was easier than I thought and I was really overthinking it) For a time killer, the game is good. The graphics are nice, the mechanics are well done. Initially, the game is tense. There is a small overall story that is unique and interesting, but not required to the overall gameplay. The issues I have with it, I hate hate hate, back and forth games like this. What I mean is find an item in one area, need to run to the other side of the map to use it, find item, run to other side of map, rinse and repeat. Some games can drag out gameplay for HOURS and it is super frustrating, especially if you miss something or get lost. This one isn't horrible, but it still has that mechanic that can get dull. I will say, the map isn't very large, so doing this back and forth isn't bad, BUT, there's no real sense of dread and it has no real fear. The monster shows up at random, in random places, which is highly confusing. The AI is pretty dumb, so after a bit you just play around with him. There's no real sense of "survival" I also despise flashlight dying games. This one isn't too bad, but seriously, when have you EVER had a flashlight die within seconds of finding new batteries or being recharged. This aspect to horror games needs to go. This is not a reflection on this developer, per se, but it would be nice to have a game where flashlights are not an issue. Overall, the game is decent. it's a good time killer. The quirks can be tweaked if the dev wants to and the game could be made into something more. I wouldn't mind seeing this game grow. maybe add levels or chapters, etc. But I would like to see more scare out of it. The puzzle part is fairly spot on, not too hard and not too easy, but with no challenge of dying, it's fairly simple to just run around and figure it out. I would still recommend it, I would highly recommend it if the dev works more on it and adds things later on as it is a fairly decent game. But as of now, I say it sits in the middle of the pack and is a fairly worthwhile time killer.

This is just another poorly optimized indie horror game made with the Unity engine. It also has typical Unity related issues such as jittery camera movement and frame rate drops. For example, when you activate the group of televisions in this game, the frame rate drops into the 40s in that area. There is also some strange swirling graphical horizontal line glitching around the edges of the screen. Watch some Youtube playthroughs and look at the edges around the screen to see what I am talking about. There is also no way to manually save the game and if you die a certain number of times or quit playing you must restart the entire game. There are also no graphic settings except for low to high, brightness, and resolution and it takes forever to slowly scroll through all the resolution options because the list repeats the same resolutions numerous times. The flashlight also runs out quickly and you can only sprint for very short distances and are then forced to walk very slowly. I know this game is early access, but I have seen too many instances where the game gets abandoned before being fixed. Overall, I just did not enjoy myself enough in this game to wait on the developer to address numerous issues.