While there are many games that feature vampires, there are a surprisingly limited amount where you step into the shoes of a one. Realmforge Studios and Kalypso Media wants to try and change that with their most recent game titled DARK. But the end result is a mediocre stealth game that will leave you frustrated, confused, and disappointed. DARK follows the story of Eric Bane. He used to be a normal person, but he has recently been turned into a vampire. To avoid becoming a ghoul, Bane must find the vampire who changed him, and suck that vampires blood. While the story is rather weak, the problems with this game run way deeper.
As mentioned, DARK is a stealth game. As a vampire you must use the shadows to sneak around highly guarded areas to reach your objectives. The biggest problem with the game is level design. While stealth games don’t hold your hand and guide you through a level, there is usually a path that the player can figure out after studying the map for a minute or two. This is not possible in DARK. Levels seem like they were just thrown together randomly without keeping in mind that players would have to get through these levels.
For a game that has a line showing you where to go, you feel lost quite a bit. It can be hard to tell what is actually going on in a level. At times I found myself just running for the exit when no other option seemed feasible. It would be a problem just sprinting to the exit if the AI in the game was programmed well, but they are not. In one level I ran to the door, and hid behind the corner of a wall. The guards would run up to the door, and turn around. This lasted for a few minutes until the alert meter went to zero, and then the guards went back to normal like nothing happened. There are times where the AI can be incredibly stupid, but the AI can also act like they are the over-powered demons, not you.
The game tries to present itself as Bane being this super powerful vampire, but at times it feels opposite of that. The game does give you powers that you can upgrade over time, increasing your abilities and unlocking new ways to take out guards. To use these powers, you must suck blood out of guards, which is an annoying mechanic in itself. Before upgrading it takes forever to suck the blood of a guard, and you cannot do it inconspicuously. He has to stand straight up, sucking blood loudly. Realmforge could have easily added a way for Bane to be in cover, grab an enemy, and suck his blood all while being silent. Also, enemies must be alive to extract their blood.
I guess in this world once Bane knocks an enemy out, their blood all of a sudden disappears. For a game trying to make you feel like a powerful vampire, it sure does a lot to make you feel powerless. The best power in the game is the Shadow Leap. This allows you to teleport Bane to areas of the map, and you don’t need to feed on blood to recharge it. Even though this was the best thought out power in the game, there are still problems with it. It can be a pretty shoddy mechanic, with it sometimes getting stuck on walls and not moving to where you are looking at. Plus with the terrible camera in the game, it can be hard to get the indicator exactly where you want to jump to. An easy way to fix this would be to pull the camera up when the power is activated, allowing you to precisely choose where you want to teleport to.
There is a heavy focus on stealth in the game, and that is it. If you ever get caught in the middle of a group of guards, you might as well just load up your most recent save. The only “hand-to-hand combat” in the game is you running up to an enemy and pressing a button, incapacitating the guard. You better hope he doesn’t block your one attack though! This game is severely lacking a good combat system; actually having a combat system would be an upgrade over what is present right now. While the game is pretty terrible, I did enjoy the art style. It has a cel-shaded look to it, featuring many dark purples and blues. That part of the game definitely feels vampire like. But that is where the nice visuals end at. The animation is very stiff, which really takes you out of the game. The voice acting in the game is mediocre, but I can’t imagine anyone doing a great job voice acting with how bad the script is in the game.
When I learned about DARK, I was excited. I was hoping that it would be a fun vampire stealth-action game that I would enjoy. But in the end it is just a mess of a game. I don’t know anybody that I could recommend this game to. Vampire fans would be frustrated on how powerless the game makes you feel, and stealth fans would be upset at the poor level design. If you must play this game, I recommend setting the difficulty to easy, and just getting through it as quick as possible. It is a forgettable experience, and you’ll be happy that it is.
Score: 4/10
DARK was developed by Realmforge Studios and published by Kalypso Media for the Xbox 360 and PC on July 3. A copy of the game was provided to us by Kalypso Media for reviewing purposes.
