Darkwood (TBA)
Darkwood is currently in the pre-alpha stage and is being developed by Acid Wizard Studio, three people from Poland who aim to deliver a top down horror game, combined with RPG elements and a randomly generated world making each playthrough unique, Darkwood is developing into a title that should be on everyone’s watch list once it reaches Alpha and Beta phase.
Latest News
– Darkwood is now on Indiegogo http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/darkwood, for funding.
– Acid Wizard Studio has released their Global Game Jam entry, titled Kevin Costner’s Takanka Hunting Simulator 2013, available now to download off their official site.
What We Know
– The game takes place in an alternate reality in an Eastern European country with no recollection of your past besides an orphan child who seems to know something of your past.
– A top down perspective horror game, combining RPG elements, such as perks, abilities and the ability to craft many new items, including gear and obstacles, using items that you collect, while also featuring intense combat as you fight for your survival.
– The game will take place inside your House, with the Forest explorable, which you’ll have to keep in operation, barricaded and working or risk being overwhelmed by the waves of enemies. This takes on a night and day cycle where you’ll have to prepare during the day and survive during the night.
– Every single experience is different, as locations, events and encounters are all random. This ties in with the fact that there will be no holding and a perma death system, though it seems we’ll be able to retrieve some of your progress or items somehow on subsequent playthroughs.
– Barricades have their pros and cons. Such as metallic gates, having little defence but not obscuring vision or the massive metal plates, which you can’t see through but break with less ease.
– The game site encourages players to think, learn and adapt, making puzzles solving or enemy tactics a real possibility.
– The name of four creatures you’ll meet during this game; Wolf, Jumper, Witch and Shadow.
Ongoing Commentary
From what I’ve been able to read up on Darkwood, for information isn’t abundant due to its early stage, it seems that this horror game will try to scare you from a top down perspective. This is an interesting way to interact with horror as normally, horror games want you as close to seeing through your protagonists eyes as possible. Either way this looks interesting as we can see from the pre alpha footage.
It seems there will be a sanity meter of some sort, with an ear and eye icon as well as the famous The Scream painting is used as an icon and will probably spell the end for you if this bar fills up.
This game also has Action and RPG elements and this can be seen during the gameplay as when he opens up his inventory, many collected items show up, making it an RPG inventory as opposed to the classical Horror inventory with two or three items at the most.
The game seems very interactable and one moment halfway through the trailer, a piano starts playing and entering into the room, reveals a boy who displays a crude drawing before the lights go out and we’re plunged into darkness, the music taking on a much more sinister edge.
So while the gameplay ends abruptly, what we can gather is that sound effects in this game will be very important and the use of a top down perspective shouldn’t be a problem, as the darkness of the world and events such as those in the trailer will probably make playing through it as difficult as any good horror game does. It seems that during the gameplay we were introduced to a key element in the game and that is your electrical system. You must keep these functioning or risk the house being plunged into darkness during the night, which I can’t imagine how stressing it must be.
If I have one small complaint is that the Generator when you talk to him, yes an inanimate object is alive, his tone of language seems very different from the tone the game was giving, with swearing and talking bout stupid kid. It seemed a little out of place though I can’t speak on it too much with so little we have yet.
So yes, Darkwood is a game that while it may not be released this year due to the early stages, it is one that when approaching closer to release, Lupo will keep watch.
Gallery
The Official Darkwood website at http://www.darkwoodgame.com
Lupo 