DARK Reviews

We have rounded up a few more reviews for DARK, Realmforge's attempt at mixing stealth/action with RPG elements. The results were less than fantastic, judging by the critical response to the title.

Polygon, 3/10.
Maybe I would have been better off if I had just quit. The plot never pulled me in or even resolved itself in a suitable manner. The AI never got any smarter. And Eric never felt like a kick-ass creature of the night with mastery of deadly arcane powers. Dark ends how it began: a flaccid non-event, sputtering out before any potential can be realized.

Leviathyn, 5.5/10.
In conclusion (I hate saying that), no matter which way you look at Dark, it's a pretty flawed experience. Honestly I'd still recommend it to the real stealth or vampire fanatic. Although as a stealth fanatic and a vampire appreciator, I can't say I had a great time with it. The decent experience to be had was constantly riddled with bad design choices and control quibbles, leading to madly frustrating hours of retrying long sections countless times. If you feel it'll really satiate a thirst- get Dark. But as a £40/ $60 game, tread carefully.

ZTGD, 5.8/10.
DARK is not a completely bad game, it just really doesn't stand out at all. It has a good amount of problems, but the stealth game play and the RPG elements mixed with the unique powers can make up for some of its shortcomings. It can be very frustrating especially when using only the checkpoints to save. The game is a slow burn, and many players may not want to put the time into it to get all they want out of it. It does take some time to get into, and players cannot play this like an action game. For your money, it's not a completely terrible title for big fans of pure stealth titles. Just don't expect anything amazing.

XClann, 43%.
Dark suffers from what I call, great on paper syndrome, it all looked like a good idea but once put into practice it was just all too much for the developer. Something went wrong here, either lack of funds, time or ability, has put this promising game to the bottom of the play list. Having some elements that show some hope, such as the graphical style and selection of powers, Dark fails on getting to the finish post with any of them. If developers are going to have one main mechanic throughout a game, it had better well be done right, or just don't do it. Dark is another one of those games in 2013 that just hasn't hit the target, and we seem to be seeing an increase in these since the next gen has been announced. It's almost like developers are throwing stuff out the door and giving up on this current gen as a viable option. It pains me to say that Dark is not the answer Vampire fans have been waiting for, nor is it a great stealth game, Dark is an experiment gone wrong and maybe it should have been called Frankenstein.