Dark Places

Dark Places
N/A
Metacritic
56
Steam
35.25
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$2.99
Release date
9 April 2019
Steam reviews score
Total
56 (53 votes)

Dark Places is a psychological single-player game set in a surreal world filled with horrific creatures and nightmarish delusions. Solve puzzles and try to survive.

Show detailed description

Dark Places system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows® XP 32/64 or better
  • Processor: Dual core 2.4 GHz processor or better
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 1 GB DX9 Compliant
  • DirectX: Version 9.0
  • Storage: 2 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
  • Additional Notes: Attention: Windows 8 may cause problems
Similar games
Afarid
Afarid

Action, Adventure, Indie, Simulation

xDr: 0.00
SILENT DOOM
SILENT DOOM

Action, Adventure, Indie, Simulation, Early Access

xDr: 0.00
DLC
Show all DLC
Popularity
Reviews
Write a new review
cadabereunion
cadabereunion

Never thought I would play a decent FPS Creator game, but here we are. The stages have nice landmarks and the spacial puzzles are interesting (I actually took out pen and paper for the first time of the year in a game).
The enemies are just reskin versions of FPS packs, but are servisable.

For the price I would recommend, although is too obtuse for me to keep playing.

Dusk
Dusk

Probably the best FPS Creator game in the survival horror genre i have played. For those who are not familiar with this engine, of course, you will not like many aspects and limitations. But personally, this does not prevent me from immersing myself in this beautiful atmosphere of horror.

kutzkutz
kutzkutz

Not a bad puzzle shooter. There are some weird map designs and it kind of reminds me of late 90's dark FPS.. something in the vain of Kingpin. There are a few cool looking monsters and sometimes the furniture on the ceiling reminds me of Silent Hill. My problem is that this game was super easy and has a copious amount of ammo and health scattered around... the ending was also bland..... still not bad for a few bucks!

Midnight77
Midnight77

Liked the first half the most and it seemed like a silent hill type of story at the beginning. The mood and music were good. Once we got to the second half, it became disjointed as the levels started to include random real world locations that just didn't fit with the first. The second half also had a number of random crashes to the desktop when you would load a saved game. I finished it in about 2.5 hours and was glad I played it but liked the first half the best.

liandrion
liandrion

So I originally had no clue this game existed, until I stumbled on CRIMSON METAL on sale and figured I'd give the set of three a go. This is by far my favourite of the bunch.

The combat is pretty bland, and the puzzles are pretty straight forward. But the atmosphere, by the gods, the atmosphere is suffocating. With any horror game with shooter elements, to actually be on edge while playing is something impressive, and Dark Places does it for me.

I'm still not all the way through, so I'll review this review when I'm finished, but first impressions are very positive.

RetardedlyUnoriginal
RetardedlyUnoriginal

Honestly I have a guilty pleasure for these kinda cheesy horror games. its not scary but it dose have this atmosphere to it. Its kinda like watching an old horror movie. It might have been scary to some people, but the cheep effects and makeup just give you this almost nostalgic love for it.

get it on sale or something. I mean it's not over priced for what it is, but some people might still wana save a few bucks on it.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I hate this stupid steam they want to be this super game highjacker but dont have a clue about anything related to the games they sell,I have a problem with getting stuck in the middle of the hallway,when going to where you go through the wall and come back out in the hall and get stuck with nothing blocking you,no help from steam all they know is refund not fix.There should be a law against them to block them from being able to highjack our games,they dont have a clue about fixing anything so they should not be in control of games,never wanted to have to join was never asked if I wanted to join,just had to.Thats just ripoff shit.I dont want a refund just want game fixed.

Dumle
Dumle

Not all that fun. Level consists of box shaped corridors or floating platforms. The weapons are few and not all that fun or interesting and the enemies are stupid and janky. Some will damage your hp by just being near you, for some reason.

I like the idea of having puzzles in the levels but the execution is lacking. The final straw that made me quit the game was running around in a dark maze trying to find a door to escape through. It was not just very fun. As a student/hobby project this seems like a fun game but i would not recommend people paying money for it.

The sound was nice though at times.

xox_luna_xox
xox_luna_xox

Good game until I got stuck and couldn't progress.

Slapso
Slapso

Yeah F*** This

After seeing the trailer this seemed right up my alley, a game brimming with lots of atmosphere and don't get me wrong it has along with fantastic character designs but unfortunately thats where my praise ends. This game... it really does try to test your patience, I got stuck in that bloody maze for aaaaages wondering what I'm doing wrong, exploring every corridor possible to find out some random hole opened in a place I'd been before to then give me a puzzle that didn't make any sense. I actually got annoyed that this game wasted my time.

[UFO]Maade
[UFO]Maade

Third and the newest game in the "Old Blood Bundle". This one I'm not going to finish. The gameplay sucks, the levels are just mazes and as the game tries to be "scary" they are also dark. With no options menu, you can't see anything in some of the levels. The monsters are mostly the same as in Crimson Metal, and this time the soundtrack just sucks. Oh and it also crashes every 15 minutes of so, just like Crimson Metal and Doomed.

Oh and the best thing? The maps are mazes. With no logic. Do not buy this game, as it has no redeeming qualities.. At all..

FadedExcellence
FadedExcellence

There is no instinct or intuition built into the game. You have nothing besides a tiny hint written on a piece paper in a dark room that you can't zoom in on to guide you. And those are rare. Enemies hit you and do a lot of damage when they aren't even near you. [ 20 ft away ] Some of them you can't even see because its too dark even with the lamp. There is no narration only slight audio cues. The game keeps crashing the closer to the end that you get. I don't recommend unless you get it on sale or free.

About4Gamers
About4Gamers

I cant believe people say its too hard or not great!!! THIS IS A AMAZING PUZZLE GAME, I WILL GET PEOPLE TO SEE THE GOLD IN THIS GAME. speedrun history mark my words. i will bring speedrunning to this game and it will go viral
if you want a fun puzzle horror game with styles like serious sam but scary, 10/10

Herr Schnitzel
Herr Schnitzel

Pros:
- The atmosphere is pretty good, reminded me of Cry of Fear and Silent Hill
- Short as hell (you will see why this is a pros)

Cons:
- Horrible gunplay
- Cheap enemies with ranged attacks that will always hit you no matter what, sometimes doesn't even show any animation
- Sometimes turns into a running simulator taking away all of your weapons for no reason
- Maze like levels so it's easy to get lost (probably just to drag on a already short game)
- Puzzles that are litteraly trial and error... (that stupid, stupid teleport thing... why?)
- Boring, just so boring
- Saving the game takes some time (sometimes auto saves a few metres before the next level, probably if the game would randomly crash for no reason which it sometimes actually does.)
- Oh yeah, random crashes...

.......................................................................................................................................

I've never played a game made with the "FPS creator" before this one and after playing this, I understand why...
One enemy in particular is from Resident Evil 4...
I always find some kind of enjoyment from playing "bad" games, but this one is just horrible. From reading other reviews this game was actually free for a time, why charging it for money now I don't honestly understand.

Final: Just play Cry of Fear instead, it's a MUCH better game in every single way and is actually a REAL survival horror experience compared to this... thing!

Muckelchen
Muckelchen

It's bad. Why?
-it's way too dark
-especially the first few levels (but also later here and there) the level design is just maze after maze
-it's often really hard to know where you have to go or what to do, like in one level you have to shoot a few walls so they disappear. I really don't know how you are supposed to discover that
-some bad puzzles and platforming
-it's ugly, still performance is bad
-loading times are huge
-at about every 5th loading screen the game crashs
-steam overlay doesn't work
-there is a strange bug that if you find a weapon you already have there is a chance (I estimate like 50% probability) that you actually get 0 bullets out of it, also the game doesn't give you much ammo, which means before you pick up any, you should save, then pick it up and if the bug occurs, load the save (remember the loading times). This is so stupid.
-also to be able to beat the game you basically have to quick save/load all the time

seanymilk
seanymilk

A dark and creepy game.
Really enjoyed the atmosphere in this one!

Ajaysontangle
Ajaysontangle

Even if you are curious. STAY AWAY

pshlimet
pshlimet

For an abstract horror FPS / puzzle experience, when it's on sale it is an interesting few hours of escapism. Weaknesses are the game engine (FPSC) and controls not being able to be adjusted, the dated visuals, some weak gunplay, and some bugs and crashing. Otherwise it is an otherwordly combination of horror / puzzle solving / FPS action. Some of the ambience and music is very well done, with some atmospheric levels and design. Some say it should be free to play, but for a few dollars it is no big ask. I stumbled upon this and bought it on impulse when it was drastically reduced. Overall, not a bad experience, an interesting attempt from the developers.

JiPx
JiPx

Fun, Scary and all around enjoyable. Only downside is that the enemies have a weird range.. and can often attack trough walls

Commander PP
Commander PP

this game is dog shit nothing else

Hellektronic
Hellektronic

I honestly think this is a pretty good game for the price... it's basically like a horror-themed mod of a 90's FPS game. Do note, you can't configure the key layout, but fortunately there aren't many things that you'll have to be doing other than exploring or shooting monsters.

For example, left shift is run. R is reload. E is use or interact. Movement is either WASD or arrow keys. Crouch is Ctrl. Jump is spacebar. Pretty easy to figure out, but it can be confusing at first. It's also worth noting you pick up lightsources like lamps with right mouse to better see the environment you're exploring, because you don't have a flashlight. It's more complicated a game than you might think, and even if the puzzles seem simple they probably go on for awhile in steps with a lot of memory involved. You'll find health kits, ammo, guns and other oddities around the areas, so explore things well, and try to remember how to get places, because it can get very deliberately maze-like. Some monsters don't have to be touching you or shooting something at you to attack, some just hurt you by pretty much seeing and following you. So if you hear a monster noise, it's something that needs to be dead quickly, hah.

All in all though? It's a cool little first person horror game that I actually don't regret buying. It's a very oldschool engine, and wont blow your pants off in an era of ridiculous graphic games and snappy controls, but for what they were working with? It's very creative and atmospheric. I recommend picking it up if you have a few extra cents laying around, it's an interesting little project.

zeinooo
zeinooo

i played this game it's great !

Foreplay
Foreplay

They played Silent Hill and then downloaded FPS Creator to make a horror/shooter/puzzle/platformer. The absurdity justifies my purchase

lonewolframbo30
lonewolframbo30

I wish I could get past level 1 on Ep 1. Every time I get to level game crashes runtime error 105 file does not exist at line 52853. I tried everything get it to work. I tried ep 2 and work but it felt like I missing a lot the story. I hope DEV patches this issue.

Kurikuo
Kurikuo

Some places are dark, this ones quite shitty.

Kyzka
Kyzka

Those that follow my reviews know that over time I’ve raised 2 pertinent questions…

1) Is it even vaguely possible for anyone to make a GOOD game using the FPSC engine?
2) Is there such a thing as a GOOD maze game?

This is probably the closest example I’ve got to as a resounding ‘yes’ to both questions.

A lot of the negative reviews in all honesty is really aimed at the FPSC engine itself. Its notorious for crashing regardless how skilled the developers programming skills are on up-to-date systems and often gameplay options are severely limited. Never the less, moderators like to often tinker with this archaic 2005 game engine due to its simplistic layout which allows anyone to create a game thanks to its simple drag and drop premise. Because of this reason, Steam has become inundated with such projects from people who simply don’t know how to fix issues thanks to their lack of programming skills. On the other hand, other companies such as Mojiken have welcomed the engine using it as a teaching tool in their computer programming boot camps. Teaching their staff, the value of their current engines by using archaic ones and the thankful avoidance of vexing time needed to troubleshoot thereafter when using such an archaic programme.

Dark places (2019) was created by Madbox Entertainment, which is really Bloody Pixel, who by circumstantial evidence appears to be a single Russian Indie Dev named Andrij Matskevych. Make no mistake about it, you would have to be blind not to see that a LOT of work and Love has gone into this product. Essentially, it’s a game consisting mostly of mazes and the need to traverse them while avoiding pre made or bought asset pack NPC’s. Those who are quick to criticise I implore you to try and make a game half as decent as this yourself using the fpsc, then it should become clear in no time the amount of man hours that went into this.

It became quickly evident to me that not only does this guy actually know how to programme due to meshing factors from other mods into this one, but he has even fixed a number of core issues with the fpsc engine itself by doing so. Never the less, no matter how skilled you are, this programme will always maintain a crash experience for nearly every gamer, hence I can only surmise that his time spent with this programme is only to challenge himself as a programmer.

The developer has tried to dish up something that he himself cherishes and that is a ‘Doom’ old school like experience. The story is a bit of a let down for me personally as in all honesty I’m no more informed after playing this game than I was before I even started. Apparently, you’re a demon hunter and in the end, you hunt the demon and lock him up in your own mind. This makes zero sense to me. Common-sense alone dictates demons are much more powerful than humans and locking them up in your own mind through self-willed determination is no real guarantee. Overall, I chalk the experience to a spread-out number of mazes, fashioned from the premade asset packs and an unsubstantial supernatural silly shenanigan story fitted to blend in all the mazes to suit. This is nothing new and pretty much every single indie Russian Dev has gone down this yawnful path.

There are a couple things I really like here though too. The sound and music department is rich in adding atmosphere especially the levels where you have to find keys to unlock memories that you have caged up. While this is a basic explanation to explain the common push button or collect key mechanic, we often get in Indie games, it’s a reasonable explanation regardless of its basic premise.

One thing that will help you, if you choose to venture forward which I wish I knew before entering into this title was 1) You can pick up lanterns by right clicking, but you can’t hold a gun and a lantern at the same time, you must choose one or the other. 2) You can move cupboards, stack corpses and boxes by right clicking too. 3) while the game has a pretty good automatic save system it does pay to save your game manually too after you finish a level.

So, in final, a formidable amount of work went into this, the original musical score dresses this up way more than it should for a fpsc game, like putting a tuxedo on a corpse. Waste of a good tuxedo. The lack of clarification was a big issue for me personally in the story and some people may become unnecessarily vexed due to lack of proper in game instructions. Nevertheless, its one of the best examples I’ve seen to date of what one can do with the fpsc engine and the game will take you around an hour to complete giving your profile an extra 9 achievements to clothe itself with, which ALL unlock.

Complete Game Below…

https://youtu.be/TtZf5lT4CJw

https://youtu.be/Elki4dZ2Imo

https://youtu.be/OE1YbjL-eZo

If you enjoyed reading this review, feel free to subscribe to my curator page. Thanks...

http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6843548/

[G]Manlove
[G]Manlove

Same shit as Doomed and Crimson Metal games. Bugs, crashes and more crashes and the classic no options whatsoever. But new groundbreaking innovation! Physics puzzles in a game where physics are absolute awful and jumping frequently causes you to glitch trough walls and map boundaries. Why am I torturing myself playing this?

Raven800
Raven800

jesus, this game couldn't even make it past the loading screen. Doomed, Crimson Metal and now this. all these games have horrible FOVs, long loading screens and really bad controls and mechanics and no options menu to edit any settings what so ever...

i'm sure a lot of time and effort went into making these games but holy hell these games don't seem to run or function well... can't recommend at all...

Duke
Duke

Without a doubt this is the best horror FPSC game i have ever played, but if you understand the limitations with which this game was made, you will appreciate the work. Well done!

Pimpstyle9008
Pimpstyle9008

Dark Places is a psychological horror game that involves puzzles, shooting, and complex platforms that turn into mazes. The storyline is difficult to understand initially, but more details unfold about the current events as you progress. There are three different types of weapons in this game: pistol, sub-machine gun, and shotgun. Although the game is simple in its mechanics and style, there are a few bugs or glitches you will encounter. Some of these are annoying enough to cause death, requiring you to reload a previous save. The save states are in significant positions, but with the game crashing at random times or freezing during loading (rarely during playthrough), it forces you to save more often. The monsters are somewhat horrifying, but they can attack around corners, and the path the artificial intelligence maps is quite horrible since they can get stuck in the corners. The graphics are prestige in terms of nostalgia in the early 2000s type of games. Overall, my playthrough was relatively easy, with a few parts of the game that required more than one try, such as the boss battle and a few puzzles that I accidentally died. My rating of this game is a 6.5/10 based on length, difficulty, puzzles, notes, weapons, monsters, and especially lighting. Some parts of the levels were extremely dark, and navigating some paths required bringing a lantern.