Darkwood

I'll be honest - that was hard.
The most important resource in the game is time. It took me 50 in-game days to finish it. Even then, I skipped some parts, didn't solve some quests, and big chunk of the game is not understood by me.
Is it a good game? Yes. While it lacks the usability features you may be accustomed to, it makes up for it in atmosphere and sound design.
It does not hold your hand - the in-game screen even says so. Some moments may be frustrating because of this. But I think the trade-off is worth it. After all, imagine yourself in a forest, not remembering anything. Will you be able to magically know where to get the keys, or where to go?

across the switch pc and mostly ps4, and 5 versions of this game i think i have about 150-ish hours, its by far one of, if not the best survival horror game i have ever played. 100% recommend even to non horror players. im not explaining anything, please just buy the game, you wont regret it.

É o jogo de maior terror que já joguei. Não tem sustos baratos como Outlast, mas o terror está na ambientação.

Best horror game I've ever played. Completed it two times with different story choices and endings. It's very lenghty and has A LOT of content for an indie game.

Gameplay, atmosphere, artstyle, music, sound design, environment, plot - everything is done on a highest level with love and soul. This game doesn't have jumpscares, but the horror techniques it uses are WAY more terrifying than jumpscares, even for me who doesn't get scared in most horror games. I recommend everyone to play this game, it's one of least games that are actually 10/10

By far the most depressing game i've played in some time. No friendly faces, no answers to your questions, no safety past sundown, you are going to be a miserable little pile of straw until you find a way out, though every new item, or upgrade, or scrap of progress is hard earned and feels great. Buy if you like going through hell to get the feeling of accomplishment that comes at the end.

Atmospheric horror experience. I barely see games without all these fancy graphics but with rather rich gameplay, and this is the one. Awecome game. Definitely worth replaying.

The gameplay is really neat and the horror and art direction is simply unmatched from any titles I've played before.

Solid game all in all.

This has got to be one of my favorite games of all time. It is truly unique and a great gaming experience. The ambiance combined with the game play can really be quite unnerving at times. Your choices matter and the game saves at all the right moments to prevent you from changing your mind as well as if and when you die giving this game a great element of challenge. They have made the game easier which i'm a little saddened by but it's still worth playing and given the multiple endings, slight map changes and multiple decisions you can make it's worth playing more than once. I have yet to find another game quite like it.

WOOOOOW THIS GAME IS AMAZIIIING. I really love the concept of this game. Still waiting for the prequel/sequel

A very unique experience indeed. I mean this in a positive sense. The game really doesn't hold your hand and it could probably be seen as tedious from time to time; However I believe this game to be worth it 100%. The environment, story and characters are top notch. There are some moments though that if you don't make the right decisions you'll be pretty screwed, especially near the end. SO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION. Other than that I feel this game is something that should be experienced. As all games I play, I immerse myself in the world I'm playing in. This game pulls you in itself and it does it well. Be patient with your decisions and keep moving forward. The people who made this game put passion and soul into this and to me that is what it takes to be great. Which this is lol.

I'm gonna start this by saying I was reluctant to try this game because of the top-down perspective. I don't typically play games like this, and I was unsure whether or not it was going to be able to bring the same tension that a fpp/tpp horror game usually does.
I was wrong in every way. The top-down perspective adds to the horror in a very unique way and is complimented by the AMAZING and intricate sound design. There is no need for cheap jumpscares when the games atmosphere, story, enemies, and risk of dying (to either lose half of your gear or even possibly your whole save) will have you terrified in a corner with a lamp with 4 bear traps set around it rapidly moving your mouse around because you hear rustling outside in more than 4 directions.
One of the first bits of text you get to read when you start a new game says a lot about the game's difficulty. “You are playing a challenging and unforgiving game.” “You will not be led by the hand.” “Respect the woods. Be patient. Focus.” Every single one of those bits of advice are true and vital. This game is EXTREMELY hard even on normal difficulty. There is no text objective at the bottom of the screen with a corresponding yellow gta line to tell you where you need to go. You have to explore and find that for yourself in the most oppressive environments you can think of while worrying about what all can kill you in your general vicinity. (which is a lot)
This was for sure one of the best horror games I've ever played. The story is cryptic and not everything is explained outright, but the answers are there. I think that works really well for the game's atmosphere/rng mechanics and the world that it builds around that story, because with proper knowledge you COULD get a different outcome on a second playthrough and learn more about the story.
In conclusion, I think Darkwood was one of the most terrifying and immersive horror games I've ever seen and I don't think anything else like it could replicate what it does. It's most definitely worth the $15 price point. The game has plenty of content, huge maps with randomized locations for key events in diff runs, choices and diff paths for replay-ability. It's also just a decently long game that takes a while to complete, even if you take the easiest routes and skip out on content. If you like immersive survival horror, I would say just try it and I promise you won't be disappointed. If the intro doesn't intrigue you enough to keep playing it you can always refund the game within the 2 hour grace period.

very scary, very atmospheric, very good

This game is great. The perspective can be a bit hard to understand sometimes but for the most part it works. You really grow with this game. You start off cowering in a corner but after some time you realize you are safer outside of the house altogether.

This game is super fun. mysterious and weird story, setting, characters. Gameplay is amazing, I haven't felt legitmately scared to explore in a game ever, but this game does it. I'd recommend people to play this blind, as that's what I'm doing and figuring out things about the game myself has been way more fun than if I had already known certain tips and tricks about how to survive. For the $5 this game often goes on sale for it is insanely good value for money, and I'd reccommend anyone to buy this. Before playing it, I didn't like survival horror games, and I've always enjoyed 3D first person games a lot more than top-down, but this game does both of these things perfectly in a way that even I enjoy.

Excellent game, great story, even better horror elements. 10/10 worth it

>litterally the menace of Poland
>Full Wolfman route
>Murder every non-important NPC's
>Shovel on low durability
>Craft a nailed board to go to the pig shed (forgot to loot a chest there)
>Die to a pig (easiest "enemy" in the fucking game, like 1 hp and 1 damage NOT EVEN AGGRESIVE)
Absolute 10/10 (Also pissed myself when I got to the bridge)

This is my favorite horror game.

The element of horror is in the ambiance of the game and in the creatures and environnement.
The survival aspect is well balanced for new players, and the story branches are well crafted and intriguing.

I highly recommend, even to people who have trouble with horror games

I love how it's top-down, while not exclusively the most different idea, the way they execute it is perfect.

One of the greatest and most immersive horror experiences that I believe any "horror game" worth their salt should have played. Can not recommend enough.

Darkwood combines unique line-of-sight mechanics along with well-crafted grotesque horror ambience to create an incredible, unnerving gameplay experience. At least for the first few hours.

I'll start with the pros: Darkwood really nailed the dark atmosphere and unsettling world building, which was such a treat for an indie horror game fan like myself. Nearly all of its set pieces were immaculately done, with every minute laced with tension or horrific scenes. But as much as these highs were high, the gameplay experience was marred with considerably low lows.

Cons: I really wanted to love this game, but I can't say that I do. This is largely due to the fact that, with no exaggeration, about 80% of my time was spent walking back and forth from my hideout to whatever point of interest I was looting. I understand that inventory management can be an integral part to creating the feeling of scarcity and important decision making, but the amount of loot that is available to plunder far exceeds the tiny inventory space that we are allotted, even with maximum bag and hotbar upgrades. Not to mention, the vast majority of this loot actually ends up being junk that the player never uses, not to the player's knowledge, however, until much later in the game. Because resources are introduced as expendable, the player is incentivized to hoard as many supplies as they are able to store in their hideout in the case that it will be needed later, which is a complete mystery, but I know that many players are like myself and would rather prepare for the worst. And so, the game quickly becomes a walking simulator for carrying junk supplies back and forth, completely watering down the entire experience. The best parts of the game come from exploring new areas and seeing more of the world, but this is hampered when, within just a few minutes of entering a new location, your inventory is completely filled and you have to trek all the way back to your hideout and repeat the process numerous times per location. I can concede that this problem quickly becomes irrelevant if the player is able to determine early on what is junk and what isn't, but going into a game blind like this that prides itself on not holding the players' hands, players are compelled to be stingy with their resources when there is so little information to go off of. By the time I decided that I was just going to leave supplies lying around, the game has already become such a slog that I just wanted to rush to complete it.

Another gripe I had was with how little agency I felt I had during the night cycles. The first few nights were fine, when the experience was still new and I just cowered in the corner of my hideout, 2x4 with nails in hand, praying that the noises of nearby monsters would fade away. But, especially after becoming comfortable with combat and enemy attack patterns, the waiting for 5 minutes every night quickly became old and just another timesink keeping me from enjoying the better parts of the game.

In conclusion, I think Darkwood had an impressive vision for itself, and it was one that I was really excited for going into it. But it faces some very glaring issues that I can't bring myself to ignore, despite the parts of the game that were amazing. I would still recommend it to people that are avid horror game enjoyers, but only if I were able to warn them of the ways in which the game fell short.

I think i need to give it another shot, but while i was playing it my only thought was "I wish I was playing project zomboid instead".

That said, an hour isn't much to sink into a game like this, so I'll try again and likely update my review. It is still a recommend, just wait for a sale, and maybe try pz.

I have never rage quit a game as many times as I have rage quit this one. I have gotten so mad at this game, that I have repeatedly deleted save files after make choices whose consquences were so profound that they made me loose it. I have actively slammed my hands into the wood of my gaming desk as I try not to scream at 2 Am because I don't wake up the other occupants of the house in my fury as I once more lose and have only myself to blame because the truth is that yes, the controls are fair and balanced and I just died because I fumbled it.

Ten out of ten game - I will beat this game if it kills me.

''This game is incredible for not entirely relying on the fear of the unknown. Pretty much everything can be explained for why its happening but regardless of knowledge every night feels like a fight for your life. The ambience and suspense you can feel at night rarely changes, but your knowledge does increase. You go from hiding in a corner in the Dry Meadow to roaming the hall with a shotgun, a pistol, and a shovel ready to fight for your life while being on the verge of pis*ing your pants. Moral of the story: Face your fears, respect the woods, be patient, focus.''

This is basically a horror survival, I suggest that you open the wolf chest immediately to get guns. The code will be in save.data in your C: folder.

Then you just need to buy ammo from the trader, by surviving one night in meadow.

After 2 years I finally finish the game, the only reason why it took me too long to finish the game, is because of my fear. I always got jumped by all the monsters, until someone showed me how to do combat properly. Thanks Kay! I finished this game for you.

For a top down game, this was exceptional. The sound design is perfect.

Sadly I didn't have it in me to finish the game. The second chapter felt unnecessarily tacked on, exhausting to play and tedious.

The story is somewhat comparative to "The Evil Within", in that its very very vague and convoluted, so I felt aimless at times, and struggled to keep any interest in continuing the gameplay cycle, after Day 48.

For such a low price, I definitely recommend it though. Experiencing most of the first chapter is worth it.

L'atmosphère est incroyable. Très bon jeux. Visuellement, il n'a l'air de rien. Mais c'est très efficace.
Ce n'est clairement pas pour tous. C'est un jeu qui est assez difficile d'approche mais qui récompense par une histoire et un univers plein d'intrigues.

Its a good game but ive been put off from playing for abit because after my ninth night this toxic growth spawned where the trader would and i burned it thinking he wouldnt get hurt because why would you make the main trader killable then he died because of course and i decided to restart from scratch thinking it would be same but no the location of everything is randomly generated

This game is absolutely perfect—everything from the story and characters to the art style. I love it so much and play it all the time!

insanely cool game a MUST play for both horror and survival enjoyers

Darkwood is an extremely good and rewarding game. There's plenty of survival games out there but nothing quite like Darkwood, nothing that really has the same atmosphere and unique story.

greatest survival horror I have ever played. trust. just play it.

I can say that the game is indeed Dark and has a lot of Wood in it. Infact I'd say it has so much Darkness and Wood that someone can make a nearly 9 hour long video about it!

This is a really great survival horror, the atmosphere is absolutely on point and it can be really quite haunting.
Absolutely recommend this game, certainly an experience worth playing.

especially since its so cheap

Pirated it at first. The developers themselves share a torrent link with the full game for free. Now that my financial situation got better I decided to buy the game to show my support. Great game and great developers. Cheers.

A fantastic game, not too hard to 100% either. The perspective and setting are both refreshing for survival horror, and it's a tragedy this Polish studio shut down. Darkwood does that incredible thing of not actually being all that hard, but being so tense and unsettling that you constantly feel on edge, and each little victory feels so relieving.

There are missable achievements, and a minimum of two playthroughs is required, but honestly, the game isn't THAT long, especially if you know what you're doing. There isn't much hand-holding, and the clues for what to do next can be pretty vague so don't be afraid to explore/look things up.
Hint: for the first chest right near your first base, the code is 2919

Super cool and creepy game. I watched Markipiler play this and didn't realize how much has been added to this game since then and it is longer than I thought. Not a bad thing. I enjoy game play and I will play for hours with out realizing the time passed.

Overall OK but way too long for what it provides.

On one hand you have a great mood, nice vision mechanic, interesting shooting mechanics and a really fitting survival part (in the first chapter at least). First 15ish nights are really interesting and scary-fun to experience. Polish style from under the Soviet boot was a nice addition for me. Graphics, music, pace were tied nicely together here.

On the other hand the game really gets stuck after chapter one. Chapter two immediately felt like a filler. Nothing really changed in the game and all mechanics were overplayed at this point. I’ve already had enough and they served me another big dish of the same. And the game's story just doesn't draw you in enough.

The story is extremely vague and the game is not giving you any hints really. You have no idea what is going on for the whole game. The moments of choices are also really obscured. I had no idea that I had a choice here and there when I made it. Not a big problem but a sign of a bad design.

Overall I liked playing this game and I liked the mood. I might even finish it… but I doubt that. I’m in the middle of Chapter two and I’m not really interested enough to muscle through it.

As less then 9% have finished it - discout only - you will probably like it and never finish it as well.

It took me a couple tries to get going but once I did I was hooked. The game does not explain itself easily so you need to intuit some of what you do, figure the rest out by trial and error. Once you embrace the mechanics, the tension will grip you. Can you switch out weapons fast enough? Can you outrun it? Will it break your barricades? What even was that? I cannot recommend this game enough to fans of survival horror games. I am astonished to see that this studio does not have more titles for sale here. I would gladly welcome more from them.

Very hard but also rewarding, one of the best horror game I've ever played, made me shit my pants a few times

im still in the first chapter of the game and from what ive heard i know this game gets better with time, i had heard reviews and people talking about it but HOLY FUCK i was not ready for this
the tension and atmosphere it creates is amazing and i cant really compare it to anything else ive ever played, i was on the edge of my seat every second of my playthrough (and i still will be as i progress, the silent forest TERRIFIES ME tho and i am not going there without a gun) its just incredible, do yourself a favor and play this game

>"Overwhelmingly positive" reviews
>less than 9% of players have completed the first chapter

This has to stop


Let me get this out of the way, Darkwood is good. The atmosphere and art design do a lot of the heavy lifting; in fact I would say as far as atmosphere goes this is one of the all-time greatest. Few games since I first played Silent Hill 2 way back in the day have left such an impression on me as Darkwood. Thick, cloying, oppressive, somewhere between walking through a muggy forest at night and exploring a dead relative's dust-shrouded attic. I heard somewhere that one of the key uses of horror is to take the familiar and put it in an unfamiliar context. Darkwood takes that concept and runs with it. It's a choking world of decay and transformation. The backdrop of the decomposing soviet-era eastern european wilderness feels appropriately desperate and despairing.

Mechanically is where I start to notice a few cracks in the foundation. The movement is slow, some might call it sluggish, but I think it's more contemplative. Isometric games don't need to be snappy and quick, and the slow, deliberate movements lend well to the horror atmosphere. And ideally it's not required to make quick movements; combat is initially discouraged. Use stealth, traps, and caution to avoid confrontations with enemies, combat is a desperate last resort. In Chapter 1 this serves you well, except for near the end. Not to say the controls are bad, they're perfectly fine. Even on gamepad I had no trouble with the controls, and this is a great play on a steam deck (I highly recommend headphones).

The menus are a bit messy but functional. The lack of an auto-sort feature for containers doesn't seem like anything more than an irritating oversight. Progression feels lackluster, as the abilities you get are very situational. I made limited use of them and felt the drawbacks may have outweighed the benefits, barring one or two borderline mandatory abilities. Progression in general feels a bit half-baked. But all in all these mechanics all work together fairly well.

Unfortunately the game's mechanics start to frustrate the gameplay near the end of the first chapter and for most of the second chapter. Combat becomes a lot more frequent, and however much the game tries to discourage you from gun play, on normal difficulty that's what I felt driven to. Enemy encounters were no longer frightening, more just hurdles that I had to overcome as large groups of enemies were constantly blocking the path to my objectives, enemies that I couldn't outrun or out-fox. Defending during the night seemed like a waste of resources as the price of dying during the night was basically nothing other than missing out on some reputation with traders which is easily recouped in other ways. By the time you reach chapter 2 it seems that combat is borderline mandatory and defense is pointless due to the nature of some enemies and their ability to bypass defenses. By night 30 I had had my fill of the fun, tense, desperate nocturnal hold-outs and it was just easier to die and pass the night at no cost.

There's another frustrating thing that I really didn't want to be a problem but unfortunately reared its head a few too many times. It's weird to see a game's art direction and design at odds with its mechanics. The ground is so alien and strange a lot of times there's this wonderful nightmarish feeling of "what the hell am I walking on" that just feels so good early on, adding to the unease. Unfortunately later they start to populate the ground with lots of traps and hazards and due to the visual appearance of where you're walking it can be almost impossible sometimes to determine if you're walking onto a trap or just a weird looking surface like anywhere else on the map. This distinction is virtually impossible while you're fleeing for your life from horrible nightmare monsters through a poorly lit swamp.

This problem also presents itself when you're unsure if what you're trying to walk through is decoration you can walk on top of or a barrier. There's a lot of this with tree roots and debris; sometimes you can walk on top of it just fine, othertimes it's a wall that blocks you. Again, when you're trying to run from a monster and suddenly you can't move through something that looks identical to a hundred other places you have been able to move across, it feels cheap. Like the game is cheating. It takes you out of it. It reminds me of playing Rain World and running into a similar issue where a lot of attention was paid to the visual design, but when demands are put on the player under pressure it's not entirely clear what is in the foreground and background and what is actually a platform you can jump onto. Nothing kills atmosphere for me like some eye-rolling gameplay design that results in my death and feels totally out of my power. This happened enough times that it frustrated my second chapter playthrough and I was pretty eager for the game's conclusion.

This isn't to say it's a bad game at all. But don't expect a perfectly smooth experience. This was made with a small team; I feel if it had had any more cooks in the kitchen it might have spoiled how cohesive everything feels. It's more that I want to get my thoughts down so I can articulate them for myself and process the conflicted feelings I have about an otherwise spectacular game. This is a game that took a few attempts for me to play all the way through and I always kind of wondered why since I remembered it being fairly good and the atmosphere being unforgettable. It wasn't until I started experiencing some of the... challenges with game's mechanics that I was like "oh yeah now I remember why I stopped playing last time".

This is like that artsy foreign film you really like. To you it's great. But it can be hard to recommend to everyone. I stand by Darkwood, mutant warts and all, as one of the greatest indie horror titles ever, especially in this hellscape of derivative mascot horror and jumpscare streamer-bait. It's one of those games that sticks with you long after you've put it down.

Acid Wizard really made one of the greatest games of all time, realized making video games sucks, and then called it quits. Real ones, 10/10

This game is an absolute masterpiece! Darkwood is by far my favorite horror game of all time and you can tell that this game was crafted with love from it's developers. It manages to scare the life out of you without using jump scares, which imo is very impressive and difficult to pull off, especially in a top-down horror game. The story is very immersive and stresses the fact that your actions have consequences. (RIP Musician) like the game's introduction states, it won't guide you by the hand. This game is very difficult and even on my fifth playthrough, (I also bought this game on the PS4) I still died a few times. I do wish though, that you could at least retry the final dreamscene to get the radio tower ending, as I have yet to beat it. However, This game is worth every penny and I would HIGHLY recommend checking it out.

This game is amazing,

Gameplay footage or screenshots don’t do it justice
you have to play it yourself to truly experience the unsettling feeling it gives you.

Going in blind is the best way to play.
There’s no handholding; the game throws you right into the middle of everything,
and you have to figure it out on your own.
Despite this, the difficulty progresses naturally.
It gives you time to get used to the enemies and mechanics and never feels unfair.

Everything is just "raw" for lack of a better word and pulls no punches,
it’s hard to explain exactly what makes this game so good.

I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t played it yet.
If you’re unsure, just try it!
(you can always refund it within 2 hours)

Unique, terrifying - really intelligent game design and mechanics. Theres nothing i can say that a youtuber hasn't said better. 100% recommend i wish there were more experiences like this. For me this really set the standard.

Super immersive and tense, puts the "survival" back into survival horror. Getting used to the controls and perspective can seem daunting at first, but it's actually set up in a very simple and intuitive way, so you'll be in full control as you cower in the corner of your hovel while things bang down your door.

Darkwood (or The Shrompening, as I sometimes call it) is one of the best horror experiences currently available.

Go on, play it. You can always refund it if you don't like the gameplay. The less you know going in the better. Embrace the shromp.

The core gameplay loop is rewarding. There is a ton of environmental storytelling. The stories and characters you interact with are deeper than they first seem. Everything from the sound design to the artwork comes together to create a very immersive experience that is greater than it's parts. You are not the main character, the forest is.

I bought this back when it was not even finished. I wanted to support it's development. The reasons it took me until last year to finally play it are not related to the game itself, and I won't go into them. Why bring it up? Because I regret I didn't play it long ago.

I love Darkwood to bits, and I want more. In and of itself its a very cohesive whole, and does not necessarily need a sequel, especially since you can only discover the harrowing truth of the ending once. Still, there is a lot more potential for stories that could be told in the same setting.
What I'd really love to see is more games with similar style and gameplay, with their own worlds and terrors. Unfortunately as of writing, I have found nothing else.

This game took me a while to start, as it didn't really have anything to draw me in. I love horror games, but was skeptical of the top down game play. That being said, they made it work. The lack of vision helps give a sense of helplessness, and the sound design complements it perfectly. While you often can't see much, you are able to hear in order to make up for it. It essentially allows you to locate enemies without ever seeing them, which adds to the tension. I love/hate running into new enemies, where I have no idea how they are about to kill me.

That all being said, this might not be the game for everyone, but I definitely recommend giving it a try.

An indie survival horror with brilliantly executed themes, subtle and
unique storytelling, and simple satisfying game play that keeps you
engaged and intrigued.

Highly recommended for fans of horror genre or stylistic indie games.

A amazing top down horror survival game. Difficulty wise, the game is reliant on the horror factor to dull your skill a bit which is why it can be super hardcore. If not afraid at all will not be as hard for you, but won't be easy since alot of the mechanics are unique. Sound design and character vision both are done beautifully to instill fear. Map generation and resources are always very balanced especially with the traders. Enemies are very fun to fight and have clear counterplay. The different hideouts gives diversity to the defense at night and the last hideouts layout is very well designed. Just like the gameplay, the story doesn't hold your hand and has fun distinct paths. Anything your confused on use the wiki, but for first playthrough try not to if able besides this if you want it code to Dry Meadows Crate is 2919 was content meant for indiegogo given through email so use it without feeling bad