The Darkside Detective

loved this, very cute

Darkside Detective is a fun, point and click, pixel puzzle game. The puzzles are intuitive and range from obvious to slightly challenging; I completed a playthrough without needing to consult a guide for a hint. Lengthwise, it is possible to start and complete the game in one day, however, the developers have the game broken into chapters, which does allow it to be piecemealed.

I can’t quite describe it, but there is something off with the game’s pacing. Each chapter is a short self-contained storyline, resulting in a “choppy” flow to the game. I almost wonder if it would have been better if some of the chapters were cut in favor of longer chapters. Furthermore, some chapters were stronger than others, and those storylines could have been expanded. Considering the game's linear nature and short chapters with small maps, it sometimes feels empty, especially when stalled out while looking for an item.

The overall story, which follows the adventures of Detective McQueen and his sidekick Officer Dooley, is charming. The game’s highlight is how it fleshes out the background of the main and side characters. Information is revealed in fun and unexpected ways. I also like how it tackled a paranormal detective story in a new way. I totally recommend this game, and playing through the “bonus” chapters is a must to get to the true ending; it took me by surprise, and I can’t wait to play the next installment.

Bought this game on sale, had a great time! It was funny and I like the main characters dynamic. Expect for the last bonus case, all the puzzles made sense and I could solve them without looking up a guide. Definitely worth a play!

Dooley, my beloved 💜
10/10 would enable police corruption again

It took me a few cases to really get into the game's sense of humour and personality. Eventually it did wear me down and I had a nice time with it.

This is a decent point and click with very easy puzzles and about 9 cases to solve, which vary in length from 5-10 minutes to over half an hour. I appreciated many of the references to horror literature.

3/5 extradimensional portals

Definitely a game I would recommend to just unwind with some puzzles and comedy!

The art is very pixellated but has a lot of charm. The jokes and references are absolutely hilarious and so worth it. While the cases can be solved fairly quickly, it's definitely a lot more fun exploring everything. Dooley's comments are worth their weight in gold, and the Detective's jokes are dry but great.

Very ordinary point-and-click adventure gameplay - go somewhere, you need a thing, go find a thing, bring it back, maybe combine it with something else. I suppose if you were trying to interest a youngish child in adventure games, better this than the bad old days of trying to figure out the obtuse dream logic of some 90s adventure games. Nothing grabbed me or made me want to play more. If it had actually been funny I would have stuck with it, but it's not funny. I can tell there are attempts at humour, but they're mild, anodyne, and obvious. It's the gameplay and humour equivalent of skim milk.

Cute little retro adventure game. I loved the music and I LOVED the humor. You know how some games try to be funny but just aren't, well this game is funny at almost every level. The dialogue is incredible. It has that witty humor reminiscent of the best games of the early 90's. I love all the dialogue between Dooley and McQueen. Whoever wrote the text of this game deserves and award. The actual gameplay isn't half-bad either, although it often falls into the classic adventure trap (try every item with everything until something works). This game would be like a 6/10 or something if not for the PHENOMENALLY FUNNY dialogue which easily makes it a 8/10.

🔎 Highly Recommended
Hours Played: 8.2 hrs on record
Achievements: 100% Completed

A supernatural buddy-cop noir soaked in pixel dust and puns.

The Darkside Detective is what happens when you mash up a 90s pixel art aesthetic, dry Irish humor, and a love letter to X-Files, and then let it simmer in supernatural absurdity. You play as Detective Francis McQueen, the only cop who cares enough (or is weird enough) to investigate the weird goings-on in Twin Lakes City, a place where ghosts are just part of the civic budget.

The game is structured into short, self-contained cases, each dripping with clever writing and absurd logic. The puzzles are never unfair, the dialogue is razor-sharp, and the tone hits that perfect sweet spot between comedy and creepy. You’ll laugh, then blink at a cryptic line, then laugh again.

McQueen and his partner, Dooley, are an instant classic duo: one’s deadpan and done with life, the other’s just... not quite in it. Their exchanges alone make this game worth playing. But layer in the point-and-click charm, punchy pacing, and subtle lore tying the cases together, and you’ve got a small masterpiece of modern indie storytelling.

🕵️ Why I loved it:
Hilarious writing that never tries too hard
Pixel art style with nostalgic charm and moody palette
Quick, bite-sized cases; perfect for casual or immersive sessions
Clever but accessible puzzles with satisfying logic
A surprisingly tender heart beneath the weird

👻 Minor Shadows in the Dark:
A few jokes might miss depending on your humor tastes
The game is relatively short (but sweet!)
Some puzzles are old-school in logic, but nothing too obscure

If you like your mysteries strange, your humor dry, and your ghosts sarcastic, The Darkside Detective is a case you should absolutely open (and if you liked it, A Fumble in the Dark is waiting with even more weird).

Had some good laughs, love the pop references and the puzzle solving for this game, a good time to have if you like point & click puzzles!

Cringe inducing, sloppy dialogue and extremely dated gameplay

A lovely little pixel art adventure with scenic musical backdrop and colour handling, a ton of joy-sparking homages to other adventure games, and half decent story and puzzles. After the Monkey Island series of games made me think I wouldn't want to go back to non-spoken-narrative adventure games again, this one proved me wrong.

Meh

Uh, I played this game a long time ago.... but I remember liking the humor and puzzles. So, thumbs up!

The Darkside Detective is a point-and-click-em-up packed with humour and puzzles that are both logical and fun, which can't be said for all games in this genre... It follows Detective Francis McQueen and his sidekick, Officer Patrick Dooley, as they solve mysteries in Twin Lakes. Nothing is groundbreaking here, but it is brilliantly written with genuine laugh-out-loud moments, some wild situations and Santa! What more could you ask for?

Fantastic adventure / puzzle game with great humour liberally sprinkled throughout. There's a good joke on every click-point backed up by immersive music. Puzzles not too difficult; highly recommended.

Fun, enjoyable point and click adventure. Dooley is the best!

Short and funny. If you like point and clicks this is a great version of that.

super silly :3

I'm in love. The best. 12/10 I get stuck sometimes and will have to consult a walk through and then the answer is the STUPIDEST and I should have gotten it in the first place. It really humbles you. :) Very good.

I am deeply devoted to this franchise now. It stands up as a neat little point and click puzzle adventure. But the writing is so incredible. The characters are my favourite and a nice little fandom has grown up around them. I love this game

Fun, cute, and well-written. Clever puzzles. This is exactly what you're looking for in this kind of game, and the chapters make it more digestible than usual.

Fun game, it doesn't take itself seriously and it's full of sarcastic and quite original jokes with references to other media. Puzzles are simple but requires some thinking on what to do with certain objects. When in doubt, click on everything, lol

write better

Great point and click that a got giggles out of me many times

I'd give this a 6/10. Whilst it's lighthearted and funny, I'm not really sure who it's aimed at; the humour is clever and witty, but would probably go over the head of most younger players, however the game-play/puzzle solving difficulty seems to be aimed at 10-year-olds. The game designers need to take some inspiration from the likes of Day Of The Tentacle to see what a good combination of humour and game-play looks like. Whilst I appreciate that this is a retro-style game, there's an awful lot of dialogue to read and click through. Perhaps the addition of some voice actors would help? All that said, if you can get it at a deep discount, it's quite a fun game, and I quite like the 1hr-case format.

short story, funny dialogue, interesting interactions. 10/10

It was good! The levels were pretty short and kind of the same but the writing was amazing! I was laughing so hard at Dooley's lines

The Darkside Detective is a brilliant blend of classic point-and-click adventure and quirky humor. With its pixel-art aesthetic, witty dialogue, and engaging supernatural mysteries, the game delivers a nostalgic yet fresh experience. Detective McQueen and Officer Dooley’s hilarious dynamic makes every case a joy to solve. The puzzles are clever but never frustrating, and the eerie yet lighthearted atmosphere keeps you hooked. If you love charming detective stories with a supernatural twist, this game is a must-play!

两个人超级可爱啊啊啊啊啊啊

:D

Funny, well written, with likeable characters. This was a lot of fun to play and then replay to get all the achievements. Definitely recommend.

Nice retro point & click. Maybe a little too easy, but I enjoyed the humour.

I adore this game. It’s so silly and so much fun. Some of the puzzles can take time to figure out but there’s so much fun and so much content. I’ve already recommended it to a bunch of friends and even bought the phone versions just cuz

Lovely point & click adventure. 7.5

Excellent. Not obtuse (except a few bits on the last case), not too long. The game is funny, charming, and it only overstays its welcome once. Again, that's the last case. It's rare to find a game that is so fun, so tight, and then isn't afraid to be over. Great game. Anyone who likes quirky puzzle games will love it.

I can't recall a time I've played a game where nearly every line is a joke and they actually always hit. The Darkside Detective is a wonderful callback to old school point and click adventure games. It's incredibly charming in its humor, presentation, and overall vibe. It fits a bizarre niche that I adore, the combination of detective work, jokes, and the supernatural bundles itself into a great little package. This game is strangely comforting to me and I recommending giving it a shot if it looks intriguing to you.

fun casual easy point and click

A very fun, if quick, adventure game. The dialogue was amusing and the puzzles were fun, not frustrating. This was a perfect chill game!

Great Game with a fun story (or rather fun stories), interesting characters and surprisingly.. despite the humoristic aspects it manages to create a creepy atmosphere.

The only thing that really bothered me is the graphics. Pixel graphics are okay... but this low amount of details and huge pixels are just way to exaggerated and just seem lazy.

I liked the way the game was split up into cases. Some of the puzzles were pretty hard but overall everything was relatively intuitive. Lots of humor, some fun references, and an interesting premise.

I am obsessed with this game. The controls are drag-and-drop to combine or use objects, and click to talk. They work in a way that makes sense, which is great. I like the third-wall breaks and the storylines. The puzzles are difficult without being impossible, and the clues make sense. Great game!

Dooley has ruined me for other men.

It was ok, I guess. Not my type of jokes, they were quite lame. I smiled a few times throught the game tho. Also, there is not much detective and mystery stuff to do, it`s just a fetch quest, nothing noteworthy.

And this game can be completed in four hours or so, i just fell asleep while it was still running.

People who enjoy witty wordplay should buy this game.
However, there's a very experience-breaking bug: when using Chinese language, the game severely lags for several seconds whenever ellipsis (...) appears. Hope this bug can be fixed.

Monkey Island fans rejoice. This is fun for the whole family. Writing is absolutely hilarious

Funny characters and fun puzzles. What's not to like?

I wish I had found this game sooner! I like the humorous and ironic dialogues inside the game lol

I haven't played a point-and-click game in a very long time so it was great to be reintroduced to the genre with a game as charming as this one. None of the puzzles were too difficult or too simple and I really appreciated that. Lots of humor. This duo and their dynamic were a treat to play with (even if McQueen was doing most of the heavy lifting!) Because of the length of the cases, I would recommend buying it at a discounted price, but this game is great and I highly recommend!