A Glimmer of Hope for Horror and the Genre’s Savior: “Darkwood”

Jumpscares, the crude concept introduced over 80 years ago, has now been feigned in contemporary media. The skewed paradigm that games like Five Nights at Freddy's have abused by flashing a grotesque creature paired with a deafening scream, so far that Steel Wool studios has been able to develop a multi-million grossing copious game franchise, on top of a movie franchise from Blumhouse. The stigma around the cliché has become nothing except a contaminant in the world of horror, an infection in that sense. Darkwood is unique because it doesn't have redundant and copious jumpscares, but also as a game created by people who hate horror, juxtaposing the stereotype of the genre.

Darkwood is the pinnacle of survival horror games with one of the best stories to indulge in. Darkwood takes place in Poland during the ‘80s, set in the confines of an infection-like forest. Utilizing a crude environment, an every-bullet-counts survival experience, and complex item options, the franchise proposes a new vibrant take on the genre as a whole. The creative developers thought of everything, ranging from finding and drinking from a bottle, but at the cost of your cone of vision narrowing. The empty bottle can still be applied later, as throwing it onto the floor creates a glass trap that can deal minimal damage and alert you when enemies have stepped upon it. Options like this are just one of the many, and Darkwood has over 200 items, each fitting this Swiss army knife pallet. 

Top-down gameplay is often a big turn-off for gamers, but this game is different. Darkwood uses a first-person cone of vision that only allows players to see things that they are facing, but restricts their vision from things they are not facing, this can include enemies, loot, story items, and NPCs. But where this top-down restriction stands out is the tension it builds. Seeing a field of trees restricting players’ vision after just hearing an enemy noise leaves the player horrified knowing the enemy could be hiding behind any one of them or, seeing a box move in an area outside of the cone of vision, knowing whatever moved it wasn't the player. Tension in scenarios like these happens horrifically often and feeds into this unique sense of horror the game sets up through your playthrough.

Talking to NPCs in videos and having chunks of dialogue is usually followed by a quick button press to skip the dialogue to continue playing. Albeit if you take the time to read the dialogue of characters and do their side quests, it’ll be like striking oil. The deep and emotion-grabbing characters of Darkwood help immerse the players and better understand the true depravity of living in the forest. Players can freely decide on NPC's tasks or investigate something they’ve talked about, culminating in a uniquely fun side quest. Just like the world of Red Dead Redemption, the side content becomes the game's best feature. Darkwood’s characters are only a single element in a royal flush of amazing features.

Darkwood’s environment is a jam-packed open-world hellscape that distorts and disfigures the perspective of how sandboxes should be in games. With one minute being one second in real time, Darkwood makes each day a mad dash to locations, quests, loot, and characters. The night falling onto your head without the safety of a roof over your head means transforming into a walking corpse; being inside your home during nightfall is a must as quick drainage of your life is forced due to the forest’s relentless enemies. The stress of each night with the time constraints from the day makes everything a watch-the-clock rush of adrenaline unseen in other games. 

Darkwood doesn't make any innovations in the ways it scares the player. It's not a new technique that can be mass produced and copied over and over. It’s a masterful painting with each stroke being a feature that was carefully crafted by the developers to create the best horror game someone can play. Darkwood pulls people in with its entrancing gameplay, a psychedelic trip that leaves you in awe. It thrives off your lack of knowledge and is best played that way. Don't shave away the game's fangs by indulging in the safety of going in with a plan

Grade: B+

Darkwood subverts the genre (sometimes effectively) through innovative techniques, setting it safely aside from the cliches of the horror methodologies in movies and games.

by Drew Berndt

Published December 2nd, 2024

Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue III