Darkout is a video game that doesn't quite fit into one genre - platformer, sandbox, action, adventure and yes, indie. Its focal point is directed towards collecting resources, creating objects and exploring. As the title implies, Darkout is dark. Crash landing on the planet Illuna, players attempt to survive in a world long abandoned by humans; a world illuminated only by enemies, plant life and the hope of daylight.
As mentioned, resources are necessary to fully delve into the game. Simply put, Darkout is all about exploring and crafting. For example, use an axe to chop down a tree and collect wood, use the wood to craft floors and walls and use these crafted items to build a shelter for protection and respawning. Exploring and collecting items is not only necessary for shelters but also for crafting weapons needed to defeat annoying enemies. Furthermore, players may run into data logs that reveal a poor story and a few hints on how to progress.
Players literally crash land into the game with the tutorial quickly starting up. As quickly as it begins, it ends. The tutorial is finicky with unclear instructions and an irritating design making the game's mechanics more confusing than they should be. The unhelpful tutorial uses a pop up box wherein players progress by easily clicking next, however, words are blocked by a scrollbar, and navigating the game's environment is made more difficult with sporadic movements and blocked visibility. The tutorial may be just terrible enough to make players give up on any hope of the game being playable.
Once players get through the short tutorial they may be left just as clueless as they were when they began. A true sense of how to move through the game is not immediate and players may have to seek further assistance to feel comfortable with Darkout. Sure, the scenery is nice to look at with neon colors popping out from the black background, but the game's ambience does not make up for its lack of clarity. Darkout’s controls are touchy and aggravating to the point of endangering your keyboard and monitor. Enemy creatures seem to come out of nowhere, blending with the game's glowing shrubbery and making it difficult to use Darkout's mediocre controls.
Freely switching between materials and weapons within the inventory is done easily by scrolling up and down on the mouse or using the keyboards numeric keys, yet, moving items from the inventory to its appropriate location tends to be problematic. Selecting, placing and picking up objects is tedious as they are often unrecognized when appearing to be selected and a series of shift + click actions decides where the object goes, when it so chooses.
Even with a disappointing game, achievements are the easiest way to make it worthwhile; if they work. Numerous achievements in Darkout are easily obtainable, yet somehow players will not unlock them after completing the required task. Not cool for those achievement hunters.
In order to appeal to a larger audience the developers need to improve on the basics; the basics that they are continuing to work on. In fact, Patch 1.2.3. is on its way. With the future update the game's interface will be tweaked with reassigned function keys and a more exaggerated interaction tool. Perhaps this will make for a more enjoyable game that can be understood not just by experienced players.
Darkout is fitting for fans of Minecraft, Don't Starve and Terraria. As the developers say, "Darkout is for those of us who love exploring, tinkering, creating, killing monsters, upgrading tech to utter awesomeness, and generally kicking some a$$! Shadow a$$ in this case!"
Dig, chop, build, kill, dig, build, chop, dig some more. If you are digging Darkout, it is currently on sale with a whopping 15% markdown on Steam.
Megan Bethke, NoobFeed (@XboxBetty)
| Platform(s): | PC |
| Publisher(s): | KISS ltd |
| Developer(s): | Allgraf |
| Genres: | Action, Adventure |
| Themes: | Action |
| Release Date: | 2013-12-04 |
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