➤ Darkwood, the review for PlayStation 4 🎮

Darkwood is a title that really manages to scare players. This seems like the perfect formula for getting started Darkwood review su PlayStation 4. Very often unknown developers propose horror-themed indie titles, relying on the most famous stereotypes of the genre: they are productions that almost always hit the mark, that is, they intrigue the players and take home some copies sold, beyond the quality. of the product itself. It is more difficult to find a truly valuable independent horror production, a Layers of Fear or any Outlast, so to speak. The arrival of Darkwood on consoles is the demonstration that there is always the exception that can confirm the rule, that quality and originality can continue without problems to guide these specific productions. The very fact that Darkwood after many years also arrives on current generation consoles is significant: we are talking about a title that was proposed in Early Access on Steam in July 2014, to then be released on PC in 2017. These days, in May 2019, that is, after two years, there are still those who are waiting to be able to play it on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, or who are ready to buy it again also on consoles. If the development team made up of complete strangers (Acid Wizard Studio) has managed to obtain sufficient funds for both publication and conversion, if it has managed to create an audience of loyal players, it must mean something.

Plot: hidden in the forest

World fiction, whether oral, written or cinematographic, has always taught us that we must be very careful about woods and forests when the sun goes down: wild beasts live in the woods, you can easily get lost in the woods, perhaps without ever finding the right place. away from home. Type in Google "forest" + "horror" and you will understand how many horror stories owe to these poor trees (but only after sunset) a large part of their luck. Darkwood starts from this stereotype, and then reworks it in an extremely original way, drawing on ideas that now recall the production of Edgar Allan Poe and now that of HP Lovecraft and Stephen King (especially for the unmentionable horror). Few information is provided to the player by the plot, specifically to allow him to identify himself as best as possible in a sick, alienating, corrupt world: he is inside a forest of the Soviet bloc of the 80s, lost somewhere in the north-eastern area of present-day Europe.

From the outset, however, it is clear that the forest protagonist of Darkwood has almost nothing normal, nor that it is a peaceful place. The developers warn the player with a very precise phrase, which precedes the start of a new game: "You are playing a challenging and ruthless game. You will not be helped in any way. Respect the woods. Be patient. Concentrate". And here we are already beginning to understand that playing Darkwood in the evening will not be so easy to sleep peacefully. Yet an evening managed in an optimal way (certainly not with the first game) would be enough to get to the credits of the production, which is not particularly long-lived: part of its effectiveness, moreover, lies in a well-balanced rhythm, which marks the moments of a particularly reticent story. Darkwood he does not say much about events that have concerned and concern his game world: one senses that something terrible has happened in the forest, because it is obviously not a normal forest.

Unmentionable monsters and dark creatures inhabit it, and come out of the vegetation especially at night, a time of day when they are not even afraid to venture inside the buildings in search of any desperate survivors; during the day, however, we must still beware of another myriad of dangers, including angry dogs, traps and strange hooded figures that go around in peace. The Stranger (the protagonist of the adventure) must be able to get out of the woods, preferably unharmed: depending on the choices made by the player in the various chapters (and especially during the nights in the forest) he may or may not succeed. Atmosphere and context alone are enough and advance to justify even more than half of the overall positive judgment that we have assigned to the title: it is an immersive and intense experience, which enjoyed with a nice pair of headphones can really upset the player, in treacherous and subtle way rather than with the usual and stereotyped jumps from the chair (reduced to a minimum).

PlayStation 4 Trophies

Darkwood is a particularly interesting title for trophy hunters, since on PlayStation 4 it has not only a shimmering Platinum, but exclusively silver and gold trophies. Among other things, the developers were particularly good: they did not require you to complete the game necessarily in difficult or nightmare mode. However, it will be necessary to make very specific choices during the main adventure, and then carry it out: our advice is to play a first time without worries, and keep an eye on a special guide for the second game.

Gameplay: Explore, Build, Survive

Darkwood belongs to the genus of survival game: the basic goal is to stay alive as long as possible, night after night, chapter after chapter, until the epilogue. Depending on your abilities, the player can choose between three different levels of difficulty (and no, there is no easy mode): normal, where in the event of death you will lose some of your equipment, but somehow you can still put it back. together with the useful tools in a short time; difficult, with a limited number of lives; nightmare, where there is only one life and therefore death is permanent. Our advice is to start playing in normal mode, complete the adventure, then restart the title by also exploring the areas ignored during the previous game, learning all the secrets and finding the various collectibles. On this second occasion, if you want, you can also raise the bar a little and switch to difficult. We clearly advise against the nightmare mode, for reasons of sanity and common sense, unless you are a lover of the genre and also mastered the roguelike mechanics a bit.

Given the fundamental survival component, the heart of Darkwood is divided between thescouting and crafting; one could also mention and discuss a rudimentary combat system, which is present but also uncomfortable, wearing, cumbersome, clumsy and frustrating. In short, the combat in Darkwood is almost always useless, rely on its rudimentary control systems only if you have no other arrows in your bow and you are about to die in a bloody way. Much more important and much better managed is the exploration, which among enormous advantages in terms of identification thanks to the perspective from above. The protagonist's field of vision therefore coincides with that of the player: it is not possible to look much further than it would actually be possible to do being in a forest, at sunset, armed with a torch. This means that one can never really be sure what is hiding in an abandoned and dilapidated house, or what awaits us beyond the tree at the bottom of the clearing: a sense of distress terrible and perennial, the same that guarantees constant anxiety for the duration of the adventure. The management of the game map is also very interesting, which provides the player with a generic idea of where he is and where he can go, without actually giving him precise reference points (which would guarantee too much stability, even from a psychological point of view).

Exploring, in Darwkood, is essential because the protagonist has practically nothing available that can allow him to survive more than two nights in a row. Immediately there is an urgent need to collect as many objects and materials as possible: wood, mushrooms to cook, nails, but also defused bear traps and gasoline with which to power the generators, thus having a minimum of light available in the house. A fairly full-bodied crafting system allows you to create various types of objects, in turn indispensable for interacting with the game world (small but devious, it is a semi open world) of production: picks, hatchets, wooden planks, and so on. towards more complex mechanisms. Towards sunset it is necessary barricade yourself at home, because that's where the good comes (or rather, the bad comes): monsters attack the house and try to get inside to get rid of it. A well-welded window, a trap placed in the right place, a lure in a dead corner of the house can make the difference between survival and defeat; with each new night the attacks become more and more aggressive. Don't even remotely think about staying out of the house after the sun goes down because ... well, because you could face a fate worse than death.

Comment

Tested version PlayStation 4 Resources4Gaming.com

8.2

Readers (22)

7.9

Your vote

Darkwood is a survival horror that requires a very specific approach from the player: determination, patience, psychological predisposition, lights out and a nice pair of headphones. Its inspired and curated game world will keep you company for several hours: not excessive, but enough to forcefully engrave in your memory memories that will be difficult to forget. The gameplay based on exploration, crafting and night barricades works wonders, and the high level of difficulty of the most demanding game modes will delight all players who demand an uncompromising challenge. The combat system is the least successful aspect of production of all, but it is easily forgiven since the mechanics are not meant to be the main nor the most important; something more could be done instead for the adaptation of the controls from PC to console, and for a not exactly intuitive crafting system. After all, in the woods of Darkwood you will have to deal with something other than these trifles.