A Dark Room ®

This review contains very light spoilers of about the first 20 minutes. I will avoid directly revealing the game's main twist(s), but if you want to experience the game without any kind of indication of what it is about, stop reading. A Dark Room has, as a game, lived several almost independent lives at this point. The original release was released on the web in 2013, then on iOS and Android, then on Switch, and, in 2023, finally on Steam. I've played three versions so far: web, Android, and this one. Not only did I play them because I enjoyed the game, but also because these versions I listed are not exact ports of the original web game! Each has its own little quirks, balance and UI changes, and even changes some of the story from what I can tell. My review will focus on the Steam version, which also has some nice improvements in terms of sound, but the web version is also very much worth playing. In terms of genre and mechanics, A Dark Room is a text-based resource management and adventure game, though I feel like it surpasses those labels as you progress. In terms of genre and feeling, it's a mysterious and dark experience, where you try to survive by maintaining your fire, building huts for other lost souls, and advancing your town's industrial capabilities, all through a very simple interface. On the surface this might sound just like any other resource management game, however, there's nothing quite like this one; the game will make you rethink who you are several times. The story is minimal, but very captivating. This game has two very bold story and design choices that I loved: Firstly, it basically completely avoids exposition and instead tells the story through short conversational snippets and environmental clues, which allows you to build your own picture of the world in your mind. If you pay close attention, you'll discover a lot about the situation you find yourself in; not everything is as innocent as it appears. Secondly, A Dark Room is a masterclass in calculated and incremental reveals. For example, the game's opening sequence is incredibly bold because it starts off with literally one possible action on screen: "light fire". Immediately, it becomes clear that the game cares not for the "classic" approach to game design, but is instead fully ready to tell you its story on its own terms, unburdened by any wider conventions. Anyhow, back to the opening sequence; the game slowly reveals the room you find yourself in; "light fire" is still your only possible action. It builds on this tension in its own slow pace, with the silent forest being revealed a bit after to collect more wood, and so on. And it keeps this going wonderfully! Even when you think you've seen the primary mechanic offered by the builder, you realize something in the forest calls to you, and, in doing so, the game narratively suddenly zooms out from your tiny hut, revealing a wide world to explore. Really a wonderful approach to storytelling. "restless sleep. the voices speak of a compass." The peculiar and minimalist writing style goes incredibly well with the vibe of the game. As I've already mentioned, the game has almost no dialogue; it mostly paraphrases things in short, and, most importantly, missable, chunks. This also means that one of the game's primary twists pertaining to your relationship to the townsfolk can hit you out of nowhere (if you've played the game you know the one I mean). This is a bold choice on the writer's part, and one I just gotta respect. "she whispers 'murderer'. within earshot"

this is something that my bf forced me to play b4 he went to bed so i was a little resentful but it turned out to be wonderful and rn I'm typing while he watches so I'm trying not to mess up

Eh. Gracefully short but not particularly remarkable in any way. Works praxeologically but I just don't find what it's trying to do very interesting. Not a bad experience per se, it invokes the mix of spooky and adventurous that it sets out to, but that's about it. Somehow overstays its 2 hour welcome (at least to me), as the last bit involved a bit of tedious repetition. Probably remarkable for clicker game fans, but that's not a bar that I care about.