Darkwood Reviews
Darkwood is a very unique experience that relies on darkness and silence frequently, causing your own imagination to run wild and fill in the horrific gaps.
Darkwood manages to pull off horror to a truley stunning degree. What minor gameplay annoyances that there are in the game are more than covered for by the exploration and atmosphere.
Darkwood for the Nintendo Switch will certainly scratch the itch of a survival focused gamer. This takes the premise of games like Don't Starve, then takes itself much more seriously and makes it somewhat spookier. The harshness won't appeal to everyone, and the horror themes wear thin before too long, but for the right survivalist, or glutton for punishment, this may be exactly what you were looking for.
Darkwood is a simple but hugely satisfying top-down horror survival game that will have you jumping at shadows.
A gorgeous top down survival horror game, Darkwood will draw you into it's world of evil.
Darkwood is gritty, difficult and scary, and these are just three of the reasons why we liked it: the crafting system is good, the atmosphere is always tense and the sound design is excellent. Don't miss it if you like survival horror games.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Darkwood is one of those games where it's easy to have a mixed opinion on it.
The top-down survival horror also appeared on next-gen consoles, and although it doesn't scare that much, it looks well on PS5. But it is a fun journey.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
With its many surprises, Darkwood is a title with immeasurable depth that will keep horror fans gripped until the very end. An important focus on narrative-driven gameplay kept me hooked and desperate for answers. A horrifying aesthetic with spooky soundscapes plays with our instincts and terrifies the senses. When the title boasted "a horror game without jump-scares", I initially rolled my eyes. Most titles incorporate some kind of jump-scare to get a cheap reaction out of players. Even tastefully done jump-scares feel cheap to me because I'm not actually "scared," I'm just surprised. Darkwood succeeds where many other titles fail. It's a heart-racing experience that any horror fan worth their salt should attempt to survive.
Darkwood tells the story of escaping from a mysterious and scary forest, where darkness and fear are the powers at work, and although it suffers from shortcomings here and there, the atmosphere alone is enough to keep you engaged and take your breath away.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Darkwood is a game with potential, and I certainly hope the developers take any lessons learned from it and return with the killer horror title they’ve come close to creating.
Unfortunately for me Darkwood is unintelligible, and I'm genuinely sad that I wasn't able to appreciate the many merits of a game because I simply had no way of actually making sense of it.
Darkwood is an immersive, atmospheric, and haunting experience I can thoroughly recommend.
Darkwood does so much with its simple top-down perspective that it matches some of the best horror games released this year. It is easy to appreciate the finer details when you methodically explore a captivating wooded area, gather resources, and fend off deadly creatures before the terrifying night arrives.
The atmosphere, the darkness, the eerie soundtrack, and the design of the monsters you encounter are what make Darkwood one of the most memorable survival horror games I've played in recent times.
Despite some unsatisfying gameplay systems, Darkwood can provide legitimate thrills and scares for the horror fans that miss the vibes of such classics as Silent Hill 2 and Pathologic without ever using a jump scare. Whether it is the uniquely grotesque art style or the ever-challenging design of its difficulty, Acid Wizard Studio has proven it understands what ingredients make up a good horror experience and the randomised elements of the game allow a unique narrative every time you play.
Darkwood has an interesting world, a story that can go in different directions depending on your decisions, and a gameplay loop that's exciting at times and tedious at others.
Survival games tend to not be for the impatient or faint at heart as it is, so when you start one up and it literally tells you that it won’t hold your hand it’s hard not to be a bit nervous...
Darkwood is a thrilling survival horror game that delivers a unique experience with its pixel art top-down graphics, great sound design and gameplay in mysterious woods full of danger lurking behind every tree and corner.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Darkwood is a masterpiece of the horror genre and at once accessible to wannabe horror gamers and harrowing to fear junkies.