The Church in the Darkness Reviews
Procedural generation does little to bolster the one-dimensional gameplay and lack of a compelling narrative
There are some intriguing ideas at play here. Decent stealth mechanics and a captivating cultist backdrop will reel you in though there just isn't enough substance to make The Church in the Darkness a lasting, worthwhile experience.
The Church in the Darkness has created a story that makes you question the cult's motives with every playthrough. No game is the same, but even though their are some neat ideas, the technical issues can really hamper your enjoyment.
While interesting on paper, The Church in the Darkness is mostly just a collection of anti-capitalist audio logs blaring over harder-than-it-needs-to-be stealth gameplay. There's no love lost in this place.
In sum, The Church in the Darkness is a highly replayable game with shifting gameplay goals for each playthrough.
While I can't call The Church in the Darkness bad, it's a disappointingly limited experience. Once the excellent setting and the randomization wear off you're left with a clunky top-down stealth game.
Discovering the secrets of the Freedom Town cult, who has power and influence where, as well as the inner workings of the leadership are the best parts of The Church In The Darkness. That combines with excellent stealth gameplay, a dynamic and engaging scenario-based narrative, and some excellent characters with great voice acting to create a memorable and unique experience. An experience that is only held back by a few technical issues and some missing quality of life features.
The Church in the Darkness has some good ideas, but they're not properly realised. Gameplay never ventures out of its basic boundaries, while the narrative doesn't offer up enough variety or compelling subplots to engage with. The Church in the Darkness is competent for a couple of playthroughs, but it's an experience that you'll quickly forget about.
That said, The Church in the Darkness is a smart stealth game that impressively warps to reflect your actions. It lets you get in and break out as you see fit. While failure still feels like failure, success is sweet and varied. Once it gets a hold of you, you may not want to break out, at all.
The Church in the Darkness seems to have an interesting concept, but the reality is that infiltrating a 1970s cult isn't as much fun as it might seem.
The Church in the Darkness tells an engrossing and chilling tale, but it's technical problems will suck you right out of the experience.
"The Church in the Darkness" takes the unsettling approach of realism. It's convincing as a story of a 1970s cult, and Freedom Town is a chilling look inside an isolated cult in the middle of the jungles of South America.
The Church in the Darkness is a thought-provoking experience that should absolutely be on everybody’s to-play list
A challenging, randomised religious infiltrator game.
The Church in the Darkness send you creeping into the heart of the South American jungle to uncover the mysteries of a cult, the lure of their message, and the status of your nephew. Will they welcome you with the love of Jesus or is God the only one in this camp who will have mercy on your wretched soul?
The Church in the Darkness is full of bold narrative topics, but the gameplay and presentation fail to match, making it quite difficult to experience the message.
An interesting idea but mediocre execution. When your game is supposed to be replayed almost 20 times, samey gameplay becomes a major issue.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The Church in the Darkness tries to be different and it is, but it's not always "good different". Gameplay is boring and dull, but the whole atmosphere and story are acceptable and fun at times. Each time that you start the campaign, some things are different, which makes increases replay value. Overall It's not a memorable experience but it's a different one that you can try for its nice atmosohere and story-telling.
Review in Persian | Read full review
The Church in the Darkness has much more value as an idea and as a story creation tool than it has as a game. For people like myself, it’s interesting how the information the game sets as constant from the beginning, but does not reveal to the player, can influence the way a narrative organically develops, and guides the player to adopt different play styles to suit.
The Church in the Darkness is an ambitious game and delivers on its premise almost all the way. It's worth sipping this Kool-Aid.