The Church in the Darkness Reviews
There was a lot more to The Church in the Darkness, but it needed a little more time in the oven. If it’s possible to polish up some of the gameplay down the line, there could be a memorable experience to be had here.
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.
The Church in the Darkness is built on the mechanic of making numerous runs through the story with the aim of encountering all the different end games, but it just doesn’t hold your attention long enough to make it worthwhile sticking with it.
Procedural generation does little to bolster the one-dimensional gameplay and lack of a compelling narrative
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.
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 seems to have an interesting concept, but the reality is that infiltrating a 1970s cult isn't as much fun as it might seem.
An interesting idea but mediocre execution. When your game is supposed to be replayed almost 20 times, samey gameplay becomes a major issue.
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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.
Aside from the vastly eclectic endings, the gameplay just isn’t enough to sustain it through several attempts to find them all. The gameplay never deviates from avoiding vision cones and knocking some people out if necessary. And as the game is encouraging you to experience it over and over again, it really needed a compelling reason to work your way to another ending. The premise and the endings are the clear standouts. It’s the bit in-between that makes it feel like The Church in The Darkness is a squandered opportunity.
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.
An unholy union of procedural generation, non-linear narrative design, and a Jonestown-inspired cult backdrop.
The numerous issues with The Church in the Darkness aren’t gamebreaking, but given how plentiful the problems are, you’ll struggle to extract any fun from the experience.