Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
So there might be a few things you can still do to remedy this situation of feeling like you're constantly ruining the experience. Changing modes could be one option.
The thing that'd happen is I would just die once to some stupid ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, like stepping into an invisible trap and then get mauled by two huge dogs, I'd lose my save file and never turn on the game again.
Sure, Nightmare mode is a nice gimmick, but just like most gimmicks it'd get old really quickly and simply turn stupid.
All that turning permadeath on does is it turns it into the kind of game that you have to study, learn, figure out and focus in.. instead of just experience passively (in a sometimes unsatisfying way).
But I know what you mean, switching modes could mean incurring a different kind of ruined experience (rage quits, etc.).
Another thing you could try that might help (it worked for me when I was having a similar experience)..
The way to avoid unlucky deaths is to analyze what was unlucky about them and figure out how they could have been avoided (because every kind of in-game death is avoidable).
All the ways of avoiding deaths are things you can figure out in normal mode and whilst doing so you basically end up playing normal mode as if it were nightmare mode (this is how it happened for me).. this could stop it feeling like something is ruining the survival experience.
On second playthrough, you can be like a ♥♥♥♥ to yourself and play on Hardcore, but who cares? Darkwood is about the beauty, the atmosphere, the design of the creatures, not about getting reset every time you get shot with a rock by the guy who gave up on life.
I do admit that the fact, that you haven't died once throughout the entire game is very IMMERSIVE, but on the other hand, you are still going to die, except you're going to begin to hate the game, because instead of being able to enjoy it, you have to avoid mushrooms in Dry Meadow for the five-hundredth time.
Hardcore in my opinion, now that I think about it, is less about making your experience harder and actually more easy, because instead of facing your own failures, you just reset the whole experience. Like... If you get eaten by Savages in the Silent Forest, because you got de_stroyed by the trap they made, it's now your job to come back there, before the night comes, because you had Odd Meat in your inventory, shoot up the bastards and then come back to the Hideout. If it would be hardcore then it would be like "oops, I died, okay, guess I'm back at Dry Meadow, so who cares?"
If you die at night and don't get reputation, then you have no money to restock on fuel, wood and nails. If you die at night in hardcore, you go back to Dry Meadow, where you get to collect Poisonous Mushrooms again and pretend you're making progress by gaining the ability to...
Eat mushrooms.
Hardcore is the equivalent of failing a single test in College and then because of that coming back to kindergarten. You live your mistakes, not reset every time you make one. Stop being perfectionist. It's fatal.
Hardcore means here just Perma-Death. Accept it! If you are getting eaten by crazy humans in the woods, you won't come back. Try it out.
There is something, which is being called "taste". If you don't like it, try not to think everyone else also do not like it!
With this I also agree. But unfortunately it seems Darkwood is not being continued to be developed. There are some randomizer like partly the map and the loot as well as some attacks and events during night. I wished there would be just much much more enemy types and events, where you would not only behave differently, but unique due to the combination of these events. That unknowing would increase the scaryness. But, once you learned how to handle the few enemy types, it becomes redundant.
I rewrote my response about five times just to explain why I'm not a fan of the concept that you should play Darkwood on hardcore for the first time, and you just copied and pasted the last paragraph of what I said, the first one, and then attributed MazyRun's response to me by bugging out the quotation box.
To clarify. I do understand how Hardcore mode works. I get it that if you've already beaten the game, it's a nice and fresh experience to play it with extra risk of losing all progress when dying, but I don't think it's something I'd recommend to a beginner, because honestly Hardcore Darkwood is like watching Anime without subtitles and making up the story from images and character's emotions. I get that it's fresh and all, but it destroys the original experience.
Darkwood is a game that slowly progresses into absolute horror territory. It first catches you off with little things and only later on throws real ♥♥♥♥ at you. The night in Dry Meadow is literally a waiting simulator, where you are too afraid to move. Only in the Silent Forest you have to actually learn how to defend yourself, because in Dry Meadow you can literally just barricade all doors and windows, and rarely ever anything bad will happen.
If you play the game on Hardcore, then instead of going through the early game, learning to be not paralyzed by fear and then learning to operate normally under pressure, you just get to replay the same thing over and over every time you make a small mistake.
Hardcore also makes you play extremely passively, because the risk is way too big, when in reality Darkwood is supposed to be played cautiously but not too cautiously. There is a reason why days last for so short and why you can find cool ♥♥♥♥ in the night. The game wants you to progress as soon as possible and as boldly as you can. It rewards taking risks, by allowing you to explore more during the day if you move more quickly and use stamina regenerating items, and rewards big balls during the night, by allowing you to gather stuff outside like Shining Stones, Odd Meat from sacrificial circles or random drops from the Mysterious Benefactor.
Now, don't take this out of context. But I don't think the devs intended this game to be excruciatingly hard. I think that they wanted to make an interesting, refreshing experience that makes you feel like batman you're in Darkwood.
And if it comes to dying when actually dying being realistic and therefore you have to accept it, that's kinda cringe, bruh. If this game focused 100% on realism, there would be no creepy sounds in the night, at least as much as they are now, there would be no guy that talks on the bed, there would be no scary dreams, and you would just die instantly on the first chapter.
But that is besides the point. I'm just trying to say that this game is an experience and by turning on Hardcore when playing it for the first time, you're playing a completely different experience.
You shouldn't ruin yourself, just because you want to flex your gamer muscles on someone else. Hardcore is not the original Darkwood. Normal is the original Darkwood. Hardcore is something you do after beating the game at least once to try out something new and see new cutscenes.
I kind of disagree that harder equals scary. Bowsers dungeons weren't tense cause of fear but annoyance. I think fear has to be induced in a certain way. For example, some chick looking like momo screaming in your face would probably STARTLE anyone, would it truly scare them? Like make them have nightmares? Nah if they are anything like me its just gonna make em laugh.
Darkwood is scary cause of the story, the woods, the setting, the atmosphere. The enemies, are victims, they are the villagers warped and twisted by the forest. They are no more scary than you, wolf, the trader, or any of your buddies. Hell the doctors creepy himself.
The point isn't to be so scared you can't even look at the game, but barely any game does that to me anyway. Its about the atmosphere, themes, and the unknown. I kid you not, the scariest moment I remember in the game, well there's a few, but one was actually the ravens flying over me at night. Cause it happens so suddenly, and I couldn't make out what it was at first so I thought it was some fast moving ghost or something.
Real fear in these kinds of games, is fear of the unknown, fear of whats out there, hidden, beyond your senses. After a while the savages grunts become nothing, because you know who they are, and possibly the weakest link in DW as even villagers are stronger than those wackos. But they are also relentless and don't quit. But what I found scarier than anything were the supernatural themes. Stuff like the embryo with the fetus, holes, lore, little creepy items, and creepy events like the radio messages.
Darkwood scares initially with the threats and dangers, then you learn how to survive, and then it starts all over again with the lore, events, creep factor, atmosphere, etc...
Its my fav horror game ever made. I will say that everytime someone asks me, and until I play something even remotely similar to DW my opinion won't change.
..fears relating to mis-actions leading to game over situations. Fear of 'game over' basically.
Fear inducing permadeath mechanics work differently across various types of games.. they can make you fear the prospect of losing an important character (if there is no way of reloading and bringing them back)..
..they can make you fear (or care more) about messing up a combat turn, deployment or mission (if there is no way of un-doing your actions).
..a situation (or enemy) that can end your game is something to be feared, a low HP moment creates fear and tension when there are no do-overs, etc.
Do or die moments in a survival game are more exciting than fearful, so it's almost like the fear induces the excitement.
Adding extra layers of fear through optional mechanics is optional of course and allowing them for the sole purpose of creating extra tension is not the best reason for using them..
..a better reason for playing with extra optional mechanics is to enhance the basic mechanics and themes (i.e, to increase the importance of things like decision making, resource management, tactics, etc.).
It wasn't a horror game I really cared to rush, cause it was one you could really get into. I enjoyed DW that much.
I actually wrote a review about Darkwood a few days ago. I mentioned that a gameplay with a limited amount of lives would be more in tone with this game's theme of dread and suspense offered via its insidious audio trickery and dry visuals, where it forces you to approach the game in a very conservative fashion, knowing if you die too many times, you're done for good.
But that was only a recommendation for people versed in survival games. If you play with limited lives and do it poorly, then the initial blind experience will be tainted from you having to once again restart the game and take part in its tediousness of scavenging and progressing up until the point you've died on your last run. Hence why playing on normal mode might take a bit of tension off due to having unlimited lives, but it won't deter your overall experience from the game's features that much, as while it might be less tense, you will enjoy an uninterrupted one off run where your momentum of progression can potentially shine the game's features more thoroughly, hence it is a very acceptable and sometimes a preferred way to play it.
I didn't beat amnesia with permadeath, or anything else. I play games like this to beat them and see the story and outcomes which I thought were far more disturbing and creepy than a savage simply reseting my progress.
I recommend people play it on the easiest setting and see what the game has to offer. Playing on the hardest is a good way to ruin the imagination of this game imo. Someone dies at permadeath at a frickin dog then says, this is lame, I can imagine those events happen quite often and might be why only less than 1 or 2% of DW owners even finish this.
But its everywhere, play with permadeath, play without assists, play with this hard mod.
Whatever people do to impress themselves and other gamers, isn't how I play. I see games as entertainment and this judging a game by how much it sets you back I don't think is fair. DW is more than permadeath, permadeath wasn't what I noticed. I noticed all the amazing gameplay and art/atmosphere.
Falling over and failing doesn't scare me, the traders awesome character profile was freaky. The game is scary cause the games scary, not cause of permadeath. And if its not scary, you are probably jaded like me and don't find most things scary. DW is a different kind of creepy. I dunno why permadeath is always talked about, it overshadows everything else I loved about DW.
The recommendation for playing it on limited lives was only to people versed in survival games, as i said above, not for everyone. It wasn't an objective fact stating that the game should be played at that difficulty, in fact i mentioned that playing normally might enhance the experience due to not dying and repeating the game after losing all your lives, thus keeping the momentum of continuing the game without restarting, highlighting the game's features more that way.
I'd figure it was relatively clear that the difficulty and experience is flexible and very subjective depending on the individual, and no person holds the right opinion from any side, as the only right opinion is the line that yourself need to find to get the most out of the game, be it playing it normally or on hard.
I get it, and I came from the NES days I'm familiar with game over, punishments, and failure. It wouldn't be a game otherwise. But there has to be some kind of fairness, and reason to go on. As people will be more impressed imo, by the 2nd or 3rd house, or by the swamp. The early areas are also very suspenseful and creepy as well.
Basically permadeath is optional, its even optional in permadeath you could always reload your save file from a backup folder. The only reason to try perma or hard is to be challenged. Not to be scared, altho it would bring the tension up, its not gonna induce any hidden fear of the enemy, story, or unknown. Only your own desire to win.
The story and creepy factors what really makes this game scary. Permadeath is the same in any game, its not the actual fear but the setback people are afraid of. And darkwood actually makes a fun, compelling, challenging, and frightening game on any difficulty cause of its setting. I still have yet to see a videogame as creepy as this is in pure atmosphere.
I'm not saying its anyone here its just an idea of gaming now that you see everywhere. That everything should be a challenge or a proving ground, but really its just games. I don't even think real life should be like this as this idea of being the best and outdoing everyone. Its part of the reason why we are slowly going extinct as a species we eat each other.
Sorry I'm just ranting but its all over the place in gaming, play like this, play like that, you'll get more tension, you'll get more satisfaction etc.. I get more satisfaction being entertained my times precious I don't have time to struggle with a game over and over again and keep losing.
I think it's pretty reasonable to say that playing a game on a certain higher difficulty might make it more tense, as the fear of losing progress might elevate your horror experience due to the higher stakes. But whenever the argument is "It's more tense as the game is harder because of the fear of losing progress, not because of the game's horror features" or "The game is more tense as its harder, but the horror is also enhanced as the stakes are higher and makes you play with a different approach" is simply a matter of taste, and neither is a wrong take to have.
It's an argument that many could experiment once after being versed in the genre they play, and it's perfectly fine if they don't like it. It is a niche and subjective taste that while the general community of gamers don't find it appealing, i don't think it's that bad seeing that opinion coming up once in a while. Darkwood is a relatively unforgiving game, which might appeal to a wider audience of people with that niche taste, myself included.
Anything you see outside that, as in adrenaline puritans stating that a game is objectively better being played a certain way, you shouldn't take them seriously, as it is an obvious bias based on their own taste, which doesn't mean their method of playing a game is the correct one, it is only correct for their own personal experience.