Darkness Within es una aventura gráfica en primera persona que bebe directamente de toda la literatura de H.P. Lovecraft. En este aspecto esta aventura es realmente sobresaliente ya que nos hace sentir todo el misterio y el suspense que acompañan en este tipo de relatos. Además, los efectos de sonido y las voces facilitan mucho que el jugador entre dentro de ese ambiente de misterio.

A día de hoy es bastante inusual encontrar una aventura gráfica en tercera persona con un desplazamiento pantalla a pantalla como tiene este título, y aunque los gráficos no desagradan si es cierto que se nota el tiempo transcurrido desde que salió originalmente.

En el plano más puramente jugable, nos encontramos con una aventura realmente difícil, con unos puzzles bastante enrevesados en algunos momentos que podrán llevarnos a la más absoluta desesperación. Así que si eres de aquellos que se rinden con facilidad, asegúrate de llevar una buena guía a mano cuando juegues con este título.

Su parte argumentativa por otro lado es bastante interesante, y recrea bastante fielmente todo el ambiente de misterio y suspense de la prosa y poesía de Lovecraft aunque si miramos exclusivamente su hilo argumentativo, es cierto que el mismo presenta ciertos fallos de bulto y nunca llega a aclarar realmente qué es lo que está pasando en la aventura. Es muy probable que nos encontremos perdidos entre la maraña de nombres que aparecen en los diferentes escritos y acabemos un poco desorientados ya que el juego no hace el esfuerzo de explicar correctamente los hechos y los personajes que componen la historia. Muy probablemente éste sea el mayor punto flojo de este título.

Sin embargo, la atmósfera creada, la ambientación misteriosa del título, su música, acertijos y las continuas referencias al mundo de H.P. Lovecraft pueden ser motivo más que suficiente para disfrutar con este título. Podría haber sido bastante mejor, pero es un buena aventura gráfica de misterio y suspense, y de esas no abundan hoy en día.

Acabo de terminar el juego con la magnífica traducción al castellano de Tradupixels y quería comentarlo un poco:

Primero, si buscas un juego con ambiente lovecraftiano o bien basado en los mitos este es tu juego, creo que de todos los que he jugado por el estilo es el que mejor ha sabido captar todo.

La jugabilidad aunque a priori parezca escasa te mete bastante en el papel y las escenas de tensión están bastante conseguidas, pese a que por el tiempo que tiene gráficamente no va a sorprenderte demasiado.

La bánda sonora es magnífica, totalmente a la altura en cada situación.

Hablemos de la dificultad.. Este juego te hará pensar unos cuantos ratos, pero siempre te va a ir dejando avanzar un rato y contandote historia después de cada puzzle asi que se hace ameno, además, si solo quieres ver la historia y no descubrir todos los secretos, no te va a suponer demasiado tiempo finalizarlo.

En resumen es un excelente juego y ahora mismo pienso empezar la segunda parte :D

Zoetrope interactive / 2077

Aventura gráfica de point and click estilo Myst basado en los relatos del ya conocido lovecraft.

El juego nos lleva a investigar la desaparición de una persona, y a raíz de esas investigaciones acabar metido en un mundo oscuro de terror atávico, mental y muy pscilógico, todo ello muy estilo a los mitos de chtulu.

El juego es una aventura gráfica, con todo lo que ello conlleva, con un inicio algo lento que luego poco a poco va cogiendo más forma y con una dificultad asequible, siendo unos acertijos bastante coherentes, incluso que puedes llegar a solucionarlos simplemente con prueba / error.

La historia es lenta, que implica concentración y mucha comprensión lectora si quieres enterarte de lo que va el juego, tal y como sería un libro de Lovecraft, peri una vez que te introduces en ella te engancha lo suficiente como para quwerer saber más y adonde te lleva, aunque sea un final totalmente previsible.

Algo que no me gusto es la falta de interacción, y es que por momentos da la sensación de encontrar un mundo vacío de escenarios pintados, donde practicamente no puedes interactuar, con pocas cosas a recoger y sobretodo muy oscuro. Tened cuidado con el brillo porque, bueno, es una histoira de terror, pero como lo dejeis por defecto hay momentos que no se ve NADA, y te pierdes practicamente la mitad de los decorados.

Por lo demás, una buena aventura, que aún no sieno santo de mi devoción las aventuras gráficas, si que me ha enganchado lo suficiente para plantearme jugar su segunda parte

6/10

Esta traducido a 6 idiomas menos al español, estoy bastante harto de este problema en las traducciones que llevamos arrastrando años en cientos de juegos, esto ya huele a RACISMO y esto pasa primero de todo por que la comunidad hispana lo permitimos y lo peor de todo por que aportamos a esta manera de hacer las cosas comprando estos productos, si no esta en mi idioma no lo quiero gracias, esa es la unica filosofia por la que nos deberiamos regir.

Lo pille de oferta a 1,59€ y sin lugar a dudas uno de los mejores juegos que he comprado por estos precios en bastante tiempo. Dentro de los de su genero (aventura grafica de encontrar objetos y resolver enigmas) es de los que mas me ha gustado por su buena trama, que te engancha y te sumerge de lleno en ella deseando saber más y más, y por su dificultad, ya que te implica leer muchisimos documentos y darle muchas vueltas al coco para poder avanzar en la trama con los objetos y la información que tienes.

Dicho esto recomiendo su compra al 100% para los amantes de estos generos y señalar que esto es una primera parte de la historia, está tambien Darknees Within 2 con la cual concluyes esta alocada y genial trama.

PD: Para todos aquellos que no dominen el ingles o sean vagos como yo y no quieran andar traducciendo, existen traducciones muy buenas y completas al español del juego como la de tradupixel, que fue la que utilize yo y me fue de lujo.

El juego no esta en Español, pero se puede usar esta guía para traducir los textos:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=367373268
Que lo disfruten, es una joyita de juego.

Darkness Within is the most tasteful Lovecraftian-horror game I have ever played.
There is no tacked-on 'insanity' mechanic.
There are no jump scares.
There are no guns.

But most importantly, there are no references to Lovecraft's work in poor taste. The only direct references to him are in quotes on loading screens, and a single easter egg. His influence otherwise is purely sentimental, yet quite palpable in the atmosphere of the game's various domestic, occult, and dreamlike environments.

The developers at Zoetrope Interactive did not shoehorn Lovecraft's most popular motifs into their game, although it could be argued that the general formula of the narrative is quite Lovecraftian, and the exposition definitely is, but I believe it comes into its own. Anyway, Zoetrope has created a narrative with less-direct horror than any 'survival horror' game. This was executed through their implementation and pacing of the horror.

The environments in the game are beautifully detailed, both technically and atmospherically. Howard's apartment and office, and the houses that he investigates, all feel genuine and lived-in, and evoke a mixture of being comforting and cozy, yet quite off-putting. The dream sequences that partially take place in these environments are therefore very surreal, in that they blend these mundane, familiar environments, with bizarre, and horrifying encounters.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=341437450

Through this detail, and the surrealness which follows, almost all of the game, not just the horror sequences, left me feeling uneasy. This uneasiness was accentuated as Howard begins to have trouble differentiating dream from reality.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=345226810

Especially off-putting are the few encounters the player has with other, seemingly inhuman entities. These encounters are sporadic, and mostly quite indirect. With the exception of a single instance, Howard only ever encounters these 'things' either in his dreams, or through a crack in a wall. Therefore they never pose any real threat to Howard. Which might leave you wondering, 'How could they be horrific?'

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=345226745

And like good, primal horror: it's in the utter obscurity of the encounters and the things themselves, the already instilled fear from the context of the encounters, and how few encounters there actually are, that makes the game horrific. This is important to note because horror is about the build-up, and the obscurity. If scares are frequent, or the things that are scary are able to be studied closely, then they become so much less effective. And thankfully Darkness Within doesn't fall victim to either of these issues. It overcomes them more effectively than any other horror game I've played.

All of the circumstances are so well built up, that this infrequent horror is something truly unique for a 'horror' game. It is actual, Lovecraftian horror at its finest; it is morbid curiosity resulting in a brush with something, without ever really knowing or finding out what. The second factor in good, Lovecraftian horror is the irrational compulsion to continue, regardless of prior experiences. This narrative device manifests in solving the puzzles that are entailed in the central mystery of the story.

The puzzles are cleverly developed, and effectively intertwine the narrative and storytelling. This is executed in all of the clues for puzzles being hidden in pieces of writing, and various minute details that are quite believably strewn throughout appropriate places in the environments. I could list all of the detailed connections and implications made through the puzzles, dream sequences, texts, and other discoveries throughout the game, and how consistently they've been intertwined, but I would prefer to recommend you go and experience them for yourself.

Another important aspect of the puzzles is their believability. The presentation of just about all of the puzzles is so plausible that only a single puzzle in the game left me frustrated at its absurd specificity. Otherwise, the puzzles flow into eachother with excellent fluency, and the way they manifest prior exposition demonstrates the developer's forethought. Through this, they're engaging, compelling, and literally always directly and importantly entailing the narrative.

I speak so confidently in my description of the puzzles because I developed that description directly from the puzzles themselves. Due to the density of the primary puzzles of the game, it would be redundant to give a necessarily detailed description of something better experienced than described.

Concerning the narrative, if you plot out what actually occurs in the narrative, and remove it from the context of the game, then it may not sound all that impressive. It may sound like a Lovecraftian fanfic. But it's not the plot in itself that makes the narrative shine. It's everything above; the presentation, and faithful fulfillment of the criteria of Lovecraftian horror; that makes the story so special.

Now, as I said, I won't list all of the positive, detailed connections and implications made throughout the game, but I will mention one very particular criticism I have of one very particular puzzle.

This puzzle is second-last in Clark Field's house, and entails quite the spike in difficulty. My main issue with this spike is the obsoleteness of the established mechanic of 'Howard's Mind.' Howard's Mind can piece together thoughts, clues, items, and observations to progress through puzzles by deducing solutions semi-automatically, so long as the player provides the correct clues. It's established as an important mechanic, but is frustratingly and suddenly not able to be utilized in Clark Field's home. And while it's occasionally useful throughout the rest of the game, it pretty much stops functioning during this puzzle, which leads to a key discovery in progressing through the game. What this essentially means is that the player is expected to decipher a plausible, but ultimately poorly executed puzzle, which is key to progressing in the game, but without 'Howard's Mind' to give them any guidance. Which was a very big issue for me when Howard is bombarded with numerous, meaningless, potential answers. It's a tedious puzzle, and is more needlessly than actually complicated.

There is also the minor complaint of an awkward inventory. It's annoying to deal with once Howard has amassed so many items that you need to scroll through it, but to be honest it really doesn't impede much otherwise.

The game's ambient noise also seems to be contentious. While I understand how the piano, creaking floorboards, and other noises can collectively seem overbuilt, I feel like they're most effective when they come apart. I agree it can be a little silly and overwhelming when everything is playing at once, but when those noises pause for a while and all you're left with is the ambient drone of the environments, it's worth it. It's how realized the isolation of Howard is at that point that's so striking. It's not necessarily the sounds themselves, but what they leave behind.

Apart from those last few points, the game is a very seamless experience.

If the name Lovecraft only brings to mind Cthulhu, the Shoggoth, Deep Ones, Innsmouth, etc. Then this game probably isn't for you. This game doesn't treat Lovecraft like a meme. It's a very respectful work after Lovecraft. It's also a game with an outstanding level of detail, which I would recommend to anyone impressed by such things. And if you have an actual appreciation for the style of horror and queer stories that Lovecraft, and other prolific writers, such as Algernon Blackwood and Ambrose Bierce are known for, then you are this game's target audience.

jugué este juego por allá en 2010 por primera vez en mi antigua cuenta de steam, años después lo volví a jugar y lo sigo recordando con mucho cariño, por su historia y su jugabilidad que mejoro muchísimo con el update 1.04 que agrega la vista 360, soy un enfermo de lovecraft y este juego atrapa la esencia de lo misterioso y el horro cósmico de nuestro ilustre escritor favorito, cómpralo, si te encanta lovecraft y los point and click te encantara...

Darkness Within consigue hacer que realmente te sientas dentro de una de las novelas de Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

La ambientación es sobresaliente. Los gráficos pre renderizados junto al excelente apartado sonoro hacen que los escenarios se sientan vivos, peligrosos pero a la vez cotidianos, recomendadísimo jugar este juego con cascos. Los momentos de terror están muy bien conseguidos, el juego consigue ponerte los pelos de punta hasta en los momentos mas tranquilos, de verdad sientes como el personaje va perdiendo la cordura a medida que vas avanzando por la historia.

Las mecánicas del juego nos hacen ponernos en la piel de un detective, no solo bastara con usar objetos en ciertos momentos y lugares, si no que habrá que buscar pistas en los textos, combinar pistas para llegar a conclusiones que nos ayuden a resolver los enigmas del juego. Aún así algunos puzzles pueden resultar algo rebuscados, pero no es nada que una guía no pueda resolver.

Si eres un lector habitual del trabajo literario de Lovecraft este juego es una cita obligada, puede parecer algo aparatoso al principio, pero el juego consigue engancharte, y antes de darte cuenta estarás sumergido en un mundo de siniestros cultos y pesadillas fuera de la comprensión de cualquier persona cuerda.

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” ― H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

Here I was, a bit bored and a bit biased about the marriage of a point & click adventure with the theme of horror, but Darkness Within 1: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder was a spectacular experience! I've spared 14 hours or so, discovered every achievement, read and re-read every single document, practically poked my nose in every single pixel in the game; but I am still paranoid about missing a piece of the great picture, as any Lovecraftian theme should make you so...

In this gem of a Lovecraftian setting, you play as Howard E. Loreid; a detective that investigates the strange murder of Clark Field, a wealthy man involved in the dark art of occult. The prime suspect of the crime is a man named Loath Nolder, a famous private investigator and an admitant of the local insane asylum. Our game starts with a nightmare, and a phone call coming from our partner, Arthur, in the middle of the night. We're informed that Loath Nolder has escaped...

The game takes brilliant twists and turns, and forces you to investigate odd objects coming from forgotten times, secluded buildings that no one visits and isolated areas of the local geography with dark histories. The atmosphere is carefully arranged to procure a balance between the uneasiness that we feel from a partially observed shadow that lingers in the night, and the raw sense of dread that we suffer whence we face the plain unexplainable. Environment is a huge success to create that lingering, uncanny feeling that haunts us when we are reading a random narration excerpt taken from H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. It actually uses direct characters and anecdotes from Lovecraft stories like The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Whisperer in Darkness and The Rats in the Walls.

Gameplay carries two major features that makes the investigation process noteworthy. As you observe events and the environment, you take mental notes in your journal as ideas, observations and suspicions, alongside conversations. You are to pick and add the relevant ideas together to make a thought process to grasp the insight of happenings. This progress of deduction presents the player a unique gameplay. Nothing is presented to you on a silver platter: you actually have to think like an investigator to decide which evidence might go with another to indicate a fact. Another feature is about the documents you stumble in the game. In these kind of games, the gameplay usually presents you your next objective just after you read the document, automatically. Here, you underline the part of the document that you think to be relevant or important and think about it! I mentioned hard work, didn't I?

If you do sincerely enjoy the horror genre - not your common jump scare, or plain human cruelty: an actual sense of gothic that will keep pushing your buttons to keep you awake at night, you MUST try this game. It is brilliant as an adventure, astonishing as a horror game. Plus, it is Lovecraftian!

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