Darkwood is a gritty, violent and challenging top-down survival horror developed by Acid Wizard, a small Indie developer team based in Poland. Impersonating one of the many survivors of an unknown incident, in which a thick forest engulfed everything these people once knew, players will have to figure out the best way to survive the dangers of this mysterious place.

This title proposes an uncompromising survival horror gameplay, where resource conservation, attention to detail, careful exploration, and knowledge about environments, enemies, resources are all fundamental to even have a chance of survival. Unlike many modern titles, the game gives little to no advice on how to progress or what to do, leaving players to figure that out on their own, using found pieces of lore, dialogues, and other clues.

Night outside is lethal for the main character, only daytime is viable to gather resources, explore, complete quests, and other activities. Safe houses, scattered throughout the four map areas, are the only reliable place to survive after sundown. Time management becomes essential in this reality, so being extremely efficient in planning routes, managing inventory space, and taking only what really is needed from loot, are paramount mechanics. After dark comes, progressively more difficult Invasions will attack the player's safe house, which they can defend with a variety of traps, barricades, and move-able furniture to impair enemies.

The game gives complete freedom of choice, approach, action to players: everything is doable from Day 1, every NPC can be killed, quests can have multiple routes and lead to real consequences upon the story and events, but are entirely optional, except for the main one. This complete liberty, mixed with the complete unknown of the world, filled with dangers and grotesque horrors, are the factors that truly create the magic of Darkwood, delivering one of the best survival horror experiences around.

Overall, Darkwood is really a masterpiece of this genre, with very few and minor issues at all, and masterful realization in each of its aspects, from graphics, to audio, atmosphere, gameplay. Hands down one of the best survival horrors I ever played, and for this budget price, featuring 60+ hours of content if one wants to really do everything over multiple play-throughs, it's an incredible deal. Any survival horror and top-down shooter fan will have a great experience with this game. Get it!

Masterpiece

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🔵 Pros
+ Excellent atmosphere, world design, environments, that incite a constant feeling of uneasiness and fear.
+ Complete freedom of action without hand-holding: survive the woods on your own terms, with only wits to rely upon.
+ Optional Hard mode, same as Normal in everything but with limited lives, and Ironman mode with ONE life only.
+ Extremely rewarding, addictive gameplay formula that never gets stale thanks to perfect pacing and good variety.
+ Tons of secrets, hidden lore entries, and places to find, in order to understand better the nature, secrets of the Woods.
+ High risk, slow paced combat where even the cheapest enemies can pose a true threat if not faced with due care and attention.
+ Very interesting lore, NPC backstories, events, forming an open-ended web of tales each player can interpret as they want.

🔴 Cons
- Some minor quality of life inconveniences, such as inability to refill lanterns with gasoline, having to craft new ones instead.




🎮 Gameplay Analysis
The gameplay of Darkwood is divided into Exploration, Quests, Character Management, Night Invasions, and Combat.

Exploration is generally a gruesome and dangerous affair: the Woods are littered with traps, enemies, and other perils, but in order to survive, gather resources, and find a way out, players need to explore them from top to bottom. This game rewards careful, meticulous exploration of environments, hiding many secret containers under furniture or in weird places. Lore documents often contain codes to unlock military supply crates, containing many useful items. Time is of the essence, as the ever incoming sundown forces players to think fast, act faster and get the most out of each passing day. By exploring, players will also meet many NPCs with their stories, trading items sometimes, and also quests to complete.

Quests given by NPCs are sometimes quite clear, others much less. Generally, quests do not have indicators or anything of sorts: players will need to understand where to go, what to do all on their own. Completing quests, that have various routes, leads to more or less severe consequences or unique events, they are totally worth doing as they lead to great rewards and interesting happenings.

Character Management as in any survival horror is a core mechanic. Managing inventory space, very limited at first but expandable with the right materials, is very important: taking what really is needed, and making hard choices about what to leave behind, will be part of any player's daily routine. By collecting certain materials, players can cook a serum in their safehouse oven, using such items as XP to level up. Doing this gives useful perks usable one time each day, but also negative perks as a counter-balance. On death, players will lose half of their inventory but can also get it back again - on Hard, losing all lives will delete save files and force a complete restart. Safehouses have ample storage for hoarding purpose.

Night Invasions happen after sundown, increasing in power as the player moves to more dangerous areas. Enemies will attack the current safehouse, so players need to put up barricades, traps and prepare beforehand. Some nights can be quiet, other feature anomalous events, while some are all-out battles for survival. Surviving a night gives players extra credits with The Trader to buy useful items the morning after. Time will freeze in the morning until players leave the safehouse, in order to re-organize, repair, and prepare for the day.

Combat is rather slow paced, tactical, and is all about dodging at the right times, knowing enemy abilities, and being careful, patient. Until late game guns and ammo will be quite rare and so to be used sparingly. Melee is cheap, but also risky. Enemies deal good damage but not overly so, giving some margin of error, that becomes smaller with stronger ones. There actually is even an optional boss fight but generally there are no "bosses" to speak of normally. Items such as armor or melee weapons break down, while players can suffer poison and other debilitating effects. Many enemies have special abilities to learn by experience to fight them better. Most of the time, avoiding combat entirely, unless necessary, is the best choice in terms of efficiency.


🔩 Performance Analysis
Given the 2D nature of this game, it should run well even on low-end systems, with modest requirements in terms of hardware. It has no technical or performance problems to report, and perfectly runs in 1440p, 144hz from start to end. [GTX1080, 16GB RAM, i7 4820K].


Darkwood is a masterpiece among survival horrors, delivering exceptional gameplay, story and atmosphere, with clever enough twists to the formula to also result original and varied. This game is so well done I can recommend it to any player that is not intimidated by no hand-holding, challenging difficulty, and unforgiving mechanics. It will be worth your while.

[h1] Overview [/h1] [b]Darkwood[/b] is a gritty, violent and challenging top-down survival horror developed by Acid Wizard, a [b]small Indie developer team[/b] based in Poland. Impersonating one of the many survivors of an unknown incident, in which a thick forest engulfed everything these people once knew, [b]players will have to figure out the best way to survive the dangers of this mysterious place.[/b] This title proposes an [b]uncompromising survival horror gameplay[/b], where resource conservation, [b]attention to detail, careful exploration, and knowledge about environments, enemies, resources are all fundamental[/b] to even have a chance of survival. Unlike many modern titles, [b]the game gives little to no advice on how to progress or what to do, leaving players to figure that out on their own[/b], using found pieces of lore, dialogues, and other clues. Night outside is [b]lethal for the main character[/b], only daytime is viable to gather resources, explore, complete quests, and other activities. [b]Safe houses, scattered throughout the four map areas, are the only reliable place to survive after sundown[/b]. Time management becomes [b]essential in this reality, so being extremely efficient in planning routes, managing inventory space, and taking only what really is needed from loot, are paramount mechanics[/b]. After dark comes, [b]progressively more difficult Invasions will attack the player's safe house[/b], which they can defend with a variety of traps, barricades, and move-able furniture to impair enemies. [b]The game gives complete freedom of choice, approach, action to players[/b]: everything is doable from Day 1, every NPC can be killed, quests can have multiple routes and lead to real consequences upon the story and events, but are entirely optional, except for the main one. [b]This complete liberty, mixed with the complete unknown of the world, filled with dangers and grotesque horrors, are the factors that truly create the magic of Darkwood[/b], delivering one of the best survival horror experiences around. Overall, [b]Darkwood[/b] is really a masterpiece of this genre, with very few and minor issues at all, and [b]masterful realization in each of its aspects[/b], from graphics, to audio, atmosphere, gameplay. [b]Hands down one of the best survival horrors I ever played, and for this budget price, featuring 60+ hours of content[/b] if one wants to really do everything over multiple play-throughs, it's an [b]incredible deal[/b]. [b]Any survival horror and top-down shooter fan will have a great experience with this game. Get it![/b] [h1]Rating:[/h1][b]Masterpiece[/b] [quote]Liked this review, and want to see more of the same quality? Check out [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39323490]Tamaster's Review Archive[/url] to see all my Reviews in a single, convenient location.[/quote] [h1] Pros & Cons [/h1] 🔵 [b] Pros [/b] + Excellent atmosphere, world design, environments, that incite a constant feeling of uneasiness and fear. + Complete freedom of action without hand-holding: survive the woods on your own terms, with only wits to rely upon. + Optional Hard mode, same as Normal in everything but with limited lives, and Ironman mode with ONE life only. + Extremely rewarding, addictive gameplay formula that never gets stale thanks to perfect pacing and good variety. + Tons of secrets, hidden lore entries, and places to find, in order to understand better the nature, secrets of the Woods. + High risk, slow paced combat where even the cheapest enemies can pose a true threat if not faced with due care and attention. + Very interesting lore, NPC backstories, events, forming an open-ended web of tales each player can interpret as they want. 🔴 [b] Cons [/b] - Some minor quality of life inconveniences, such as inability to refill lanterns with gasoline, having to craft new ones instead. [h1] In-Depth Breakdown [/h1] 🎮 [b]Gameplay Analysis [/b] The gameplay of [b]Darkwood[/b] is divided into Exploration, Quests, Character Management, Night Invasions, and Combat. [b]Exploration[/b] is generally a gruesome and dangerous affair: the Woods are littered with traps, enemies, and other perils, but in order to survive, gather resources, and find a way out, players need to explore them from top to bottom. This game rewards careful, meticulous exploration of environments, hiding many secret containers under furniture or in weird places. Lore documents often contain codes to unlock military supply crates, containing many useful items. Time is of the essence, as the ever incoming sundown forces players to think fast, act faster and get the most out of each passing day. By exploring, players will also meet many NPCs with their stories, trading items sometimes, and also quests to complete. [b]Quests[/b] given by NPCs are sometimes quite clear, others much less. Generally, quests do not have indicators or anything of sorts: players will need to understand where to go, what to do all on their own. Completing quests, that have various routes, leads to more or less severe consequences or unique events, they are totally worth doing as they lead to great rewards and interesting happenings. [b]Character Management[/b] as in any survival horror is a core mechanic. Managing inventory space, very limited at first but expandable with the right materials, is very important: taking what really is needed, and making hard choices about what to leave behind, will be part of any player's daily routine. By collecting certain materials, players can cook a serum in their safehouse oven, using such items as XP to level up. Doing this gives useful perks usable one time each day, but also negative perks as a counter-balance. On death, players will lose half of their inventory but can also get it back again - on Hard, losing all lives will delete save files and force a complete restart. Safehouses have ample storage for hoarding purpose. [b]Night Invasions[/b] happen after sundown, increasing in power as the player moves to more dangerous areas. Enemies will attack the current safehouse, so players need to put up barricades, traps and prepare beforehand. Some nights can be quiet, other feature anomalous events, while some are all-out battles for survival. Surviving a night gives players extra credits with The Trader to buy useful items the morning after. Time will freeze in the morning until players leave the safehouse, in order to re-organize, repair, and prepare for the day. [b]Combat[/b] is rather slow paced, tactical, and is all about dodging at the right times, knowing enemy abilities, and being careful, patient. Until late game guns and ammo will be quite rare and so to be used sparingly. Melee is cheap, but also risky. Enemies deal good damage but not overly so, giving some margin of error, that becomes smaller with stronger ones. There actually is even an optional boss fight but generally there are no "bosses" to speak of normally. Items such as armor or melee weapons break down, while players can suffer poison and other debilitating effects. Many enemies have special abilities to learn by experience to fight them better. Most of the time, avoiding combat entirely, unless necessary, is the best choice in terms of efficiency. 🔩 [b] Performance Analysis [/b] Given the 2D nature of this game, it should run well even on low-end systems, with modest requirements in terms of hardware. It has no technical or performance problems to report, and perfectly runs in 1440p, 144hz from start to end. [GTX1080, 16GB RAM, i7 4820K]. [h1] Final Thoughts [/h1] [b]Darkwood[/b] is a masterpiece among survival horrors, delivering exceptional gameplay, story and atmosphere, with clever enough twists to the formula to also result original and varied. This game is so well done I can recommend it to any player that is not intimidated by no hand-holding, challenging difficulty, and unforgiving mechanics. It will be worth your while.