Many horror games build on cheap scripts. You will be surprised if something jumps or kisses you. Although you have the greatest fear of what you do not actually see. You know very well that you have to wait for a cucumber. This is the most unpleasant and tiring silence. However, just the moment you get hungry, it will come and unpleasantly tease you. The vibrant atmosphere will make you boil and enjoy your own shadow. Welcome to Atkinson, where he's scared.
The abandoned dominion with a dark past in The Dark Occult is a shattered theme, but it can hide a very appealing portion of fear. Are we really going to be afraid or rumored that the creators of the Rym Games team are just about to start planning? Difficult to answer. The Dark Occult does not make any effort to fall in love. But love at first glance can quickly escape. What is essential is that you can forgive everything and respect the classic scheme without a plot of plot, which is based on the secret of a scary house. Do not wait for any bloody orgy in the Outlast style, but a nice, cool, story like the Layers of Fear.
Do you have the right one to lie down in an abandoned mansion in which, under mysterious circumstances, eight people disappeared, and rumors that they are scared? And when they closed it, did the bunch of Satanists commit a mass (and, of course, ritual) suicide of dozens of innocent people? Who? The main hero, why not what else would you do when you have such an opportunity? It is necessary to map and reveal the secrets of the old house, which only exudes respect as a majestic act. We are no more afraid of the traditional places where there is nothing in the ordinary daylight. But it is enough for everyone to evaporate, and the abandoned environment with a bursting floor, closing the door, swinging chandelier, and the storm behind the windows, is already right.
The Atkinson Manor is a better protagonist than the protagonist himself. Upon arrival, your friends will disappear - like otherwise. And you want to get out of here, except that the turn of 90 degrees and opening the door will do nothing. The wall is a wall. It will not surprise you. The Dark Occult is full of shuffled clichés. But they work again and again, trying to act as courageous as possible. The house he's been haunted for has been abandoned for many years, so the interior is full of ruined furniture, the wallpaper peels off the walls, the lights are flashing or not at all. Everywhere there is a mess, dust set on books, tables and chairs. Only occasionally you can find a candle or a fire burning in the fireplace. In addition, colors are colder, darker, which only favors a chilling impression from the atmosphere of full-on danger.
So classic so far. Atkinson houses not only rooms, dining rooms and salons, but you can also visit underground and cellars. Everything is okay, even the story should go. Gradually, you find that your creepy girl is coming to your neck, phantoms appear to you, and you have to destroy some magic objects to go home. Before it happens, you will not lose yourself, you will occasionally let go of it, and you will often be frustrated by the frustration of repeating the same situation. And bugs. The basic idea of revealing mystery from its own point of view is a great choice - it is the first FEAR that I think is the most frosty in the ladder scene. In The Dark Occult it works the same way. You turn around and there is a specter, close the door quickly, and so on.
However, to make the game more difficult and hardcore players to say that this is supposed to be, you will not find the automatic storage of the position in The Dark Occult. You have to find a save room, but you will not be told at first. So if you find yourself again at the beginning after the first hour of the initial blink after shutdown, it will not hear it twice. Of course, you can find a paper with an explanation, but you can also browse it. It also has a negative effect if you have to overcome a passage and you do not know how. If it ends with death, because it drives you with a ghost and decides not to talk to you about summer or winter time, it will scarcely burn with enthusiasm after repeated restart. Not all animations can be skipped.
Watching again and again the scenes that shocked you first and forced you to observe each dark corner is like a punishment. And the gentle atmosphere of fear fades away by waving the magic wand. It was enough to save the points before the problematic passages - or to put them as an activating option in the menu. In many cases, backtracking is a necessity because of scripted scenes: if you do something, you will open up new possibilities elsewhere. Still, walking through the mysterious house is often interesting just because it is abandoned and the search for additional tracks attracts you with the opening of other roads. Without a map and manual positioning, it's bored. Or will you be tempted to run back and look for a book where you write your progress just because you can not find the new save point?
Add a few bugs when the graphics go out, and you just did not step into the altar with the book where the game is stored. Or, go into the room where the graphics go out, you will find yourself out of the house and - it is the main goal of the game, not that way. Sometimes the ghost attacks you through the wall or appears in the corridor so you have nothing to miss. To make sure there is not enough, there is no help in the game in the form of a map. Either search the internet or draw it yourself. Again: it's hardcore and we used to do it at Dungeon Master - at least they all say (and, uh, those who never played it), but heroic lyrics often lose their meaning if you really do. Especially today, when we are spoiled by the time of not simplification but accessibility. Also, the functionality of the flashlight as the only light in the game (although you have candles, none of which are taken by you) is limited by the rapid discharge of batteries that are not so much to light that you may be wasting.
Since The Dark Occult runs on the fourth-generation Unreal Engine, it looks good and moves well on weaker machines. Exquisitely crafted interiors with lots of detail suffer only for weak interactivity - only a negligible percentage of objects are usable or active. You will find a few keys, magical items that you have to destroy, and journal entries that are lacking in the hand of the editor. The pathetic rhythm of the texts in the game even more emphasizes the dubbing of the main hero. All the time is silence, it only shows up in scripted situations. And you will hate him for it. Not only will his voice sound like a nerve, but the screenwriter puts in his mouth scrawled phrases and naive sentences to tear you out of another gradually dense atmosphere. Nothing negative can be written on the music, but it does not even sound as pronounced as a horror word.
In The Dark Occult it simply laughs occasionally, although the base is really interesting and worth testing. However, the inexperience of game developers has proven more than their enthusiasm. Still, this horror, in which you basically just walk (and blush), is worth testing. He is nice but dead and with lots of bugs and graphic bugs. With a good plot, but a weaker narrative during the game itself. He scares you, but then frustrates and gets bored by repeating some passages. You will be returning to The Dark Occult to get the game off after half an hour. The Dark Occult can simply love or forget it very quickly.
update:
The gulf between writing and publishing reviews is sometimes dangerous. This has also happened in The Conjuring House. Actually, after the new Dark Occult. In a few days, the game changed not only the title, but the gameplay was also modified by slight changes that were criticized in the main article. However, there are not many reasons to change the final verdict. Additionally, Gym Games developers still play and listen to the community. Another bonus is unlocked achievements.
After applying the last patch (v1.0.8), unfortunately, in my case, there have been lost positions (if you do not re-play the game, can be restored, but who did not catch up before sighing and re-launching the game forum?). The new game will welcome you with a choice of Dread or Terror. The first one does not put hard demands on the player. Although it should offer more indices, they are still minimalist (find a friend, get away, find a key, 5 magic items ...). Dangers lurking in the form of supernatural forces should not be so deadly, the main hero should be more resilient, but these parameters are difficult to measure only if they feel.
The biggest plus is adding a map. You must first find it, which is not always raspbery when viewing the active items in The Dark Occult, but it is here. And it's almost inapplicable. And you have to click through the menu, no keyboard shortcut. It shows your position and the type of key the door is locked in, but it does not take into account that some of the doors are still inaccessible (the script will not let you go), although there is nothing in the map. We would welcome some interactivity, writing notes.
What's worse, however, is to a great extent the bugs and technical problems. They look like textures, the whole room. You are going to a room that is inaccessible, and if you turn around, you will not be back again because you have locked doors that you do not logically have a key. Or you fall into the dark, outside the house and the like. Thanks for the map, it's a little bit more accessible, but The Dark Occult did not move anymore. The battery will last longer, but it is still small.