Developer: Retrofiction Games
Publisher: Retrofiction Games, EastAsiaSoft
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Dead of Darkness – Review
With our ever-growing backlog, we sadly sometimes miss certain titles that would be fun to feature here. One of those titles is Dead of Darkness, a game that came out in January 2025 for PC and was ported to consoles last summer. This retro-inspired experience immediately made us think back to the days of the first Resident Evil titles, albeit with top-down 2D visuals. For our review, we headed to Velvet Island to discover it had been infested with zombie-like entities, tons of puzzles, and a strange cast of characters.
Story
In Dead of Darkness, you’ll be playing as private eye, Miles Windham, who is clearly the stereotypical example of a man who is at rock bottom. His apartment is a mess, and so is he. Miles gets contacted to visit Velvet Island, a mission he would probably not undertake, if not for his client telling him that they have information about how Miles’ daughter died in a tragic fire quite some time ago. Even though it’s clear there’s something fishy going on, Miles accepts the case and heads off to Velvet Island, where a mental institute is situated. Upon arriving, he is greeted with a lot of resentment, but those hostile greetings take the backseat rather quickly when a hostage situation takes place, as well as a zombie outbreak. Miles came here for the truth, but will now also have to fight for his life.
The story is nicely presented with quite a bit of dialogue, but the introduction does take a fairly long time. There is so much talking before you actually reach the island, and it got to a point that we started caring less about the plot. This luckily quickly corrected itself, and before we knew it, we were actually quite hooked and beyond curious to see what would happen next.
Graphics
Dead of Darkness looks a bit like a dark RPG Maker project, with many repeating assets, inconsistent item proportions, and a few mismatched graphical styles. That being said, the game doesn’t look bad for a 2D retro-inspired title. There is some enemy variety, the boss designs are creepy, the map is fairly large, and the animations aren’t too bad. The menus look a bit cheap at times, but that’s pretty much it. We did enjoy exploring the different buildings and areas of Velvet Island.
The biggest style clash came from the character portraits, which are much more detailed and more akin to something from a budget-friendly visual novel. It took us some time to adjust to the highly detailed faces without any visible pixels.
Sound
While we certainly appreciated the voiced dialogues and the decent sound effects, we were disappointed that Dead of Darkness is almost completely without music. Even though the silence did set the atmosphere at times, some background music here and there would have been nice. The voice acting itself wasn’t really of the highest quality, but it did bring the different characters to life.
Gameplay
Dead of Darkness is an old-school top-down 2D horror survival game in the same vein as the old Resident Evil titles. You’ll be playing as Miles, who gets invited to Velvet Island under the guise of getting more information about his deceased daughter. As all hell breaks loose mere moments after you arrive, you’ll find yourself solving environmental puzzles and gunning down zombies and other monsters. The game is straightforward, and most puzzles aren’t too difficult to figure out, but it does take a while to get used to the somewhat clunky controls. The difficulty level can also be adjusted to make combat slightly easier at times.
Just like the original Resident Evil, you’ll have to solve puzzles that open up new doors and areas, and this is often done by backtracking through earlier visited areas. The game is divided into different areas, and in most cases, you’ll have to just remain in the same building or area to solve the puzzles there. The backtracking isn’t necessarily annoying, but formerly cleared areas may have enemies again later in the game, so you’ll have to mind your ammunition. You can avoid quite a few zombies or monsters, but in small hallways, this might not always be an option. As you progress, you’ll also find parts to upgrade your weapons, making certain enemies a lot easier to kill. These upgrades also come in handy when dealing with bosses.
Conclusion
Dead of Darkness is a nice homage to old-school horror titles such as the original Resident Evil. While the game still had a few flaws, such as the cheap-looking menus and the clunky controls, it still felt like a nice change of pace from current-day horror games. We quite enjoyed what the game had to offer, as it had the right spooky atmosphere, creepy monsters to kill, interesting puzzles to solve, and a story that managed to entertain us. If you’re looking for a game that emulates the experience of old-school classics, then this one is worth checking out.
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