Darkwood is a top-down survival horror game that already got released on Steam on the 17th of August 2017. It arrived to PlayStation 4 consoles on the 14th of May 2019, and lastly to PlayStation 5 on the 28th of October this year. It was developed by Acid Wizard Studio and self-published on Steam, while Crunching Koalas launched the game on Sony’s consoles.
Darkwood consists of scavenging and exploring an ever-changing free-roam world by day, and hiding in your hideout when night falls. It is horrifying to play even though it does not feature any jump scares that most of the horror games do.
In it you will be crafting weapons, preparing traps, and fortifying your hideouts. Nightmarish entities roam the woods at night, so you will have to pray to survive till sunrise. It also does not feature any quest markers, so you will be on your own to figure out things and how they work.
As mentioned, you will be exploring randomly generated woods, scavenging materials and crafting weapons when there is sun out, and finding shelter, barricading, setting up traps and hiding or defending against horrors during the nights.
Gaining skills and perks by injecting essences from mutated living things into your bloodstream is a thing here too, and making world changing decisions that will alter the story you will experience is also present in Darkwood.
It offers an unrelenting experience you will not easily forget after your playthrough, and really is a synonym for survival horror games. Darkwood is also somewhat difficult, since it does not hold your hand while you are going through it. Its soundtrack and sound effects are stellar as well, and the atmosphere it offers is just superb.
The enhanced PlayStation 5 version of the game, which we are reviewing here, adds full DualSense support with adaptive triggers, haptic feedback and controller sound effects. It also features a native 4k resolution, and you can also import your PlayStation 4 save games, if you already own it on that system and you wish to upgrade.
Darkwood is available for 13,99 EUR on Steam, for 14,99 EUR for PlayStation 4, and 17,99 EUR for its newest edition on PlayStation 5.
