Gaming

‘Dead of Darkness’ Looks Oddly Adorable, but I Promise, the Horror Is Deliciously Old-School (Review)

‘Dead of Darkness’ is a decidedly old-school romp through classic horror, blending great pixel art with plenty of scares.

A terrifying door in Dead of Darkness
Screenshot: Retrofiction Games

When I first saw a trailer for Dead of Darkness, I initially thought that someone was combining the look of Stardew Valley with the pure vibes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Looks can be deceiving, however. Dead of Darkness is a purely old-school romp through classic horror. While it wears the inspiration of its forebearers proudly on its sleeves, it does enough to help it feel unique and exciting, making it a must-play for fans of PS1-era horror games.

Using a pistol in Dead of Darkness to shoot some of the zombies
Screenshot: Retrofiction Games

Old-School Vibes Ooze Out of Every Crevice of ‘Dead of Darkness’

Dead of Darkness looks and plays like the long-lost Game Boy Advance version of a classic Silent Hill game. But it comes with enough modern QoL features to help it feel like it isn’t antiquated by its style. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Dead of Darkness features full omnidirectional movement. This ensured I wasn’t confined to a 4-axis movement scheme. I could also aim in nearly every direction, making sure I could land my shots with deadly precision.

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Taking more inspiration from its predecessors, navigation will be very familiar to anyone who has played basically any old-school horror games in the past. Searching for maps is easy. And red/green room combinations let me know if I found every secret within them. It’s comfort food for those who grew up during this particular era of horror gaming. But even with its adorable pixel art style, there were more than a few times that I jumped out of my seat a little.

Without relying on jumpscares to cheapen the tension, Dead of Darkness feels suitably eerie. While I don’t know if it was intentional, the hammy voice acting felt right at home with the suitably styled horror. It felt like I had stumbled upon some PlayStation 1-era horror game I had never heard of before, and I say that in the best way possible. Even navigating through clues, while initially frustrating, grew on me throughout my playthrough. Maybe the true horror was the clues I missed along the way, right?

Managing inventory in Dead of Darkness
Screenshot: Retrofiction Games

Get Ready for Inventory and Menu Management

Dead of Darkness also borrows the mythical traveling storage case from other horror games. It magically followed me throughout any of the save rooms I had visited. Each level had an ample amount of these rooms, too. It respected my time to ensure that death didn’t result in hours of lost time. I still strongly suggest saving often, especially as you near the end of the game. Things can get a little more dicey, and a loss of progress can be more frustrating than ever before.

Patience is going to be the name of the game here. While Dead of Darkness does offer a fair amount of action, taking things slow and steady is bound to keep Miles alive more than a stacked inventory. Some of the puzzles in Dead of Darkness did genuinely have me scratching my head. It’s a great sign that the developer knows what their audience wants. When I wasn’t blasting the domes off of these creepy crawlies, I was trying to discover what steps I needed to take next to complete a puzzle that was driving me just as mad as the owners of this mansion.

Plenty of documents are littered throughout the house, giving me insight as to what I needed to do next without spelling it out directly. Paying attention to the environment is important, as there are a lot of clues spread throughout each of the stages. Honestly, while the gunplay in Dead of Darkness was more than acceptable, I found that the puzzles were some of my favorite parts of the game.

You Dipped Your ‘Resident Evil’ in My ‘Silent Hill’

Dead of Darkness does a great job of combining the shocking horror of games like Resident Evil with the moodiness of older Silent Hill games. I mean, even our protagonist is wearing the tried and true “Sad Dad” fit of classic horror tropes. A search for his daughter quickly goes south, and Miles is thrust into a mystery beyond comprehension.

The narrative presented here is engaging. There’s enough campy voice acting and high-quality portraits adorning my screen whenever characters pop up to chat. Great designs for all of the characters, including the bosses, helped keep every character feeling lively. Throughout a roughly 12-hour campaign, plenty of characters meet, greet, and find their demise at the hands of this zombie outbreak.

There’s enough variety in each of the locations to keep things from feeling stale, which is something that plagues plenty of indie horror games. Dead of Darkness starts strong and finishes on an equally strong footing. It feels like a loving homage to all of the great horror games that came before it while forging enough of its own identity not to get lost in the crowd. That doesn’t mean that it’s perfect, however.

Miles in a room readying up to shoot a zombie horror
Screenshot: Retrofiction Games

The Woes of 2D Horror Don’t Escape ‘Dead of Darkness’, Either

While there is plenty to love about Dead of Darkness, a few issues did present themselves during my playthrough. While this issue should be fixed in the final build, one of the bosses was horrifyingly tough. This was primarily due to the game not loading the proper amount of ammunition before the battle started. This left me with nothing more than a few stray bullets and a kitchen knife. So, until it was fixed, I had to swap between difficulties to partake in this battle.

Sometimes, trying to aim at a zombie that was approaching from an angle was more troublesome than it was worth. Running away to take a few potshots is normally not my style. But, if I couldn’t line up the shot properly? I had no choice other than retreating and trying to fight like a rat.

Having to head into the menu to use clues also felt cumbersome at times. For example, I knew I needed to look in the fireplace to grab an object. But rather than just being able to click on the fireplace and grab it, I needed to go into the clues menu and select the specific clue that matched the situation. But sooner than later, I just knew to check my clues before jumping into a mystery.

Dead of Darkness is a great horror experience that anyone craving a deliciously old-school approach to the genre should be happy to embark on. It feels fresh enough to be released in 2025. But also classic enough that a 1995 release would have also felt realistic. I’m hoping to eventually hook this up to my CRT and give it a playthrough as it was meant to be played.


Dead of Darkness will be available on January 23, 2025, on Steam. A code was provided for the sake of review. Reviewed on PC.