Wouldn’t it be cool to play as a vampire and using stealth tactics to lure your victims into submission? After all, vampires are (in a ‘typical’ sense) are tailored for this type of strike as they can turn into a mist, bat, rat or whatever the case maybe. Pretty much the ultimate stealth machine. And as strange as it may seem, I only recall just one video game that utilise this and it forms part of a side quest (if you will) – the Elder Scrolls games (e.g. Oblivion). There could be others however I’m really stumped to think of any (as most are played as an adventure / RPG game). Well here arrives one to fill that ‘stealth vampire’ gameplay gap thus forms the bases of this review – Dark from Kalypso Media (Dungeons / Tropico series). The net result was a pretty average game to say the least as far as stealth gameplay is concerned. It should provide more innovative ideas instead of the same ole understanding the ‘patrolling pattern’ then go for the kill – that is vary the gameplay at least.
The main plot is all about the main character Eric Bane, who was turned into a vampire thus suffers from amnesia (?). He also learns that his transformation is not complete and to make it ‘complete’ if he drinks the blood of the vampire who turned him or seek an elder to suck his/her blood. If he (Eric) fails, he’ll become a ghoul – a mindless creature. That backstory (the ghoul thingy) I thought it was well done tying up the relationship between vampires and ghouls. Of course, it’s not as simple as that – actually it almost is and this amnesia thing, like I mentioned time and time again in my previous reviews, is a massive copout to tell a story. Rarely I have seen amnesia stories actually pans out well enough to tell an engaging story. This is not one of them.
As advertised, the gameplay is regarded as an action stealth game and that it is, period. Nothing more, nothing less. On the surface this maybe a good thing if you like stealth games (like me) however there’s only so much stealth you can do - meaning vary the gameplay a little bit more. Or if you can’t, vary the locations – anything. Here it’s just a simple rinse, repeat type of game – all the locals feel similar with the same stealth gameplay that was done many, many times before this game. This is a total lost opportunity as mentioned in my opening paragraph, there are not many stealth vampire games out there – be more creative. Admittedly the relationship between the ghouls and vampires was indeed a nice touch (as I haven’t heard about this before) however it needs more of that.
Even the locals felt the same – same offices, same buildings, just different layouts. And speaking of which, the layouts mostly used the same map-buildng thought – meaning you have a large room (map) connected by some narrow corridor only to lead to another large room and so it continues until the end. For example: there was a large room where there’s literally no enemies in sight. You head towards the elevator and then a scripted alarm trigger. Suddenly this large room is filled with enemies. And this happened more than once. This also applies to the stealth gameplay – fun the begin with however can get tedious later on. It really needs more varied gameplay – like playing a minigame like terminal hacking, for instance.
The game also can be tagged as a role-playing game. Meaning Eric gains experience points for killing his foes. He gets more experience points surprising his enemies before the kill and rewarded a lot more if no alarms triggered during a mission. This part I enjoy as it encourages you to think before you act. Experience points are spent by enhancing Eric’s vampiric abilities – a bit of a strange concept as Eric is not deemed as a fully-fledged vampire yet capable of being the uber of vampires using this method. And to prove this point, I maximise all of Eric’s vampire abilities roughly two thirds into the game yet that was obtained by earning perfect scores on each map and killing everyone. So, I’m not sure if the developers meant to design it this way (thinking not many players will be able to do this) or could be an oversight during testing. My two cents states it’s an oversight.
The vampire abilities are well thought out to say the least. Most felt like what the vampire skills ‘should be’ – subjectively (like turning into a mist or teleporting (a.k.a. being invisible) to name a few). Sadly, there’s no turning into a bat though or even a rat. Yet there are some skills that are extremely overpowered like seeing humans through walls (as it takes away the stealth element) however I guess that’s part of being a vampire. Yet, because of some skills are indeed overpowered (and I won’t say what – discover them yourself), it makes other vampiric skills obsolete. During my playthrough, I used only a quarter of what’s been offered and still able to make it through without breaking too much of a sweat.
And that’s the main issue with this game – it’s not that difficult. I played it on hard and before I go on, there are three levels of difficulty being easy, medium and hard. The difference between them is the number of saves – easy has unlimited, medium has two per checkpoint and hard has no saves (other than checkpoints). Granted under hard, it does take more time to complete as you need to analyse movement patterns to get that stealthy kill. If the enemies are alerted, the alert meter slowly decreases over time so it’s a matter of, yet again, a waiting game. And besides, stealthy kills scores you more experience points whilst hand-to-hand combat is pretty clumsy. Avoid that if you can.
About the difficulty, the game is pretty much a stock-standard stealth game with uber vampire powers. Granted it will take you longer to complete the game under hard (thus getting your money worth) however it can be a little frustrating at best. Also, the entire ‘feel’ for this game (being a gothic / vampiric flair) sends mixed messages. I’m not sure if the developers are trying to be serious or humorous. I think they are trying to enforce the ‘gothic’ lifestyle (like the dances you see in the ‘hub’ (nightclub) as it’s pretty accurate) however it feels more tongue-in-cheek than ‘gothic’. And yours truly knows about this style as I was one of them (and still is in a certain way) however this game made me feel a little cringy at best.
I’m a fan of stylish graphics with cell shaded and, if done well, is pretty nice to see. Dark is a cell shaded game however it looks average at best. Actually, it looks like the old game XIII (2003) so it’s definitely behind the times by ten years. Borderlands (2011) looks a lot better however, I guess visuals are not everything (but still have an impact regardless). The voice acting, on the other hand, is pretty poor. Eric is your ‘stock-standard’ deep grunting dude and the rest of the crew sounds like they are reading straight from the script – literally with little emotion. Yet I quite like the song ‘Become the Night (Dark Inside)’ – that’s the song you’ll hear in the nightclub.
As far as value for your buck, playing this on hard will increase your gameplay time, more even if you strive to aim for that perfect run (meaning you don’t alert any guards). Playing the ‘perfect’ run will earn you more experience points than going on a mass murderous rampage. I have invested 20 hours and scored that perfect run. Also, aiming that high will net you maxing your skills roughly two thirds in – basically you will become that uber vampire.
Beyond the single player campaign, there are a series of challenges where you basically complete a selection of single player maps and beat the time. Personally, I haven’t tried this as the nature of stealth games is to inspect your surroundings then go for the move, not rushing through the levels. Basically, it’s not my style. For achievement hunters, there are thirty-one to collect and the perfect single player run can net twenty-seven of them (I grabbed twenty-six). There are also six steam cards to collect (for which the artwork is pretty nice) and five badges to earn.
So, as an overall assessment of this game, the concept of playing a vampire using stealth will make a great opportunity as this concept rarely has been done. Dark, grabbing this opportunity, didn’t quite hit the mark to make it memorable enough. The game plays upon a little too much ‘stereotypical’ ideas (e.g. main character looking intense with a deep guttural voice). At least vary the locations a bit or spice up the gameplay however that was not the case. It plays and feels like an average game at best. You can say I was a little disappointed.