Into The Dark: Ultimate Trash Edition Review

Maximum Boobage! Opening the game for the first time, I was presented with a settings screen which made it immediately obvious Into the Dark didn’t take itself seriously. Loading the game up I was expecting humour throughout.

The story follows Peter, a private investigator who is tasked with finding a cheating husband and collecting evidence about the affair. It’s all about the money, stretching legalities isn’t an issue. The scene is filled with all sorts of evil, from brutal murders to zombies and communism.

Graphically the game looks gloomy and depressing. Textures look average but don’t expect ground-breaking graphics options here, expect boxy environments and limited particle effects. The lighting makes the scenery look great and really adds to the atmosphere. Putting the occasional joke texture aside, nothing deteriorates the quality of the game from lack of attention to detail.

The gameplay is a simple object hunter which requires some puzzle solving. Finding interactable objects will also be required to progress through the game. There is some shooting involved, but this appears to be minimal and for the majority of the time you will be alone. The gameplay feels lonely although for the gameplay it makes sense. Trying to battle your way through enemies while looking for obscure objects would be frustrating and unnecessary.

The games humour, which it appears to pride itself on is very good. Much of the scenery is designed around classic nerd humour. One of my favourite things about my time in the game was drinking a bottle of schnapps and then singing to myself while appearing to be mildly drunk. It doesn’t affect the overall gameplay, but it does provide a series of satisfying side-lines. Some of the  jokes reveal themselves to be more intelligent than the classic pop culture. I did feel like some of it went over my head, the majority of the jokes however, I found very amusing.

The music in the game is acceptable though is repetitive which did frustrate me a bit after a while with the same looping track. It keeps the pace of the game and does add to the ambiance of the levels themselves. Sound effects are of a good quality and give a good representation of the game’s content.

Looking back at the Steam page, there are lots of claims about how bad the game is. While the game is good, many elements of the game are sub-par. Whether the developers intentionally gimped some of the game to adhere to the design of the game or they wrote the description after realising the quality is not clear. Is it an excuse for flaws within the game or is it a genuine goal of the game as a touch and cheek theme? Into the Dark is a great game if you are looking for an experience which will entertain you for a few hours but don’t expect it to become a memorable experience.

Into the Dark is a mix of good and bad. The low price accurately reflects the quality of the game. Expect an experience here are no bells and whistles and an attempt to capture you for a short time with lots of humour. There isn’t much to be said about the story and the gameplay, its forgettable. A throwaway experience filled with cheap thrills. It has some issues such as the memory issue that the developers have chosen to be open about and an issue with the game being a little bland, but I would recommend this to people looking to buy a game for a cheap price and mediocre gameplay.

REVIEW CODE: A FREE PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.