In Darkness – play this mysterious zombie shooter game, find clues & escape the room!
by Antonio Wells
Jan 30, 2013 3:09 PM –
Install
In Darkness and alone is where you find yourself. You have a few guns plus ammo… and you’ll need it because the dark room you’re trapped in has brain hungry zombies dying to feast on your cranium. Can you find the clues and free yourself from the room?
Price: $1.00
Tested on: Samsung Galaxy S3
Content Rating: Medium Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Part mystery puzzler, part shoot ‘em up, part zombie horror game!
- Pretty good 3D graphics!
Cons
- Needs more work: weapons don’t fire properly, adjustments needed with weapon fire reactions, annoying sound effects.
- Controls and weapons can be a bit frustrating.
Features:
In Darkness reminds me of an old mystery game series on Android called Mystique where your goal is to find hidden clues and use them to escape the decrepit dungeon you seem to be locked in. Yet the difference here is that endless hordes of zombies spawn at you but you’re packing infinite artillery to blast the undead. In this first-person shooter you can’t go too gung-ho with your munition and count your shots as you only have so much ammo. In the top left you see your ammunition count, the top right shows your current weapon. The initial levels give you a hand gun, Uzi machine gun and handle pump shotgun. There is a health meter in the top center that gradually creeps upward the longer you stay alive, of course that tanks downward if you are attacked. You control forward/backward movement by touching any portion of the left side of the screen and fire by pressing the circle on the right side; ammo reload will happen automatically when you’re out.
You free yourself from the room by finding clues. For example in the first few levels you find the keyboard, then take it to the desk with old CRT monitor, then go to the laptop stations to flip the switches green, then find the sealed door… yet this only leads you to more locked dungeon zombie blasting hell.
In Darkness is a good attempt to call “beta” in my opinion. It starts well and means well, but there are plenty of gripes about the game. For starters, when you fire at the zombies, more often than so- your weapon simply does not fire. This makes relying on spraying the undead when backed into a corner frustrating if your gun doesn’t fire when you shoot it. Again, regarding weapon fire, when you shoot sometimes it doesn’t seem that the bullets hit zombies and there’s no reaction when you shoot at a barrels or other obstacles. What’s frustrating is that it seems that headshots do not phase zombies (unlike in DEAD TRIGGER) therefore all your shots should be aimed at the torso. This gripe is probably my own fault, but I never actually see the clues I’ve picked up. I just noticed I have them after running around for a while from the on-screen prompt. Maybe that can be more noticeable.
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In Darkness Gameplay 1
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In Darkness Gameplay 2
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In Darkness Gameplay 3
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In Darkness Kill Some Zombies
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In Darkness Showgun Pump Action
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In Darkness Find the Keyboard
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In Darkness Unlock the Doors
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In Darkness Green Light Unlocks Doors
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In Darkness Thats Not the Way Out
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In Darkness Thats the Way Out
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In Darkness You Dead
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In Darkness Menu
Fun Factor:
If the developers can tweak some things with the controls and gaming mechanisms it can be more fun. In its current state I fear that it is a bit too frustrating and repetitious which outweighs a few glimpses of fun as you blast zombies or figure out clues.
Addictive:
In general, the mysterious ‘escape the room’ clue finding nature of the game make it quite addictive. However, for some of the reasons outlined earlier, it could be a bit of a challenge to spark the desire to return to the game in the long run.
Graphics:
In Darkness uses the acclaimed Unity engine for 3D graphics. They are quite good with horror themed textures, but they have a few continuity issues, referring to how bullet ricochets do not react to the total environment like walls, barrels, computers, etc. or worse some zombies.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
When you first begin the game and hear the excruciating groans of women and men in the distance it prompts you to get into gear and rescue them. But you soon learn that it is a background track on repeat and can get distracting and annoying fast. Another peeve is a clacking of your character’s foot steps. It’s as though your bravado protagonist is warring in high heels than combat boots. 
Tags:
3D,
3D Games,
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Game,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
First Person Shooter Game,
In Darkness,
Mystery,
Zombies
Categorised in: Arcade & Action
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