Most horror games really work for me because they tell scary stories more than mechanically scaring me in the moment. I love SOMA dearly because its story, in spite of what even the developers agree is pointless gameplay, was special. There are exceptions... an exception? The resident evil series, despite its immense dumbness, has managed to frighten me pretty much 100% mechanically.

Darkwood is special because it can join resident evil in that exclusive club of horror games that can really viscerally get me, and it doesn't have to be dumb as a bag of rocks either. Im not gonna call it genius, but Darkwood is clearly operating on a higher level than it ever had to. The dialogue has an opaque, heavy quality to it that bears sinking your teeth into to find meaning.

The real main event here is the visual and audio presentation. The game is uniquely presented in a top-down perspective, with your characters vision limited to line-of-sight within a narrow cone. The game visually obscures things from you just enough to stress you out, while making sure you can HEAR them coming long before you see them. Darkwood knows your imagination is the scariest game of all, and masterfully plays your senses + your mind to convince you that a barricaded door is all that stands between you and a nightmarish death.

Darkwood needs to be seen to be believed, and if you enjoy horror games whatsoever, it is a must-try.