Dark Fracture: Prologue

About

Dark Fracture: Prologue is a single player survival simulation game with horror and mystery themes. It was developed by Twisted II Studio and was released on August 25, 2020. It received positive reviews from players.

Add the full Dark Fracture experience to your wishlist Join our community About the GameDark Fracture: Prologue is the introductory chapter of the first-person psychological horror experience Dark Fracture. In this free stand-alone game, you will get a taste of what it is like to face the inner chaos of a tormented mind. Witness the world change around you as the barrier between reality…

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85%

Audience ScoreBased on 712 reviews

story31 positive mentions

stability11 negative mentions

Very atmospheric and creepy horror experience with a great psychological and unsettling vibe.
Effective and well-placed jump scares that enhance the horror without being overused.
Good visuals, sound design, and voice acting that contribute to immersion and tension.

The game is short and serves mainly as a prologue, leaving many story elements unexplained and ending abruptly.
Several bugs and technical issues, including freezing, UI problems, and unresponsive controls, impacting playability.
Some mechanics like sanity and lighting can feel clunky or frustrating, and lack polish, reducing the overall experience.

story
90 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
60%
6%
The story is generally seen as intriguing and atmospheric, with a strong prologue that sets up a compelling horror premise, though many find it confusing, incomplete, or too vague at this stage. Players appreciate the subtle storytelling through environment and voice acting but desire more depth, clearer objectives, and a more fleshed-out plot in the full game. While some criticize it as typical or weak, the overall consensus is that the story shows great potential and leaves many eager for continuation.
- “The quality is stunning, the voice acting is extremely believable, and the story is genius!”
- “Getting bits and pieces of the story through environment and through interacting with different objects is cool, I adore subtle storytelling.”
- “I really enjoyed this prologue dark psychological horror; I can get behind the beautiful atmosphere, very interesting story and great potential. Definitely be purchasing the full game.”
- “Although this game is free, the story is very weak and incomplete and does not tell you much.”
- “Not scary, story is very confusing and basically non-existent.”
- “The story is very very predictable and has no real grab.”
gameplay
67 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
63%
4%
The gameplay blends classic horror walking-simulator elements with a sanity mechanic inspired by titles like Amnesia and Visage, featuring exploration, environmental puzzles, and a standout camera flash mechanic for lighting. While the atmosphere and scares are effective and the controls comfortable, the gameplay is often described as basic, limited, and somewhat unpolished, with some players finding certain mechanics like the sanity meter underdeveloped or frustrating. Overall, it shows promise but could benefit from deeper, more refined mechanics to enhance engagement and originality.
- “Dark fracture gameplay: sanity slipping into madness psychological horror at its peak!”
- “Some parts feel slightly unpolished (mostly the UI for my part, I'm not a fan of the scary type of font as it doesn't feel/look clean to me personally), but that camera flashing mechanic got me peeing my pants, good stuff.”
- “An immersive horror experience that was quite fun and caught me off guard a few times, definitely shows potential for the full game to be like an Amnesia: The Dark Descent kind of gameplay while featuring encounters that trigger when you wouldn't expect or the exact trigger isn't clear (reminded me of PT).”
- “But at the same time, the gameplay is so basic and limited you could get about the same experience wearing headphones while playing a non-commentary playthrough.”
- “The only problem there is that this taster is too convoluted, yet also too short, to be able to overcome the lack of any actual mechanics for producing adrenaline.”
- “Besides the somewhat clunky mechanics that take away from the overall experience, the game is essentially a walking simulator with jump scares designating when you've 'achieved' something.”
atmosphere
63 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
39%
5%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for being tense, eerie, and immersive, effectively using haunting visuals, sound design, and psychological horror elements to keep players on edge without relying heavily on cheap jump scares. While some find the setting a bit run-down or the puzzles confusing, the overall consensus highlights a strong, creepy ambiance that enhances the horror experience, making the demo especially promising and engaging.
- “The atmosphere is tense and eerie, enhanced by the game's haunting visuals and sound design.”
- “This game for a free-to-play demo of a horror game was amazing, atmospheric and genuinely put me on edge. I honestly cannot wait for the full release because this will be an amazing game that could genuinely scare me like the demo did (and it takes a lot to put me on edge in a horror game). This game is promising and I wish all the best to the developers when making this masterpiece.”
- “This is really impressive production quality for an indie game studio; visuals are comparable to AAA and there's such a thick, tense atmosphere throughout such that even if nothing was actually happening I was constantly on edge.”
- “It does well in creating a creepy and uneasy atmosphere, but the occasional jump scares are a bit more underwhelming than in other games.”
- “The atmosphere is not ugly but this game needs to clarify what a player needs to do in order to proceed further into the story.”
- “I would love to see this game polished, with a better atmosphere, and larger focus on the psychological horror.”
graphics
57 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
51%
44%
5%
The game's graphics are widely praised for their high quality, smooth performance, and effective use of Unreal Engine 4, creating a tense and eerie atmosphere that enhances the horror experience. While some users note minor optimization issues or menu navigation difficulties, most agree the visuals contribute significantly to the game's immersive and creepy ambiance. Overall, the graphics are regarded as a major strength, comparable to larger AAA titles and crucial to the game's appeal.
- “The atmosphere is tense and eerie, enhanced by the game's haunting visuals and sound design.”
- “This game is creepy man, it has very nice frame rate and very nice graphics, seeing this in Unreal Engine 4 is mind blowing.”
- “This is really impressive production quality for an indie game studio, visuals are comparable to AAA and there's such a thick, tense atmosphere throughout such that even if nothing was actually happening I was constantly on edge.”
- “Cheap graphics with very poor optimization.”
- “Trying to navigate the graphical option menu alone was a complete nightmare for me and I almost gave up at that point.”
- “For some reason this game was unhappy with my higher resolution monitor and it was really hard to click anything or even change the graphical settings.”
stability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
92%
The game suffers from numerous bugs affecting basic functions like pausing, unpausing, quitting, and UI interactions, making it largely unstable and sometimes unplayable. However, some minor glitches and control issues are considered acceptable given its pre-release demo status, with users hopeful for improvements in the full version.
- “The prologue is very buggy; the game freezes and I can't do anything.”
- “So, as of now, for me it's just a buggy mess that's unplayable.”
- “The UI and game itself is very buggy and incomplete.”
monetization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization approach for "dark fracture: prologue" is heavily criticized as it functions primarily as a free advertisement for an unreleased game, rather than a standalone product. This tactic is viewed as misleading, exploitative, and damaging to the gaming community by occupying market space without offering genuine content or value.
- “While it might seem like an innocuous mistake, publishing demos and advertisements as if they are full games is misleading and in some ways harmful.”
- “Often developers may choose to incorrectly publish demo/advertisements as separate games as a cheap way to bypass paying Valve for marketing presence on the Steam front page, which may seem clever to them, but it's harmful behaviour and it's not good for gamers.”
- “This advertisement is taking up marketing space and visibility that would be better made available to a developer that's done the right thing and created a full game.”
music
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The music effectively enhances the game's atmosphere, using well-chosen soundtracks and ambient music to build tension and occasional scares. While some players found the volume inconsistent or desired more varied spooky tracks and jump scares, overall the soundtrack successfully supports the horror experience.
- “Well chosen soundtrack, but it was too loud in some places - 7/10.”
- “Right tone, right soundtrack, and the player will scare himself long before any monster shows up.”
- “While the story/action was a little predictable and followed a lot of the tropes of the genre, the ambient sound and music worked very nicely to set a terrific atmosphere for these tropes to work.”
- “You will have to wait as the song plays then switches channels a few times.”
- “Continue to wait and do not touch it and eventually the radio will turn back on by itself with the original song you had playing when you turned it on yourself and the achievement will eventually pop up.”
- “Well chosen soundtrack, but it was too loud in some places.”
humor
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is a mix of light, gentle moments and some funny attempts at scares, offering occasional comic relief within a primarily scary experience. However, some players found the humor childish or undermined by language issues and less effective scares. Overall, the humor adds charm but can feel inconsistent.
- “Fun horror game with some good scares and some funny trying-to-scare-you moments.”
- “A funny horror game, but so far something is not very clear what to do and who is to blame.”
- “I also appreciate the humor that is gently sprinkled in here and there.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect shows potential through character attachment and dramatic moments, though it sometimes lacks originality and could benefit from more expressive voice acting. Elements like the sanity meter help create a sense of urgency and immersion, enhancing the overall emotional engagement.
- “Point 4 isn't particularly original either, but could succeed if it gives you a strong enough attachment to your character and culminates in a dramatic/emotional payoff.”
- “Even if this isn't completely a survival game, it had aspects of it, like the sanity meter, that made me feel like I needed to find as much stuff as I could to help myself survive.”
- “It's alright, voice acting could be a little more emotional on some occasions.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
67%
Users find the grinding in the game somewhat tedious and repetitive, especially when searching for items multiple times, which can be frustrating but not overwhelmingly so. Despite this, the experience is still manageable and doesn't significantly detract from overall enjoyment.
- “Get tedious with the drawers because when you complete this one, it's going to leave you wanting, wanting for more.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews do not provide clear information about the game's replayability, making it difficult to determine how engaging the game remains after multiple playthroughs.