Darkness Ahead

About

Darkness Ahead is a single player action adventure game with a horror theme. It was developed by Useless Machines and was released on November 2, 2016. It received negative reviews from players.

Darkness Ahead is an adventure game with some horror materials. The main goal in the game is finding your little brother in a plateau left in the building process years ago. You follow your brother's traces around the place with the help of tools you find on your adventure.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

36%

Audience ScoreBased on 44 reviews

story4 positive mentions

monetization4 negative mentions

Darkness Ahead features a captivating storyline with elements of horror and adventure, enhanced by intriguing mini-puzzles.
The graphics and sound design are of commendable quality, contributing to an atmospheric experience.
The game is reasonably priced, making it an enticing option for fans of walking simulator/horror/adventure games.

The game suffers from poor optimization, with frequent FPS drops and a lack of customization options for controls.
Many environments are repetitive and lack detail, leading to a boring gameplay experience.
The game has been criticized for being an asset flip, with low effort in design and a lack of originality.

story
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
70%
13%
The story of "Darkness Ahead" revolves around a protagonist searching for his missing brother who disappeared during a camping trip, leading him to an old village filled with horror and adventure elements. While some reviewers find the plot captivating and engaging, others criticize it for being weak and overly simplistic, suggesting that the execution may suffer from low effort in design. Overall, the game is noted for its intriguing mini-puzzles and mysterious narrative, appealing to fans of horror-adventure genres.
- “Darkness Ahead offers a captivating storyline, incorporating elements of horror and adventure through its intriguing mini-puzzles.”
- “The story is simple: the main character is searching for his brother who disappeared on a camping trip, so he heads to the camping site.”
- “Darkness Ahead is a game with a great story.”
- “A very weak horror movie with a strained, difficult storyline.”
- “Looking for your missing sibling, apparently, but does the intricacy of plot matter when confronted with such low-effort asset flipping?”
- “The main plot of the game can be completed in 30-40 minutes.”
graphics
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
42%
25%
The graphics and sound design of the game are generally praised for their commendable quality, with many users finding them satisfying and decent. Even on older hardware, players report a comfortable gaming experience after adjusting graphic settings, highlighting the game's effective lighting and sound elements. Overall, the graphics are considered average but not terrible, contributing positively to the overall experience.
- “The graphics and sound design are of commendable quality.”
- “Graphics quality looks satisfying and sound design is very good.”
- “My PC is quite old (i7-2700k / GTX 560 Ti) but after some changes in graphic options, I had a comfortable gaming experience.”
- “The graphics are average at best.”
- “The graphics are quite outdated and lack detail.”
- “The overall visual presentation feels underwhelming and uninspired.”
monetization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization practices of the developers have been criticized for being unethical, as they allegedly engage in plagiarism by using uncredited assets from other creators, leading to accusations of producing low-quality, cash grab games. This pattern of behavior raises concerns about the integrity of their business model and the treatment of original artists and developers.
- “The developers here didn't credit any of the artists and real, actual game developers who created the assets, so this is plagiarism, as well as a cash grab.”
- “This industry has shown a repeat pattern of unethically dumping other people's work onto Steam as a cheap, nasty cash grab through this account or closely linked/alternate accounts.”
- “The developers here didn't credit any of the artists and real, actual game developers who created the assets, so this is plagiarism, as well as a cash grab.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The music in the game is described as soothing and capable of providing a sense of calm, but it ultimately becomes repetitive and monotonous, contributing to feelings of boredom during gameplay.
- “I relaxed for 5 minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.”
- “After searching all the houses that are the exact same, finding the letters by the barrel fires, then lighting candles to the soundtrack of delayed footsteps, I got depressingly bored.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
25%
50%
The game's optimization has received mixed feedback, with some users reporting severe performance issues even on the lowest settings, while others noted that a recent update significantly improved smoothness and overall performance.
- “The optimization update made the game run much more smoothly on my system.”
- “Horrible optimization, can't even play on the lowest settings.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is noted for its strong sense of mystery and visually appealing graphics; however, some reviewers feel that it does not reach the level of a masterpiece overall.
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is derived from the predictable and scripted nature of the creatures' movements, which contrasts with the lack of meaningful interaction, creating an unintentionally amusing experience.