Death Mark

About

"Death Mark" is a horror-adventure game where you, a victim of a mysterious curse, must investigate a haunted mansion to survive. To avoid the grotesque deaths inflicted by angry spirits, you must search your surroundings for clues, engage in combat, and solve riddles to break the curse. The game features a chilling atmosphere, challenging puzzles, and multiple endings based on your choices.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

80%

Audience ScoreBased on 251 reviews

story82 positive mentions

character development4 negative mentions

The art and music are beautifully crafted, enhancing the overall atmosphere of the game.
The story is engaging, with interesting character backstories and a unique take on Japanese urban legends.
The gameplay combines visual novel elements with exploration and puzzle-solving, making it more interactive than typical VNs.

The text speed is painfully slow, with no option to speed it up, leading to frustration for fast readers.
Some puzzles and choices feel arbitrary or illogical, requiring trial and error rather than deductive reasoning.
The game has issues with saving progress, and some players experience crashes, particularly during the final chapter.

story
200 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
56%
3%
The story of the game is generally praised for its engaging and creepy atmosphere, with well-crafted narratives that intertwine various character backstories and urban legends. However, some reviews highlight issues with character development, repetitive settings, and problematic content, particularly regarding the portrayal of sensitive themes. Overall, while the story has its flaws, it captivates players with intriguing twists and a strong connection to the horror genre, making it a worthwhile experience for fans of visual novels.
- “The incredible art and story kept me hooked for the entire time I played it; the twists were great, and the gameplay was unique and engaging.”
- “The story and the characters are great; even if sometimes the game lagged a little, I felt it was worthwhile.”
- “The story has decent plot twists, carefully-laid clues, and an impressive hidden line, so if you're more into the story itself than the gameplay, this game will be to your liking.”
- “And how can you then have a storyline where a ghost's background is that she went through an intense rape/assault that made her suicidal but not understand how these images are not okay for a game like this?”
- “The story doesn't particularly end with the endings and the explanation for what happened is literally 'ha ha ghost business, am I right fellas?'”
- “Most of the ghosts are just story tools and not fully written characters, whose backstories could probably be summarized in two sentences.”
gameplay
93 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
71%
9%
The gameplay of this visual novel is a blend of reading, exploration, and puzzle-solving, with mechanics that require players to choose partners and make strategic decisions to progress the story. While some players appreciate the unique gameplay elements and engaging narrative, others criticize the clunky mechanics, repetitive gameplay loop, and occasional glitches that detract from the overall experience. Overall, the game offers a compelling mix of horror and interactive storytelling, though it may not satisfy everyone due to its execution and design choices.
- “The gameplay allows you to move through locations in real time, find clues, solve puzzles, and this includes variable turn-based ghost confrontations.”
- “The gameplay is a mix between a dungeon crawler and visual novel, which isn't terrible, but when most of the game takes place exploring large areas, there should be a clearer map to reference.”
- “Death Mark is an example of a well-balanced game between horror and story with additional elements of gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is so tedious it ruins everything else.”
- “The gameplay is clunky, basically a point-and-click adventure like the flash games of the early 2000s, but with some user-unfriendly design choices that make it worse than those flash games, while costing $50 more.”
- “The gameplay side is in itself a visual novel combined with puzzles, exploration, and 'turn-based fights'.”
graphics
67 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48%
48%
4%
The graphics in the game are widely praised for their stunning and haunting art style, which effectively enhances the atmospheric horror experience. Many reviewers highlight the beautiful character designs and eerie environments, noting that the visuals contribute significantly to the game's unsettling ambiance. However, some criticism arises regarding the oversexualization of female characters in certain artworks, which may detract from the overall immersion for some players.
- “The game masterfully captures the uneasy and scary atmosphere, blending it seamlessly with an art style that oozes creepiness and an eerie musical score that intensifies the overall experience.”
- “Let's first spend some time to appreciate the graphical art in this game: beautiful, stunning and haunting at the same time, it's such a great job done that it helps increase the overall game quality tremendously.”
- “Death Mark is visually beautiful, yet disturbing and horrifying aesthetics in high quality.”
- “My one real complaint is the blatant oversexualization of some of the female characters in their death artwork (Japan, come on...) if you can overlook these few and far between moments then you're good.”
- “I think I would have been more upset if I had bought it at full price, even if I had the patience to deal with the annoying mechanics, there's a lack of polish and care in this game's visuals and translation that wouldn't make it worth the money.”
- “Despite this though, the visuals are without a doubt disturbing, and achieve the goal of shocking the player, leaving memorable images (pleasant or not) that stay in the player's mind long after completing the game.”
atmosphere
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
38%
5%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its ability to create a deeply immersive and unsettling experience, characterized by excellent sound design, haunting music, and stunning artwork that enhances the horror elements. Reviewers note that the game effectively builds tension through its environments and character interactions, often avoiding cheap jump scares in favor of a more psychological dread. Despite some flaws in gameplay and translation, the overall atmosphere is considered a standout feature that captivates players and draws them into its eerie narrative.
- “The game masterfully captures the uneasy and scary atmosphere, blending it seamlessly with an art style that oozes creepiness and an eerie musical score that intensifies the overall experience.”
- “The atmosphere is really well done, as you constantly get the sense of foreboding dread every area you enter.”
- “There was just something about the looming dread, the unpredictability, the whispers, the jump scares… all of them creating this unique atmosphere that I can hardly compare to any other games I’ve played.”
- “This is a waste of time with trials/errors and an immediate restart (spoils the atmosphere, would be better if it had some kind of points system or consequences).”
- “I'm not sure why it feels the need to completely deflate its atmosphere by forcing the player to meet very narrow item/character requirements that funnel you into asinine deaths and restarts, only for chapters to end in a hilarious turn-based combat puzzle thing.”
- “Death mark manages to nail the horror atmosphere, which literally left me terrified while playing.”
music
51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
39%
6%
The music in the game is widely praised for its ability to enhance the atmospheric horror experience, with many reviewers noting that it effectively complements the visuals and narrative. The soundtrack is described as chilling and fitting, creating a sense of unease that aligns well with the game's themes. Overall, the sound design, including both music and sound effects, is considered a strong point, contributing significantly to the game's immersive and eerie ambiance.
- “The game masterfully captures the uneasy and scary atmosphere, blending it seamlessly with an art style that oozes creepiness and an eerie musical score that intensifies the overall experience.”
- “The music alone is worth the full price of this game; the normal tracks perfectly hit the exact feeling they're searching for, and the horror tracks still gave me chills no matter how many times I heard them played.”
- “Each moment has its own specific song, and it never failed to complement the moments the game was showing.”
- “The music is extremely well suited to every scene that it has become flawless; the main theme perfectly captures the elements of horror, pressure, persecution, and death, evoking the pleasure of death's horror.”
- “The second game has better music, slightly better live or die sections, better art, better character sprites, etc. It's still not great, but it seems like a more fleshed-out experience than this one.”
- “The ambient sound during exploration, such as cracking wood, cicadas, dog barking, or weird whispering sounds from nowhere, can easily chill down my spine and create an eerie atmosphere without any music.”
character development
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
33%
44%
Overall, reviews indicate a significant lack of character development in the game, which detracts from player attachment and emotional investment in the characters. While the episodic structure and visual design are praised, the brief interactions and repetitive explanations hinder deeper connections, leaving many players feeling indifferent towards the cast. Despite an intriguing plot, the absence of meaningful character growth is a common critique.
- “Art (and sound design) is also amazing, from character designs to backgrounds to CGs.”
- “From distinctive character design to grainy detailed background, it creates a mature style and unsettled environment that works so well.”
- “The episodic structure aids the ghost investigations, but hinders any ability for character development to happen.”
- “Some aspects of the story did get rather redundant, such as having to explain the situation with the mark to each new character, along with not having much character development with side characters, hence being the reason as to why the plot is rated a 4/5.”
- “Given that the chapters can feel rather short, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of character development.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and frustrating, often requiring trial and error or external help to progress. While the game attempts to reward investigative play, many feel it ultimately detracts from the experience, leading to a lack of suspense and enjoyment. Overall, the grinding mechanics are viewed as a significant drawback, making the game feel unpolished and a poor investment.
- “The gameplay is so tedious it ruins everything else.”
- “In doing so, it loses any sort of suspense or tension - it just feels tedious and frustrating and like it wasn't even playtested.”
- “However, the mind-numbing tedious combinations to advance the story, as well as the broken chapter 6 that can no longer be accessed on Windows 10, means this is a waste of time and money for any would-be buyer.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game blends horror with unexpected humor, featuring fanservice moments and amusingly simplistic animations that contrast with its eerie atmosphere. While it initially aims to create tension, the gameplay often leads to absurd deaths and comical turn-based combat puzzles, resulting in a unique and entertaining experience as players progress.
- “But the funny thing is, although this game marketed itself as a 'horror' game, you will be surprised by some fanservice moments throughout the gameplay.”
- “The character art is gorgeous, the environments really contribute to the overall eeriness, but the few animations that exist are so simply animated that they look hilarious.”
- “It may startle the first time, but it becomes rather hilarious as the exploration progresses.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game "Death Mark" offers moderate replayability with multiple endings that encourage players to explore different choices throughout the chapters and the overall conclusion. However, the replay value may be limited in subsequent playthroughs, as the next entry does not significantly enhance this aspect. Players can save during partner switches, allowing for experimentation with choices and endings.
- “There are multiple endings to Death Mark, which allows for some interesting replay value, with different outcomes in each chapter, as well as with the game's conclusion.”
- “Players are allowed to save while switching partners in the mansion and exploration areas, enabling them to experiment with choices and endings, enhancing replayability.”
- “Not much replayability as the next entry negates it.”
- “Players are allowed to save while switching partners in the mansion and exploration area, which allows for experimentation with choices and endings, enhancing replayability.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent visual and audio glitches, particularly on the Steam Deck, leading to a frustrating experience. Many users report that these bugs detract from the overall enjoyment, with some expressing regret over their purchase.
- “It also often started to have visual, audio, and even gameplay glitches as it approached crash time—character portraits not appearing when they spoke, audio cues not playing.”
- “While the art, story, and writing are all amazing, this game is a buggy mess, at least on Steam Deck and not 'verified' at all.”
- “Buggy as hell; I should have refunded it if I knew that was just another bug.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
Overall, players appreciate the game's art and story, but some have reported performance issues on the Steam Deck. However, the game maintains solid performance during extended playtime, with one user completing 21 hours without significant problems.
- “The art is gorgeous, the story is amazing, and overall I had a great time (Steam Deck performance issues notwithstanding).”
- “Death Mark runs in solid performance during my completed 21 hours.”
- “The game struggles with optimization, leading to frequent frame drops even on high-end hardware.”
- “I experienced significant lag during intense gameplay moments, which really detracted from the overall experience.”
- “Despite the game's potential, the poor optimization makes it nearly unplayable at times.”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game elicits mixed feelings from players, with some appreciating the clever narrative setups that reward exploration and attention to detail, while others express frustration over certain gameplay mechanics and the portrayal of sensitive themes. The contrast between heartwarming moments and jarring imagery has led to a disjointed emotional experience for some players.
- “Maybe I'm the dumb one, but some of them felt like the solutions were very smartly set up earlier on in the story and made me feel rewarded by remembering a certain detail or having figured out a part of the mystery before an encounter by reading up on files I found while exploring.”
- “It made me giggle how some of the achievements literally said 'you witnessed the heartwarming passing of [insert ghost name]'; no, I didn't: all I saw was a sprite I literally just saw once disintegrate with white particles.”