Heartless Dark
- October 14, 2021
- iamRoarke
"Heartless Dark" is a top-down action-roguelike game with survival horror elements, where your flashlight is your only source of light in a dark and ominous environment. Players must manage scarce resources and face hostile furniture while trying to survive and progress through procedurally generated levels. The game is designed for quick pick-up-and-play sessions and offers a challenging yet atmospheric experience.
Reviews
- The game features an excellent atmosphere with immersive sound design and visuals, enhancing the horror experience.
- Gameplay is challenging yet rewarding, encouraging strategic resource management and tactical combat.
- The developer shows a commitment to improving the game based on player feedback, and there are various options to tweak difficulty.
- The AI is poorly designed, with enemies often getting stuck on geometry and displaying dumb behavior.
- The game is prone to crashes, particularly during loading screens, which can disrupt the experience.
- Accuracy issues with weapons can lead to frustrating gameplay, especially when combined with limited ammo and the need to kill specific enemies to progress.
- atmosphere8 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its eerie, claustrophobic environments and a blend of dark humor, creating a tense and immersive experience. Players appreciate the challenging yet rewarding gameplay that enhances the atmospheric depth, often comparing it favorably to top-tier horror and suspense titles. Overall, it delivers a unique and impressive atmospheric experience that stands out in its genre.
“If you're a fan of well-paced, dark atmospheric action with a sense of humor, you'll love this.”
“The atmosphere in this game tops that of even the best AAA horror/suspense titles; what the developer has done to create such an impressive atmosphere is truly remarkable!”
“It's slow, tactical gameplay accentuates its eerie atmosphere and claustrophobic environments, making for a tense experience unlike what you'd expect of a game in this category.”
“If you're looking for horror, I'd say this is more tense atmosphere than it is 'horror'.”
- gameplay3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The gameplay is described as riveting and spooky, featuring simple mechanics that are accessible to newcomers while maintaining a tense and engaging atmosphere. Its slow, tactical approach enhances the eerie and claustrophobic environments, offering a challenging experience enriched with depth and subtle lore that encourages players to return.
“I find the game to be incredibly riveting and tooth-grittingly spooky, with simple enough mechanics for someone with little experience playing video games, while being consistently tense and engaging.”
“Its slow, tactical gameplay accentuates its eerie atmosphere and claustrophobic environments, making for a tense experience unlike what you'd expect of a game in this category.”
“While the game is quite challenging, it features a depth in mechanics and subtle lore which makes for a world of intrigue that keeps you coming back for more.”
“The gameplay feels sluggish and unresponsive, making it frustrating to navigate through the game's environments.”
“I found the mechanics to be overly complicated and not intuitive, which detracted from the overall experience.”
“The pacing is inconsistent, leading to moments of boredom that break the immersion.”
- graphics2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -150 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The graphics are praised for their brilliance, complementing a terrifying and immersive sound design that enhances the horror aesthetic of the roguelike experience.
“Truly brilliant visuals and terrifying, immersive sound design.”
“It's a roguelike with a horror aesthetic, with a big emphasis on audio.”
“The graphics feel outdated and lack the polish expected from modern games.”
“Character models are poorly designed and lack detail, making it hard to connect with the game.”
“The environments are bland and repetitive, which detracts from the overall experience.”
- humor1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in "Heartless Dark" is characterized as a blend of creepiness and dark comedy, providing players with a unique challenge that elicits both tension and amusement.
“Heartless Dark is a good but creepy (and kind of funny) challenge.”