The Dark Occult

About

"The Dark Occult" is a lovecraftian-themed action-adventure game. Play as a powerful occultist who battles against hordes of nightmarish creatures in a corrupted city. Utilize an arsenal of spells and physical attacks to uncover the truth behind a mysterious cult and their eldritch powers. Can you save the city from the ancient evil that lies within?

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

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

67%

Audience ScoreBased on 634 reviews

atmosphere90 positive mentions

stability52 negative mentions

The game has a great atmosphere and visuals, creating a genuinely creepy experience.
The jump scares are well-timed and effective, contributing to the overall horror experience.
The game offers a challenging experience with puzzles and exploration, keeping players engaged.

The game is plagued with bugs and crashes, making it frustrating to play.
There is a lack of direction and guidance, leading to tedious backtracking and aimless wandering.
The save system is poorly designed, with no auto-save feature and limited save points, causing players to lose progress frequently.

atmosphere
138 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
65%
33%
2%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its dark, creepy, and immersive qualities, enhanced by excellent graphics and sound design that create a constant sense of tension and dread. Many players appreciate the effective use of jump scares and the overall gothic horror aesthetic, although some express frustration with bugs and design flaws that detract from the experience. Overall, the game is recognized for its ability to evoke fear and anxiety, making it a standout in the horror genre.
- “The atmosphere is terrifying, the level designs are clever and I got about 24 hours of dank spooky content out of it.”
- “Great atmosphere, amazing sound design, cool monsters, gorgeous environment, and tension galore.”
- “They did a terrific job creating a tense atmosphere, where you are afraid to open every door and round every corner for fear of what might be on the other side.”
- “The atmosphere is gloomy, dark, unholy, and you should be ready to die many times.”
- “Since you will have access to almost the entire mansion, the game is a real nightmare in the atmosphere and without any hesitation, I would put it on the same level as Alien Isolation in a way that causes stress to the players, knowing at all times that something bad will happen.”
- “It is atmosphere killing.”
gameplay
128 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
55%
20%
The gameplay is a mixed bag, featuring engaging mechanics like using a flashlight to fend off enemies and exploring expansive environments filled with collectibles, but it suffers from repetitiveness and tedious fetch quests. While some players appreciate the tension and atmosphere, many criticize the numerous glitches, crashes, and poorly designed mechanics that detract from the overall experience. Despite its potential, the game often feels bogged down by its reliance on item collection and lack of depth, leading to a frustrating experience for some players.
- “The gameplay, although there are minimal puzzles, focuses on exploring levels, finding objects and keys that will help you progress in the game.”
- “It does a great job of creating a tense environment with some really cool mechanics and methods of storytelling that went against the usual horror game tropes.”
- “The suspense is amazing, most of the jump scares are extremely well done, and overall gameplay is great.”
- “This game could have been great but is held back by a vast array of glitches, crashes, and annoying, tedious, and unfair game mechanics.”
- “The conjuring house has some great potential that's sadly wasted on unimaginative gameplay mechanics, poor pacing, and lack of direction.”
- “The puzzles are tedious, and most of the gameplay defaults to a glorified fetch quest where you will be walking through the same corridors of the house about 10+ times in order to retrieve all the items.”
story
124 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
55%
15%
The story of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players finding it engaging and atmospheric, particularly praising its horror elements and the chilling narrative involving demons and jump scares. However, many others criticize it for being predictable, lacking depth, and overly reliant on fetch quests, which detracts from the overall experience. While the visuals and gameplay mechanics are often highlighted as strong points, the narrative's execution and coherence leave much to be desired, leading to a sense of frustration among players.
- “Has a chilling story with demons and jump scares galore; even getting lost is terrifying, you never can tell what happens next.”
- “The game does a beautiful job combining a solid story in a gothic horror atmosphere with survival horror dread, a peppering of well-timed jump scares, and engaging puzzles in a map so labyrinthian that even trying to remember where to go next can add to your overall confusion and anxiety.”
- “It's not a game that depends on jump scares; it's a game with a story that unfolds in front of you as you find letters and clues to discover who the demon haunting the house is and why.”
- “The story itself is pretty standard stuff, nothing too interesting.”
- “In the end, you will realize the story is mediocre, not bad, not good, just usual and predictable.”
- “The very worst feature, however, is the way the narrative itself unfolds: you find things that unlock certain areas, you've fully explored those rooms, then another plot hook is given to you.”
graphics
114 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
41%
3%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning visuals and atmospheric design, contributing significantly to the horror experience. Many players highlight the detailed environments and effective use of lighting, although some report performance issues and glitches that detract from the overall experience. While the graphics are often rated highly, there is a consensus that they cannot fully compensate for shortcomings in gameplay and story.
- “The graphics and atmosphere are amazing.”
- “The graphics for the large derelict Victorian mansion are superbly detailed with plenty of challenges.”
- “The graphics are absolutely gorgeous and I was constantly on edge every time I opened a door and rounded a corner.”
- “During the game, sometimes the graphics will glitch out for a second in spots; sometimes the game blurs or shakes on purpose, but I have noticed a few instances that do not seem intentional, like clipping.”
- “Their production value can't even redeem this horrid mess of a game, because despite having a PC more than capable of running games more graphically demanding than this, it still struggled to function even normally when on medium detail settings.”
- “Changing the graphics settings does absolutely nothing, so it is something that you just have to put up with.”
stability
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
96%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent crashes, freezes, and game-breaking glitches that hinder progress and enjoyment. Many players report specific instances where the game freezes upon unlocking doors or during inventory management, leading to frustration and the need to restart from checkpoints. While some users appreciate the graphics and gameplay, the overwhelming number of bugs makes it difficult to recommend the game in its current state.
- “Runs great for me at 60 fps with no errors at all except for the tears which can be solved via 'v sync - off' - 5+ hours so far.”
- “I have played about 4 playthroughs trying to get all achievements and end up frustrated every time because of many game-breaking glitches.”
- “This game could have been great but is held back by a vast array of glitches, crashes, and annoying, tedious, and unfair game mechanics.”
- “Extremely buggy, getting killed in safe zones, the woman appears out of nowhere and kills me straight away, she appears to be standing still but flies towards me in the death animation, falling through floors which ruined the game; I wouldn't recommend it in this state!”
music
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
55%
15%
The music in the game has received mixed feedback, with some players appreciating the atmospheric soundtrack and its contribution to the overall ambiance, while others criticized the use of familiar, cheesy tunes reminiscent of low-quality mobile horror games. Despite some initial concerns about the music's quality, many agree that the independent studio did a commendable job with the sound design, enhancing the game's immersive experience.
- “Good graphics, atmosphere, and soundtrack.”
- “The ambiance and music is spot on.”
- “And for an independent studio, they did a good job with the graphics and soundtracks.”
- “I suspected the game to be a little off when I recognized the intro piano song that I would hear on the cheesy Android horror hospital games.”
- “It doesn't have corny music from phone games and corny ghosts or whatever.”
- “After I had spent what felt like an eternity racing around the Victorian labyrinth searching for varied zodiac keys and poring over the frames of YouTube searching for a morsel of inspiration, the novelty of the game quickly wore off as my self-esteem dwindled and I grew tired of the pattern, playing my music in the background as I wandered.”
optimization
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
50%
33%
Overall, the game's optimization has received mixed feedback; while many players did not encounter significant performance issues, there were reports of occasional glitches and microstuttering, particularly when entering new rooms. The graphics and atmosphere are praised for their quality, but players noted that better optimization could enhance the overall experience.
- “Did not run into any performance issues so far.”
- “There are some occasional performance issues, but otherwise this game mostly looks fantastic, from the use of lighting to set the mood, to the dangling cobwebs on the ceilings, the peeling wallpaper with its convincing texturing, and the uber dark occult theme. There's a lot here to offer a horror game fan.”
- “Performance-wise, I only experienced one glitch that prevented me from entering a room, along with what I assume is a developer oversight with the AI.”
- “The graphics, sound, and atmosphere are top notch, with scary details in the design of the house, but the optimization is not the best.”
- “I play the game on an old i5 3570k, 8GB DDR3 RAM, RX 570 8GB, on ultrawide resolution (2560x1080) with 60-70 frames but with enough stuttering.”
- “Loved the game, only downside was the microstuttering when walking into or close to a new room.”
grinding
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and overly repetitive, with players frequently having to redo sections due to glitches and unfair mechanics. Many reviews highlight the frustrating nature of the puzzles and the excessive backtracking required for fetch quests, which detracts from the overall experience despite some genuinely scary moments. Overall, while the game has potential, its grinding elements make it feel unnecessarily long and laborious.
- “This game could have been great but is held back by a vast array of glitches, crashes, and annoying, tedious, and unfair game mechanics.”
- “Every single time I was unfairly killed, I had to redo sections of this game, which largely consisted of running through a hallway, side-stepping very slowly along an edge or through a slit in the wall or crawling along some tedious section of the house to trigger an unskippable in-game cutscene, just to redo a 'chase' sequence and get killed by a glitch again.”
- “The puzzles are tedious, and most of the gameplay defaults to a glorified fetch quest where you will be walking through the same corridors of the house about 10+ times in order to retrieve all the items.”
humor
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is highlighted by the main character's voice acting, which combines confusion and humorous "captain obvious" remarks, eliciting genuine laughter from players. While the game features intimidating bosses that contrast with typical horror game aesthetics, the comedic elements, particularly in voice performance, stand out as a notable aspect of the experience.
- “It actually made me laugh several times.”
- “The main character's voice acting is quite funny as well; it’s like he’s not even afraid, just really confused with a lot of Captain Obvious quotes.”
- “Not sure if it's worth 20 bucks, but the story is pretty interesting, and if nothing else, the voice acting is funny.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players report a strong emotional response to the game, particularly feelings of anger and frustration, especially towards the end of the playthrough. The repetitive nature of gameplay contributes to a sense of emotional exhaustion, making it a notable experience for those who appreciate intense indie horror.
- “I cannot express how much anger this game made me feel towards the end of my playthrough. As an avid indie horror fan, I have played through some stinkers, but this one takes the cake.”
- “Prepare to die over and over, emotionally and literally, as you do the same thing you've already done five times.”