Welcome To The Dark Place

About

Welcome To The Dark Place is a single player action game. It was developed by Zeekerss and was released on October 24, 2025. It received very positive reviews from players.

Welcome To The Dark Place is a haunting text-based auditory experience that plunges players into a surreal nightmare filled with cryptic clues and eerie warnings. Navigate a twisted world where liars are marked by red blots, food leads to death, and mysterious holes hint at a deeper Undergoing. Trust is scarce, and the only hope lies with the elusive train escape.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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91%

Audience ScoreBased on 395 reviews

story11 positive mentions

music3 negative mentions

The mystery element and worldbuilding are captivating, keeping players engaged as they piece together the story and solve puzzles.
The sound design is exceptional, creating an immersive atmosphere that enhances the horror experience.
The game encourages exploration and creativity, with players needing to draw their own maps and take notes to navigate the expansive world.

The game is incredibly long and features permadeath, which can be frustrating as players lose all items upon death, especially with sudden instakill tiles.
Some puzzles are overly difficult or obtuse, leading to confusion and potential frustration for players trying to progress.
The lack of visuals and reliance on text can make the experience feel tedious for those who prefer more interactive gameplay.

story
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
37%
53%
10%
The game's story is a mixed bag, with some players appreciating its unique storytelling and atmospheric elements, while others find it confusing and poorly executed. Many enjoy the exploration and puzzle-solving aspects, which enhance the narrative experience, but some criticize the writing quality and navigation challenges. Overall, the story offers intriguing moments and a compelling hook, though it may leave players feeling lost at times.
- “The atmosphere, music, rare moments of imagery, sound design, and map mechanic turn what would normally be a boring text adventure game into some of the coolest storytelling and exploration that may be possible for a game medium like this.”
- “Despite some bugs, the story writing is amazing and I really love the mechanics of getting to search all around the map, discovering new places and making connections to older ones.”
- “Entertaining and interesting story that keeps you second guessing around every corner of the game.”
- “Oh and the text prompts sometimes assume you are familiar with a scene or creature already, which is pretty confusing as I never did encounter them outside of the prompts that assume that I had seen them already. I'm not sure if this is yet another case of terrible text prompts like the dog quest or some cut content left in the game by accident.”
- “Some crucial story mode options are insufferable; imagine Telltale game bad choices but now you're blind.”
- “The story makes no sense; might as well have it written with an LLM.”
graphics
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
63%
15%
The game's graphics are minimal, relying heavily on text and sound design to create an immersive and unsettling atmosphere, which many players find enhances the horror experience. While some users express a desire for more visuals and a more cohesive map system, the clever use of imagination and audio effectively fills the gaps, making the game uniquely engaging. Overall, the lack of traditional graphics is seen as a bold choice that contributes to the game's eerie charm, though it may not appeal to everyone.
- “The game has an interesting aesthetic and is a clever use of a text-based horror game.”
- “The few visuals you get throughout the game do a really good job of keeping you immersed.”
- “For a game with almost zero visuals, I saw everything with Zeeker's amazing text descriptions bringing the world to life.”
- “The count on the VIC-20 has more graphics than this game.”
- “For a free game, it's good, but the only thing that makes me not recommend it is that I think there should be more visuals of what's happening, like the happy old guy or the cannibal.”
- “I dunno, I just wish this had more visuals, a better in-game map maker, and absolutely wasn't perma-death.”
gameplay
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
67%
14%
The gameplay is a unique blend of text-based adventure and map exploration, requiring players to manually chart their progress, which can be both immersive and frustrating. While the lack of a save mechanic and the trial-and-error nature may deter some, many players find the atmospheric storytelling and engaging mechanics rewarding. Overall, the gameplay offers a fresh experience that combines cozy moments with intense exploration, though it may not appeal to everyone due to its complexity and design choices.
- “And the game isn't even just scary; there are so many immersive moments that are just so engaging. This game is also surprisingly cozy when it isn't scaring the player, and the text-based gameplay turns out to be extremely immersive (even more so than games with actual visuals? How does that work?)”
- “The gameplay consists of choosing cardinal directions to move, making decisions about how you act, and literally drawing up a map of the area using an in-game drawing tool.”
- “Progress wipes fully on death, and I didn't know how to feel about it at first, but considering you can go back to some of the same areas and have a completely different experience, the gameplay loop feels fresh every time in my opinion.”
- “The whole crux of the gameplay, being the map, the thing that makes it unique among text-based adventures (which was not in the game until suggested post-release), feels terrible to interact with.”
- “The map as a gameplay feature feels horrible to use and interact with.”
- “I was pretty patient with it; I got quite a lot of the map charted out before I realized that in regards to beating the game, I wasn't much further than I was when I started out after 20ish hours of gameplay.”
atmosphere
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
37%
16%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its ability to create a tense and immersive experience, enhanced by exceptional sound design and clever use of audio. Players appreciate the blend of horror, humor, and poetic moments, which contribute to a uniquely engaging environment that elevates the traditional text adventure format. Overall, the atmosphere is described as terrifying yet captivating, making it a standout feature of the game.
- “I highly recommend headphones and a dark room to take advantage of the excellent atmosphere building.”
- “Fantastic atmosphere and incredible moments of poetry mixed with horror and humor.”
- “Most of the time, you’re relying on sound alone and the sound design builds an atmosphere that’s tense, immersive, and genuinely creepy.”
- “The atmosphere is juicy.”
- “Very unnerving atmosphere; it's incredibly scary despite not having many visuals. Play alone in the middle of the night.”
- “Atmosphere built through the sound design is fantastic.”
humor
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is described as a blend of wacky and dark, effectively interspersed with unsettling moments to create a unique atmosphere. Players appreciate the context-reactive text that enhances both comedic and tense scenes, while the game's intro and various endings offer a mix of hilarity and morbid themes. Overall, while some feel the humor is underutilized, it still contributes significantly to the game's charm and experience.
- “There are so many moments in the game that are genuinely unnerving and will make you feel uncomfortable while being interspersed with some really funny and witty jokes.”
- “It's got some wacky humor and horror, and it also does an excellent job in building atmosphere with audio and text.”
- “Context-reactive text sets the tone for hilarious or action-packed scenes and scary or stressful sequences.”
music
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
28%
43%
The music in the game is described as a blend of uncomfortable and calming, effectively enhancing the dark atmosphere and contributing to moments of tension and wonder. Players note that the audio design, including elements like "elevator music," adds a unique layer to the storytelling, making the experience more engaging despite the challenges of deciphering certain musical cues. Overall, the soundscape is praised for transforming a text-based adventure into a captivating exploration of themes and emotions.
- “Through the use of subtle visuals such as the way text scrolls or presents itself on screen, alongside audio and music, this game has given me several situations and sequences of high intensity and wonder.”
- “The atmosphere, music, rare moments of imagery, sound design, and map mechanic turn what would normally be a boring text adventure game into some of the coolest storytelling and exploration that may be possible for a game medium like this.”
- “The music is uncomfortable at times and weirdly calming at other times, which all perfectly fits the dark place as a whole.”
- “I was forced to try and escape but the route was unfamiliar and my time limited, the cacophony of sound from the thing coming after me to the alien music quickening ever louder and the descriptions of rooms I was rushing through before my inevitable death finally reached me in an almost relieving pop...to finally be free of that place, only to realize I may have to go back and find a way through later.”
- “Ending 100, ah fuck this is gonna be hard; elevator music is peak goofy.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly due to obtuse puzzles and the effort required to fully explore and map the world. Additionally, the frequent need for aura farming in response to cryptic dialogue adds to the overall grindiness of the experience.
- “Some of the puzzles are a little obtuse, and the world can be tedious to fully map out (I used Aseprite instead of the built-in map).”
- “The game also has a problem of basically aura farming every time something cryptic is said.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has been criticized for its stability, with users reporting several buggy tiles and expressing disappointment over the lengthy development time relative to its basic and unstable state.
- “There are a few tiles in the game that are buggy.”
- “This game took way too long to come out for how basic and buggy it is.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The optimization of the text adventure game has been criticized, as it unexpectedly causes overheating on computers, contrasting sharply with the smooth performance of more graphically intensive games like Portal 2.
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is characterized by its fantastical and bizarre elements, which allow for rapid shifts in mood and tone, keeping players engaged and on their toes.
- “Fantastical, bizarre, and always capable of shifting emotional gears in a flash.”