Darkwood - The Greatest Horror Game with No Jumpscares

[Music] devil [ __ ] your mother get away from the house we all know what a fairy tale is does Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Little Red Riding Hood and so Gretel those are common enjoyable fairy tales told through generations but if we take a closer look at then they come off as pretty dark and old hag attempts to poison a young girl to death and kill the dwarves that get in her way a young girl finds her grandmother eaten alive by a werewolf all the while the wolf attempting do the same to her Hansel and Gretel literally it kidnapped by a cannibalistic witch in the forest this one is more okay though cuz it's German these are all happy fun fairy tales we know so what happens when you have a story that literally calls itself a dark fairy tale exit show item eat the old lady I buy it into her body the mushroom juice flares onto my face and says I failed a woman's feeble hands tried to put me away but they're too weak and my hungers too great she kicks about only slightly when I bite it in her face I swallow one child after an extremely depressing monologue about a plague in forest ravaging Poland you wake up on a desk looking around you noticed medical equipments and cages you're a doctor a doctor who appears to be doing his best to try and stop the plague after a bit of tutorial you immediately axe the dying dog and set out into a creepy forest to find an outsider you believe to have the key to escaping this forest after some gentle persuasion the game swaps focus to the stranger as you escape the doctor's house and that's when things get weird [Music] you get taken to a hideout and the full game kicks off your objective get the key out of the forest back from the doctor a simple premise but completing it less so I think this is a good time to talk about jump scares and horror but those of you who don't know I'm kind of a [ __ ] Olli but I've maintained the idea that the jump scare is an absolute crutch of both video games and filmmaking especially filmmaking one of my favorite horror films recently was it follows movie that has maybe one jump scare in its runtime but instead adds its horror through long drawn-out tense scenes and a feeling of extreme paranoia doesn't need to rely on startling its audience like so many other garbage horror movies do nowadays if we go back a few decades we have the shining a top three horror favorite of mine I remember watching the scene where the dudes are doing a little solid sucky-suck and just have that quick zoom at quick zoom and that awkward music adds a layer of like comedic fear you can't get with a harsh cut and loud noise like a jump scare does the John Scarab can be done right however going back a few years again let's look at the Exorcist 3 with one of the most famous jump scares probably in history a rubber band being stretched to its absolute limit until finally snaps with that similar zoom of The Shining did very very good but for most other mediums it's a crutch the thing that makes a big loud noise and goes ooga booga to freak you out and think the movie is scary it's startling but startling is not scary I've done two playthroughs of dark wood now and there's only thing that I might call a jump scare moments which is right here a knock on the door everything else completely natural as a game dark wood doesn't appear rather scary especially if you're watching it from this video it's a top-down isometric I think it's the worm survival horror game and I don't mean outlast walk around in some bushes survival horror that's just deliverance as the stranger you don't need to eat or drink or sleep for that matter your face is horribly messed up and you're wearing the clothes of a scarecrow why there you'll learn in time but what's important is that you can't eat and drink so what do you do for the survival part well you still have health and you need a scavenge for things to help you survive the nighttime dark wood a day is roughly 11 minutes long and the night is only 5 but that 5 minutes feels like an eternity as you aren't allowed outside your shelter during it in that shelter you have the oven it emits fumes to keep whatever horrors away and allows you to upgrade your character in various ways by turning organic material to some kind of essence that you promptly inject into your veins however the oven is all you have in your hideout besides a crafting bench in a few windows so your job board up the windows get gasoline for your generator to keep the lights on and grab molotovs bear traps and weapons to survive what's coming for you you do this until the morning comes around and you say hello to the best character in any video game ever trader he's basically Jesus or like Jesus's runner-up every time you survive the night you gain reputation with the trader this allows you to buy his goods which you will desperately need these can range from simple things like more wood and medical supplies to weapon parts and most importantly a watch to help with the day/night cycles every day he will be there with this warm loving mushroomy embrace ready to help you into a nice new day and what does that nice new day entail well you know your objective find the doctor that stole your key you know where the underground passage is but he does not a man with a wolf's head meets you on your first night and with his collection akov gently persuades you to meet him in the next part of the map see dark woods first zone is split into three different areas the dry meadow the silent forest and the old woods in that order what makes it unique is that with every place of the map is completely changed so you don't get to skip out on any exploration areas of importance are placed on the map when you arrive to them but you won't know your location unless your next one of these landmarks so you'll know if you're at the barn but only if it literally says hey [ __ ] you're at the barn other than that be like a normal human and use a map the real way in each map or different landmarks that have their own loot and story to them some are just abandoned houses with a few dogs you need to kill or distract loot some areas have savages protecting it and whacking their heads on trees but offer things like shiny stones that sell for a tonne back to the trader some areas are a bit interesting my personal favorite is the wedding but we will talk about that maybe in a bit [Music] either way as you scavenger east upgrade your workbench fill your essence and sells the trader you'll soon realize your most valuable resource is time knowing how long you can be out there before night will greatly increase your chances of survival that's why I'm always gonna watch ASAP because that information alone will help you out greatly once the night arrives you better be back in the hideout want to know why you need to be back in I don't know I've never tried it any other way I'm too chicken [ __ ] something's out there I don't know what's out there but it's gonna hurt me so I've never gone outside during the night cuz I'm too [ __ ] scared from there you'll be attacked by simple dogs or savages at your first hideout a few events may occur as well these are completely random and can vary from creepy music pulling all your furniture together or even something as simple as a knock on the door with nobody doing the knocking however as you progress with this story these get far more dangerous everything from huge packs of dogs to horrify and mutated monsters to giant red lights sucking away your health and let's just say there's a reason you need to be repaired because if you died during the night you don't gain any reputation with the traitor and you need that [ __ ] this is the general formula of the game rinse and repeat as you go to new areas and they will all become progressively more difficult the old woods in particular can be extremely challenging if you're not ready these things in particular are not nice that thing it's not nice and well we could talk about the swamp in a bids [Applause] so I've mainly been covering gameplay but what about the thing I ranted about so heavily in the beginning the idea of horror well what dark word does here is pretty remarkable given the top down set him you see you don't get that first-person haunted house horror game jump scare fest like you do with most modern horror games the dark wood you have a cone of vision this cone doesn't restrict you from seeing everything things like the environment that you pass by houses and trees that you know haven't moved just stick around almost like a normal person you know for a fact your house is gonna be there even if you turn around however creatures and certain objects in particular don't go by that rule so if you want to run away from a horrifying creature you have to turn your back on it and lose sight of it this makes you immediately question is it catching up to me and if it is how much time do you have before actually arrives to you and kills you're extremely fragile ass this limited field of view is not a limited field of sound however and that is dark woods greatest strength its sound design it's just beautiful tension is more often than not created without eyes but with our ears when something sounds wrong when the aura of fear creeps in because of fake footsteps adjusting objects and noises that simply shouldn't be happening or you can't tell what's causing it that's what sets you on edge combine that with environmental hues as well like doors and furniture moving without knowing what is moving them and you have a very tense game this doesn't even cover the dream sequences you get almost every time you level up your oven which are in their own right a weird weird segment [Music] the last thing I haven't really discussed is dark woods story ironic as it's the thing I opened the video with dark fairy tale really is the best way to describe this game no character has an actual name you are the stranger there's the wolf man the traitor the musician chicken lady the mad doctor the [ __ ] and of course the snail oh my god the snail this isn't all dark woods characters but they all maintain the same naming style and all have their own backstories some less important than others but plenty that you like to learn about the musician and the elephants are some my favorites with the better storylines but the wolf man is my personal favorite character and I have no idea why there isn't more furry [ __ ] about him you'd think there be more it's a complete bate all the characters are decidedly human in their actions and motivations as well I wouldn't classify any of them except maybe one or two as overly good people but you don't need to have characters you agree with to make characters you understand everyone's motivations are clear so long as you dig enough to find out what they are characters also make up the bulk of dark woods story I mentioned earlier what the game's goal is get your key and get out that story is more important when you reach the end but everything else is just learning about those that inhabit this dark forest speaking of all that I'm gonna be going into mild spoilers this is for mainly the second chapter of the game the swamp as I mentioned earlier I don't think it really matters a whole lot I don't think it's a huge spoiler but if you want to keep yourself in the dark as far as you possibly can I'll leave a timecode here I will be discussing the ending after that but I'll give you one more warning just in case after you escape via the door you will enter chapter 2 of the game chapter 2 isn't really like chapter 1 as it isn't nearly the same time spam this part of the game takes place in a large swamp and will only last around a third of the time as the main section dim however is probably the part where the game wanes a little in quality for me the story becomes much easier to understand however it's probably the plus side to it you need to burn down this giant tree full of people in order to escape the forest but can't do so unless you travel beneath the tree and get to its roots walking you is a water tunnel that you need an oxygen tank for so you need to get an oxygen tank or pair of compressor to fill up then make your way to the tree however the difficulty takes the seriously sharp increase enemies are far far more frequent and just nificantly more damage to you this is always the part I end up dying the most him before I would mostly only die if I positioned badly or got surrounded in some way but the swamp really bends you over you will be going through a my own weapons extremely quickly conference states with us a little about giving you a stronger loop this only goes so far time is your biggest ally and when you can't outrun most of the enemies all that time healing shooting looting and restocking will take its toll in the first chapter I could out farm the enemies through good scavenging and picking my battles and the swamp I feel like I'm being slowly bled of my resources this could be intentional the perhaps is just too harsh of a change for me to enjoy once you burn down the tree you get the ending which I will now spoil right away let's get to this time code you want to miss that I know it's a lot of time codes I'm sorry but regardless this is the ending all right we're good good once the tree is burned down a ton of dead souls will come back and attack you during the final night with the radio also calling you a little [ __ ] whether you die or not during this part I'm not sure what happens is I have never died during it but either way once it's done you make your way through the burnt down tree it into the road home you clear the forest and get to your horrible polish apartment building talk to some of your friends take your shoes off make some soup go to bed drifting blissfully to sleep as the gigantic Eldrick being eats away your very soul without you knowing ignorant is bliss of course the first time I played this I was very confused as there was already a lot of signs that something was off besides the fact that my character was literally mute the entire game and then was speaking to the locals I remember that I was horribly disfigured and everyone probably terrified of me or at least want to call the hospital however when I went to bed I still ended up getting the Bliss ending turns out there are four separate things that will alert the player just some [ __ ] [ __ ] of being afoot the first is that you head to the basement and screw around with the radio until it tells you to go to sleep little creepy the second is this lay left her fetus on the floor nice job mom look through this crack nothing weird going on here at all and then finally and hallway if you see at least two of these things you can notice the problems in your house you can break the floorboards in your apartment to say hello to about a thousand sleeping souls and the being an ultra creature who makes you and everyone feel just so nice and warm on the inside while slowly feeding on you probably tell the being to [ __ ] off gently persuade an old partner of yours to have his flamethrower and burn everyone to death kill the beam kill yourself in the process and the real ending is yours a perfectly dark and grim ending to a dark and grim story who or what was the being I don't know I don't care it's not what matters what matters is you know the truth and you stopped it it's how a miserable end to a miserable game and I love that [ __ ] so that is dark woman I really think the game needs more attention I want to shout about the horror game it treats its audience like adults and doesn't turn into the haunted house experience it's tension and fear that feels earned rather than cheaply apply like a picture with too much glue I want to give a shout out to Mandalore gaming he is also a game reviewed channel on YouTube I saw his video on dark wood a bit ago and it's actually what prompted me to play the game unfortunately this review came off maybe a little bit too closely to his I apologize for that I think it's just since it's the same game we echoed a lot of the same points so I wanted to make it clear that I'm not trying to steal his thunder he made a really damn good video and he continues to so if you would like to check him out his link is in the description thank you to all the patrons who supported me I'm sorry this took so long to come out but February and January took their toll on me next up is probably titanfall - got a lot I want to talk about with that game it will probably have some surprise guests along with him though I may do a warhammer video in the interim it's good I like to discuss my journey to collecting all three armies worth of plastic crack or if anything just to satisfy my son cost fallacy so if you like to support me on patreon especially since uploading fewer videos it's obviously harder for YouTube the link is in the description it helps me out a ton especially with these big projects also if you're interested I'm running a merchandise sale all month of February everything is 15% off since I'm doing some transitioning into some new items soon use code brick at checkout and you'll be all clear on everything from shirt hoodie two mugs as well and it's also in the description at Berkey merch calm thanks for watching everyone I will see you hopefully this month again bye bye

Channel: Bricky

Views: 1,741,340

Rating: 4.960124 out of 5

Keywords: Darkwood, Darkwood game, Darkwood review, Darkwood game review, Darkwood switch, Darkwood Switch review, Darkwood Gameplay, Darkwood opening, Darkwood ending, Darkwood both endings, Darkwood story, Bricky, Bricky Darkwood, Darkwood Bricky

Id: dfF_sGtu_eE

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020