Darkwood

I couldn’t really understand the game, and I’m not able to keep progressing.
That said, this isn’t a reason to leave a negative review. It’s just not for me, that’s on me, not on the game.

Easily the best game I played in 2025, after the dust has settled I can without a doubt say this a top 5 of all time game for me. This is the pinnacle of survival horror, you will feel beaten, battered, and spooked to the max. The feeling of hopelessly crouching in a corner while the most unsettling rustling and screeching you've ever heard happens right outside your ramshackle shelter, only to realize the angelic choir and blistering light of the sunrise is coming to your rescue at the exact moment all seems lost, just incredible. Stunningly beautiful artstyle, immersive soundscape, Lynchian dream sequences, disgusting creature design, bleak as hell storytelling, and some of the most visceral top down melee combat outside of Hotline Miami. One of the most banger main menu themes of all time. I've said enough, easy 10/10 and a game I will be replaying for the rest of my gaming career.

refunding this game not because its bad but because im a massive ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ coward and it scares the ♥♥♥♥ outta me would recmomend 9/10

This game doesn't rely on jump scares. It lets your imagination do the work until nightfall.

Being completely sober after a long time of feeling lost, I needed a game to bring me back to my roots and feel human again, a game that would make me remember the cruelty of humanity and the emotional strangeness of the unknown. This game reintroduced my fear of what could lurk in the dark. Blair Witch is the only Horror title that has ever made me genuinely scared till I stumbled across this. There is nothing quite like it, no game with a basis on pure human survival and dragging oneself through hell. This game is that and more. There is a beauty in the dark tragedy a sense of belonging to the forest but also feeling as if your an unwanted guest thrown into a pit of danger. The trees crack, the grass whistles, you hear whispers, warnings or calls who is to know? Sometimes it’s as if your walking through time itself, a forest that never appears the same twice, are you truly lost or is the game playing tricks on you, Darkwood is a masterpiece.

Darkwood has become one of my all-time favourites 9.4/10
Darkwood. Wow. What a game.
I started playing with no expectations really, especially considering I haven't really played top-down horror before. But within minutes, the game drew me in with its atmosphere and one-of-a-kind sound design.
I have never played a game with such fantastic and quite frankly, brilliant sound design. The way sound is used in this game I have never experienced before, in ANY game, it's used in such a way that makes you feel true dread and immersion, which in a game like Darkwood, which relies on top-down horror, is extremely vital.
Now, the story, with its characters, dialogue options, choices, it's truly something special. felt like I was actually there, interacting with the characters, feeling the consequences of the choices I had made and as a result, I feel honestly different after this game.
The gameplay itself is very Hotline Miami like, but with a horror twist, which I can appreciate a lot as a huge fan of HM. I was a bit weary of the survival mechanics and how they would affect progression towards the story in a way that was somewhat tedious but it wasn't the case at all. If anything the survival is done so well through it's crafting and looting that it makes the game feel even more immersive.
I am literally struggling to find a negative thing to say - maybe lack of skills and the stamina can be a little annoying but these are inconsequential.
The game is truly unique and a must-play if you are a fan of horror or games with a compelling and different story.

Darkwood is a one-of-a-kind horror game, and not one that should be underestimated. Despite its top down perspective it's one of the scariest horror games I've played. The modern Resident Evil and Silent Hill remakes aren't even close. It's also a very difficult game, managing to blend survival horror and a large, explorable map very well.
While it may not have super realistic graphics, it still looks great, but more importantly Darkwood takes the phrase "fear of the unknown" and runs with it. Your limited cone of vision, darkness, and sound design are all combined excellently in order to make you constantly fearful of what might be just out of your vision.
The core gameplay loop is what makes the game really shine. During the day you explore, trying to gather enough supplies to prepare for the next major hurdle in your journey. Inevitably you have to return to your shelter at night, you need fuel for your generator lest you be left vulnerable in the dark. The game pulls out all the stops here to terrify you, with dozens of random events on top of enemies breaking into your shelter, making you wonder what's actually real and disrupting your fortifications. The fantastic sound design leaves you constantly afraid of what might be opening a nearby door or is making a noise outside your base, and you have to endure it until the light of dawn slowly starts to creep over the horizon.
This is one of the few games I've ever played that made me straight up quit out of fear, with the only other ones being ImScared and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Once I got back into it I was able to continue playing to the end, but it never became dull or predictable. For such a low price this is a must-have for anyone who likes horror games.