The Church in the Darkness

I've actually been following the development of The Church in the Darkness for a few years now, so I was glad to see it release and snapped up a copy quickly. You can pretty much look at the product page and have a decent grasp for what this game is about, but I'll go into my experience a bit regardless.
Story
You play as Vic, an ex law enforcement agent asked by his sister to sneak into the compound of a cult called Collective Justice Mission, led by Isaac and Rebecca Walker, to check on your nephew Alex who has joined and been living with the cult without outside contact for two years. This is about as far as the story gets without deviating based on a set of different preacher personalities that can have Isaac and/or Rebecca genuinely trying to provide a peaceful life for the cult members to wanting to watch the whole world burn.
Each run will feature some combination of personalities. Sometimes they are both good, sometimes they are both evil, and at other times one will be good while the other is evil. Additionally, your own actions will likewise impact the story. There are nineteen distinct endings, so there is a lot to explore.
Gameplay
The gameplay is mostly isometric stealth. Cultists all have a sight radius and as long as you stay out of that, you will be good, but that is easier said and done given as how you have to pass near many in order to complete your various goals. To that end, you are able to find and use townspeople and guard disguises which restrict enemy sight radius. If you are caught, normal workers will seek out guards, and guards will pursue you and try to capture you (the first time). After you are captured and manage to reclaim your gear though, all bets are off. Should the guards find you, they will beat or shoot you to death if at all possible.
Fortunately you can hide in furniture or simply hoof it far enough away from the enemies to where they give up. As you progress through endings though, guards will start to become more tenacious. Speaking of hiding things, you can knock out or kill people and hide their bodies in furniture as well. One amusing aspect of the game is you can hide while your pursuer is looking right at you lol. No biggie.
Combat is basically twin stick shooter or basher depending on your weapons, of which there is a decent selection of lethal and non lethal to go along with a variety of helpful items used as distractions or utility devices. Should you be spotted, residents will try to sound a camp wide alarm, although you can disable these if you have the right items.
Basically that is the game, although there is also a lot of looting which involves finding aforementioned weapons and devices, food for healing, and various notes, pictures and so on which fill out the game's lore and also serve to drive the plot forward.
There are a few helpful NPC's, including Alex, that you will unlock as you unlock endings, and these NPC's will help you in some way if you help them as well. Generally, helping them means finding some sort of evidence or a personal item important to them.
This is a game where each run is intended to last somewhere in the hour to two hour range depending on what you decide to do before escaping the camp. Once you learn the mechanics of the game, you can cut that time in half easily. The map layout never really changes although NPC locations always do between runs.
Graphics
The graphics in this one are intentionally grim and almost faded looking. This is a community being developed in the middle of a jungle, so vibrant graphics would seem a bit paradoxical in this case. All in all, while the graphics aren't stunning by any means, they do serve their intended purpose, which is furthering the idea that you are in the middle of a cultist camp in the middle of the jungle. This is further bolstered by some fairly evocative images of a mass grave, people stoning another member, and so on.
Audio
The audio tracks for this game is really the highlight. For one, Isaac and Rebecca both broadcast via a loudspeaker system throughout the game, espousing their beliefs, sometimes arguing, and generally letting you know exactly which type of preachers you are getting with each run. This might be the single most important aspect of the game since their personalities and your response to them directly ties into which ending you will get in each run.
Beyond that, the dialogue in general is convincing and the voice actors were largely on top of their games. I thought Alex was as bit annoying, but outside of that, it was by and large perfect.
The ambient sounds and sounds of activity in the camp really do serve to even fill out the atmosphere of the game more.
Verdict
For me, The Church in the Darkness has been a lot of fun, although after around twelve runs, it starts lacking variety. So, while your mileage may vary, this game is in my opinion well worth playing and well worth the asking price. It's not the greatest game I've ever played, but it is one of more unique experiences I've had and there is no lack for social commentary throughout that I also found quite interesting. Recommended
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This gives you a unique perspective to see what a religious cult looks from the inside out and its a dozy boys wow. it reminds me a lot of Jim Jones – The People’s Temple cult in the '70s
The Church in the Darkness a great name for an indie game.
The story gives you the perspective look on the life of the religious cult in the jungles of South America and their paranoid cult leaders and their nutty followers from the inside and you will decide if you want to help certain people or kill them or just leave them be it's your choice and that will decide your ending. (Rating 8/10)
The game has 19 endings and that's a lot its defiantly has unique replay value to it (Rating 9/10)
You can play this game in many ways stealthy with or without killing anyone or just shoot at everyone and that will give a different ending each time. (Rating 8/10)
The graphic design of the game gives you the feeling that you are in a 1970 dangerous religious cult it has that feeling to it, this is done very well. (Rating 8/10)
The mechanics are different in how you play this game I used the controller, so if you play stealthy which is my favorite type to do its smooth with no problems at all , but if you want to shoot someone will that is a different issue it sucks big time I could not shoot anyone using the controller as when the enemies notice you, they shoot you 2 to 3 times very fast and you're dead you don't have that much of a time to run or react. (Rating 6/10)
This game gives you 4 difficulties (Easy, Normal, Hard & Hardest) I played it on normal that is always the most enjoyable mod for me but if you need a challenge you will definitely get it in this game, you also choose 2 to 3 items you can start with at the beginning of the game a gun, a mid kit, a shotgun or disguise and there other things you will unluck later (Rating 8/10)
The music & sound effects are okay nothing comes out as unique (Rating 7/10)
It's fully voiced game with great voice acting (Rating 7/10)
I enjoyed this game even with its miner controller shooting problems I will defiantly recommend this game I enjoyed playing it (Final Rating 8/10)
Make sure you never join a cult except for mine
Enjoy your day
Hovac
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A quick look at gameplay from THE CHURCH IN THE DARKNESS and analysis.
In it you're trying to track down your nephew who joined a Cult and relocated with them to their own new "utopia" in the Jungle to become entirely self-sufficient. With the help of a number of sympathetic members and other oppressed cult members, you've got to locate him and make your way out of the camp before disaster of the usual paranoid "lets all die together" type occurs. Now, most people take that to be "drink the koolaid" voluntary sheep-to-slaughter mindlessness. Though the very premise of TCINTD shows that its certainly not all like that, with many who clearly don't want to be there anymore, let alone die for the place. The "true story" of any death-cult isn't of masses killing themselves blindly, it''s how a concentration of power in the most deluded and devoted drags the rest into their graves with a mass-murder majority the minority is hopeless to defy.
TCITD plays out kind of like one of the MSX/NES "Metal Gear" games with the 2D top down stealth format and base sneaking. However its amplified with more modern Medal Gear Solid game design. Outside of that pure stealth vs pure combat design school, you're given non-lethal alternatives for knockouts and more of an "open-world" level design, unleashing you onto this huge compound to figure out your end goal. You'll hide bodies, change costumes, sabotage gear, and interrogative guards and informants. The biggest difference to being some top-down Metal Gear, this is a game built on a core of replay. There's an array of 20 endings to unlock, and your different play-style/story choices can end up yielding different impressions of people, or unlocking divergent aspects of knowledge about the cult.
We've seen a lot of "wacky" cult game releases in recent years, but this is one played deadly serious. The type of cult, the backstory, the setting--and even potential ending--directly (and overtly) parallel the Jonestown Massacre.... including the aforementioned description of death cults. It's easy for a lot of people to forgot--well if they ever knew--that Jim Jones and The People's Temple didn't start out on the notorious end of history. Jones was a well respected minister in Baptist communities; he was avid support of the Civil Right's movement and used all his power for its progress; his words were respected by the most prominent local politicians of the time that his reputation even lasted after relocating to their own Commune in Guyana. It's really after where the the movement parted from roots in racial and economic equality, becoming something else. I hold that the title here is an allusion to Conrad's "In The Heart Of Darkness." It's the same Darkness that we see in the novel; in Apocalypse Now; in the real Jonestown; and in "The Church In The Darkness,"... There's a madness of control and societal isolation in the dead heat of The Jungle. There's a calling to the madness of man. For the people of Jonestown that call would be answered in-full the day in 1978 a Senator and three others were gunned down trying to leave this isolated 'outer heaven', and reach-out to the outside world about all they had seen. Here in the story of "The Church In The Darkness" you'll find the story of Jonestown, but also a tale of madness far older and far greater. A madness that still lives. A madness that will outlive us all.
The many incredibly overt connections to Jonestown politicize its art, laden with real world commentary. We mightn't have adapted to this sort of "ripped from the headlines" approach in gaming the same way we have to television and films--even nihilistically so in "Law and Order"'s often glib and shallow lip-service to reality to keep going after 20 seasons---though its something that will overtake us eventually and is a necessary step towards the medium's ability to produce meaningful commentary. It couldn't be more appropriate perhaps then that the general gameplay basis for the story makes for a game similar to that of Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear series which likewise repackages meaning and expression via important historical interactions as well. "The Church In The Darkness" is a game all the more scary for its real world parables and parallels, and perhaps all the more deserving of that post-game moment of reflection as to what it all even means. That, though, is up to you.
You can check out The Church In The Darkness on Steam now

And find more recommendations on our curator page, Weird Wonderful Game Watch.

I'm really digging this game so far. I'm loving the little things that you can do to sow chaos, take a guard out here, disrupt a meeting and freak everyone out. I've never been much of a stealth person, so I'm playing more of a brutish way, and it's hard!
The graphics I feel are pleasing to look at, the top down view is a favorite of mine. The artwork is nice, the atmosphere of different playthroughs are subtle, yet you do get a sense of dread for some starts.
The audio is kinda wonky at some points though. I do not like the spike in volume at some of the speeches, and how Isaac and Rebecca interrupt each other if you walk a few feet away from that speeches "trigger".
The UI is simple, I like it well enough, except for the subtitles and mission overlay. It shows you your objective in this very large gaudy red box that masks a good portion of the screen, kinda makes it feel like a browser game. The subtitles are very accurate, but I don't like that its background is a not very transparent black box, makes things below you hard to see.
All in all, I absolutely 100% think the game is worth $20 dollars, ESPECIALLY since it's on sale now. This is one of those games you can experiment on for a good while, and I really appreciate that.

Summary: A fun game with places to go.
Pros:
-Engaging story with 19 different endings, so there's a lot of room to experiment.
-Beautiful artwork throughout the game
-Nice voice over
-Lots of fun easter eggs and details to discover as you explore
Cons:
-The game is still fairly new, and there are some kinks to work out. For example, you can't fire a gun using a Steam controller, though you can aim and then use the keyboard or mouse to fire. However, the creators were very understanding and helpful when I brought this up, and I believe they are dedicated to the game.
-NPCs will sometimes get "caught" on each other by running into each other while walking in different directions, which can cause their sight lines to jerk suddenly and spot you.
-Not exactly a con, but there are some documents you can discover that I wish there was more to do with. For example, you can find defaced devotional cards of the preachers, and a message from one civilian to another planning an escape. I think these could be fun bonus missions/side quests to consider adding in the future.

A brilliant exploration of faith gone awry. There are dozens of different endings to experience... sometimes the cult leaders will be blood-crazy murder monsters, but other times they'll be more or less peace loving hippies. Much like the classic Metal Gear games, you can't go in guns blazing!
The game has some cool systems I don't want to explain and spoil as I really enjoyed discovering them. The game is meant to be played over and over again, and you're going to die a bunch before you get the hang of it and start seeing the endings. Once you understand the mechanics, the easier difficulty modes will feel baby -- so crank up the difficulty for a white-knuckle stealth experience (if that's your thing).
There's so much love poured into the story, writing, characters, world-building, and side-quests. I paid for early access to the game and never regretted it. So glad the game is out for everyone to check out!

I read the reviews and I disagree. The controls work fine. You're able to do what you want to. Just don't expect anything run and gun and you'll be fine.
Stealth is a big part of the game, and it's a quite difficult game, so take your time, think and plan. I've been playing around, trying different approaches, and it's been really interesting and engaging so far.
Buy it.