Official Score
Overall - 80%
80%
The Darkside Detective is a solid adventure for any fan of the paranormal. If you like point and click games and The X-Files, this is one game you should check out.
The Darkside Detective is a point and click game that takes you on a paranormal adventure as a detective. Are the cases in the Darkside Detective worth solving, or should this game be left as a cold case? Check out our The Darkside Detective review and find out our thoughts on the case.
The Darkside Detective Review
When you start The Darkside Detective, you are introduced to Detective Francis McQueen, who is sitting behind his desk. It is a poorly lit, dirty looking office with a ton of filling cabinets and no windows. When you click to start, you are presented with two cases, quickly realizing that McQueen isn’t taken very seriously as a detective. He is the man in charge of the Darkside Unit, which specializes in investigating paranormal cases. You do get a pretty serious X-Files-vibe from McQueen’s situation; even the chief is named Scully. Still, there are cases to be solved, and you are the only one who can do it. There is a total of six cases available in The Darkside Detective, which will run you about two to three hours to complete them all.
Of the six cases, you only start with two and have to unlock the rest as you progress. The first case is about a missing child that seems to have disappeared without ever leaving the house. The second involves a mysterious storm that is hovering over a library and nowhere else in the city. The others deal with various ghosts and paranormal settings. Thankfully you are not alone on these cases. Officer Dooley is basically your partner for these, and while he isn’t very helpful or smart, he can provide some comic relief at times. His humor is hit and miss, but for the most part, it is a welcome addition that changes up the pace from the paranormal. Dooley doesn’t really like to deal with this type of stuff, so he will stay behind when things get weird.
The Darkside Detective is a traditional point and click adventure game. You go around from room to room and look for items and clues to solve each case. It mostly involves clicking everything until you get as many items as you can, and then you have to figure out what to do with everything. Some of the items have obvious uses, which others will stump you for a few minutes. The pace of the game is good; I never felt like I was completely lost at any time during my playthrough. After each case is done, you will feel like you accomplished something, which makes the game more rewarding.
As I’m sure you could tell by the pictures, the game is done in pixel graphics and is 2D. The art style suits the gameplay, and it doesn’t wear on the eyes like other pixel games. The soundtrack also fits the game very well; it is eerie and mysterious when it needs to be and that helps set the tone for each case. There is no voice acting, so you will be doing a ton of reading, as there are multiple NPCs to interact with in each case. Throughout my whole playthrough, I didn’t run into any bugs, glitches, or crashes.
The Darkside Detective is a solid adventure for any fan of the paranormal. If you like point and click games and The X-Files, this is one game you should check out.
