Overview
Developer: POLLARD STUDIO LLC Pc: Karma: The Dark World
Publisher: Wired Production Playstation: Karma: The Dark World
A Psychological Horror masterpiece
As with all our reviews we start off with what the developer says about their game and then we will dive into what we thought of it.
About The Game
Karma: The Dark World is a first-person cinematic psychological thriller set in a dystopian world where the Leviathan Corporation is omnipresent. The year is 1984, the place is East Germany, and things are not quite what they seem.
Explore an alternate timeline set in 1984 East Germany; the Leviathan Corporation rules with an iron fist, controlling its citizens through mass surveillance, social class rules, mind altering drugs and the promise that the gates to Utopia will open to those who serve.
You are Daniel McGovern, a Roam Agent for Leviathan’s Thought Bureau. Using advanced technology to dive into the minds of the accused – you will investigate crime scenes, interview suspects and report your findings back to Leviathan.
YouTube Trailer:
How It All Starts
Karma: The Dark World starts out with the player in a hospital bed, you get up after a short look around a hospital room you find yourself staring into a mirror, our character doesn’t know know why he looks the way he does. The curtain flies open revealing the outside world but its all glitchy and buggy, there is a man on the sidewalk but he is bouncing back an forth like he has seriously high ping in an online game.
The door opens behind us and we walk down a corridor, our character calls out to see if anyone is around but no one returns the call and as we open the door at the end of the hall we find three monitors. This is where Karma: The Dark World does settings a little different you sit at each of the monitors and configure your setting to your liking but the game is talking to the character not you it all adds to this immersive mysterious feeling and its actually done very well.
After a bit more story building and some very questionable scenes we are in the back of a car signing a document before arriving at the Winston Research Facility, our character announces to a man on the stair that he his Daniel McGovern a Roam agent number 8790 from this point on though nothing is as it seems and the game gets very convoluted and phycological.
The Gameplay
The Gameplay within Karma: The Dark World is what most would call a Walking Simulator however you interact with items within the world be that documentation on desk, in draws and on walls or you might be solving puzzles throughout the playthrough. puzzles within the game are not straight forward and actually require some solving, one puzzle in the game require the player to find a missing photo on the wall and then look on the CCTV to find out the time on the clock to then solve the puzzle, this puzzle took me so much longer than it properly should have to actually complete because I just couldn’t see what i was meant to be doing even though it was right in front of my eyes the entire time.
The Story
The story within Karma: The Dark World is so well built you play as Daniel McGovern a Roam agent that is sent to apprehend Sean Mehndez, or that is how it seems at least. Through out the game you will learn that Daniel is burying some trauma that slowly catches up with him throughout. Karma is not a straight forward story is really screws around with your mind nothing is straight forward there are twists and turns all over the place but the game does a beautiful job of bringing it all back together at the end so do be put off half way through when your sitting there thinking what the hell is going on because an hour later your still going to be saying the same thing only for it all to click in one scene.
Our Thoughts / Overall Score
We absolutely loved our time with Karma: The Dark World everything from the way the game plays, character building and the deep story narrative in the game every moment was beautifully crafted. We had times where we questioned what the hell was happening but by the end of the game we thought that was amazing. we do have one little thing though well not a moan but more of a why and that is why was this game not made in VR the visual and mind play at work here would work so well in a VR setting and to be quite frank there has been worse thing portrayed in a VR title. Overall this game is an must play from us its so good.
