The Church in the Darkness Review for Xbox One

The title, The Church in the Darkness, evokes a certain feeling; An eerie, ominous tone that looms over you. As I planted myself in the same worn out chair that I play every game in, that feeling washed over me as soon as the yellow toned title card came across my TV. However, it quickly became clear that the unique concept would hang over the game as a broken promise of something amazing that I never received.

              The style of this game was one of its most impressive features. Every detail, color, and animation all worked to emphasize the ominous and adventurous tone that a game about sneaking into the camp of a cult has to have. Making the game set in the 70’s was also a nice touch with the vintage feel and lack of cell phones adding to the story of the game. The buildup of intensity and danger as I dove deeper into the secluded camp tucked into the jungle made for some real suspense as I navigated through the huge camp.

The Church in the Darkness is pretty simple with the objective being infiltrating a camp to rescue a loved one or gather information on the infamous cult. Paranoid productions, which has a fitting name considering how on your toes you have to be this whole game, did an amazing job making so much of the environment interactive. When you start the game, you can only choose one item to take with you and the rest you have to gather by searching through chests or the person of someone you have incapacitated or killed. This adds a fun element to the game since the natural reaction is to shoot everyone you come into contact with and hide the bodies, but bullets come at such a premium and the attention that the noise brings makes relying on a gun all but impossible. You have to sneak your way through the camp.

Throughout the map, guards patrol the camp with a field of vision that you are able to access. To incapacitate a guard, you have to sneak up behind them or you will die. I learned this the hard way and after a few frustrating deaths I was able to maneuver my way around an obstacle the game threw at me, but it took quite a while and the guards in this game are no joke. In addition to the guards, you can also interact with regular people throughout the camp. Some will help you get by and tell you where weapons and supplies are hidden. Others will sound one of the many alarms placed throughout camp and leave you scrambling for a place to hide.

For all the good things about this game, The Church in the Darkness suffered mightily from the perspective you play the game from. Using a birds eye view of the map makes seeing enemies in front of you easier, but it ultimately detracts from the suspenseful nature of sneaking around somewhere you aren’t supposed to be and makes the game feel closer to the realm of arcade which really clashes with the subject matter of the game. Part of the interest in cults comes from how they change people on a personal basis, but The Church in the Darkness really loses the more personal side of the story by making the gameplay have such a high view. Many times, it feels more like a turn by turn game rather than the free flowing which really detracts from the experience of the game.

Overall, The Church in the Darkness is a very unique game with an interesting concept and a great style that could make for something that’s a video game great, but it ultimately leaves a lot to be desired for such a rich concept. I really wanted to enjoy this game and I have to admit I was pretty excited when I found out that the objective of the game was to infiltrate a cult’s compound, but I just didn’t. Instead I found myself wandering aimlessly and watching the clock to see how long I had been playing. Perhaps the worst part is that there is a fun, unique unicorn of a game in here somewhere, but it’s buried beneath a shell that simply didn’t make me want to keep playing.

6/10

Check Out The Church in the Darkness Trailer:

The Church in the Darkness is available for PC & Mac via Steam, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.

For more information, please visit here: https://fellowtraveller.games/games/the-church-in-the-darkness/

Taylor Tyler

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My first console was the original Playstation and I would play Twisted Metal every now and then but games didn't hook me until I played the original Halo at my friend's house. As soon as I picked up that controller, I knew I needed an Xbox and I had to have that game. Since those early Halo days, I've branched out and played any game I could find with a great story and memorable characters but Master Chief is still my favorite. @thenotoriousTGT on Twitter

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