From The Darkness
Table of Contents
FROM THE DARKNESS
What starts as hunting for a family photo album becomes a living nightmare where you must run for your life.
THE EXPERIENCE
From the Darkness is a short, first-person horror game where you visit your late grandfather’s apartment to retrieve a family photo album. However, everything takes a turn when strange occurrences begin to happen. Whatever presence inhabits the apartment does not want to let you go easily.
This may be the first time I say this in one of my articles but this surely won’t be the last. I’m a horror veteran. I’ve become so desensitized to horror when I watch movies or read a book. However, horror video games still scare me when done well. From the Darkness does horror well.
There are times when a jump scare occurs and I jump but that only builds anticipation and I don’t find anticipation fun. I also feel that jump scares can be lazy. There tends to be a time and place for jump scares and too many become annoying.
PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR
Psychological horror is my favorite subgenre of horror. I get scared when thinking I see or hear something that becomes something else or nothing at all.
One of the earliest and scariest moments I remember is from Silent Hill 2. The Taluca Prison in Silent Hill 2 took horror up a notch. There were all sorts of instances messing with my head. However, the gallows got to me.
You walk into what appears to be something like a courtyard. It’s so dark that the flashlight hardly helps. Upon entering this area, I begin by slowly walking into what seems like complete darkness but then I hear something. To me, it sounds like a horse galloping around the courtyard. The sound alone scared the shit out of me. I ran across the room and came face to face with the gallows. I stood there a while waiting for something to appear and attack me. After standing there for several minutes, nothing happens except I hear the ‘horse’ running around the courtyard. I eventually got the nerve to leave and nothing else happened.
I say that nothing happened but something did happen. That courtyard with the gallows left a life-long impression on me.
UNNERVING MOMENTS
I can’t say that From The Darkness has left an impression similar to Silent Hill 2 but I sure did hesitate a few times. Some truly unnerving moments make me thankful to have a wife next to me who can take over the controller for a little while so I can regain my nerve.
MEDIA
SCREENSHOTS
AS I SEE IT
I picked up the game after reading some reviews and watching a few minutes of someone else playing the game. I hesitated to pay about $7.00 for a game with only one hour of gameplay. However, I liked what I saw and wanted the rest of the experience. I like to support indie developers, too.
SUGGEST A GAME
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CHANGELOG
- 4/8/2021 – Original Post
- 7/7/2024 – Added Screenshots