Immortal Darkness: Curse of The Pale King Review

The first game I wanted to write a review on for some time now has been withdrawn from Steam in the meantime. But, happily, you can get it for free from their website. The reasoning for its demise is given in this post by its creators.

Anyway, I bought this game on release day, 17 October 2018, as an early birthday gift to myself. With the added idea of making gameplay videos to kickstart a YouTube channel. Immortal Darkness is also the first game I perfected. And here we are, finally writing a short review for this gem.

The gist of the game is aptly summarised on its product page: A dark fantasy RPG dungeon crawler, with challenging real-time tactical combat, a wide variety of spells, and a dark and brooding dungeon full of lethal enemies, sadistic traps, and mind-bending puzzles.

Finding out if it was delivered

And I'd say they did deliver! It's sad to see the game did not get picked up by more people. It's fun and challenging, with some modern ideas built on top of old-school mechanics and feels.

What I didn't get from this game was a vibrant story, dialogue, and characters. There was very little of them. Not that I cared a lot. But I would have wanted much more of that dark, brooding voice and story you can hear in the trailer. Too bad we won't be seeing a sequel (it was planned), as it could have expanded in those directions and more so on the protagonist's side.

Speaking of, the whole vampire setup thing was quite new to me. I felt the main character was an asexual one who got to choose which path to take during the game. It was Holy for me, so my Paladin vibe was not messed up. The multiple endings were a nice touch, but you had to replay the game to see them all.

Shade, the asexual vampire Paladin

But in terms of combat, this game shines. You have direct control of the sword, and that feels very nice, very real in a way. Very hack and slashy! So I hacked and slashed with so much gusto! Then you have the second combat layer based on the spells you find, which can be cast in any direction. Couple that with the well-thought-out physics system and get some very interesting results! Pushing enemies with a force spell toward an abyss never gets old. Or towards hidden traps, et cetera. Nothing beats getting out of a sticky situation by planning your arsenal intelligently ahead.

Though this was not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination. It had some bugs on release, I even submitted some, and got mentioned in the credits in a later version of the game. And I already mentioned the lackluster world and story-building, but these did not detract that much from my having a good time. In any case, I just wanted to give my two cents. But if you're still unconvinced, the Steam reviews are worth a read, and they do the game justice.

A work of love (unrequited)

Immortal Darkness was a work of love. The atmosphere was there. The combat felt unique, and the platforming was a blast, too. Finding secrets, resolving puzzles, and going on little boat trips - this game had a lot going for it. Especially considering it was the work of just two people!

So let me draw your attention to this challenging hack-and-slash game. It's free, fun, and very rewarding when you finally find the solution to a puzzle. It's also maybe unintentionally funny. The enemies were quite hilarious with their sound effects, though the (minimal) story wants you to think this is all quite serious.