From The Darkness
The Synopsis of From The Darkness
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.
What starts out as a hunt for a family photo album turns into a living nightmare where you have to run for your life.
My Experience
This may be the first time that 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 of them just become an annoyance.
Psychological Horror
Psychological horror is my favorite sub-genre of horror. When I think I see or hear something that becomes something else or nothing at all, I get scared.
One of my earliest and scariest moments that I remember like it was yesterday occurred in 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 really 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 to walk slowly 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 for a while waiting for something to appear and attack me. After standing there for several minutes, nothing happens except I keep hearing 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.
From The Darkness and Psychological Horror
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. There are some truly unnerving moments that 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.
As I See It
I picked up the game after I read a few reviews and watched a few minutes of someone else playing the game. I was hesitant to pay about $7.00 for a game that has only one hour of gameplay. However, I liked what I saw and I wanted the rest of the experience. I like to support indie developers, too.