How you came to this ruined land is a mystery, but your determination to escape is absolute. By day, the woods can be explored, scavenged, and studied, but once the sun goes down, survival depends entirely on how well you’ve prepared your hideout and how much you’re willing to trust.
Darkwood is a top down survival horror game from developer Acid Wizard Studio, combining roguelike elements like permadeath and shifting map layouts with a slow burn, choice driven story. Exploring dense, hand crafted biomes that rearrange with every new game, gathering resources and allies, and fortifying a hideout before nightfall, you’ll need patience and careful observation more than firepower to make it through.
What Makes It Different?
- Explore an ever changing, free roam world that rearranges with every new game
- Survive nights with no combat, only careful preparation and hard choices
- Shape the story through decisions that affect the fate of the woods’ inhabitants
- Unlock powerful mutations, like invisibility while holding still or regenerating from wood
- Craft and scavenge a wide range of weapons, traps, and defensive tools
- Manage fuel and generators to keep vital light sources running through the night
- Choose your difficulty, from unlimited lives to full permadeath on Nightmare mode
No Quest Markers, No Hand Holding
Darkwood trusts players to work things out for themselves. There are no waypoints guiding you toward answers, and understanding the woods, its inhabitants, and their conflicting goals comes only through exploration, observation, and conversation. That uncertainty is central to the game’s tension, since the locals rarely have your best interests at heart, and every dark quest or bargain carries consequences that ripple outward into the story.
When the Sun Goes Down
Combat takes a back seat once night falls. Surviving comes down to how well a hideout has been repaired, barricaded, and stocked with fuel before darkness arrives, since conventional weapons won’t save you from everything that stalks the woods after dark. No two nights play out the same way either, with assaults, strange rituals, and unsettling events all capable of striking a base that hasn’t been properly prepared.
How Long Does a Run Take?
The average run length of Darkwood to complete the main story is approximately 15 to 20 hours, translating to roughly 25 to 35 in game days. For completionists or players who take their time exploring, runs can easily stretch to 40 or more hours and over 50 in game days.
A full in game day lasts about 22.5 real time minutes, made up of around 18 minutes of daytime and 4.5 minutes of night, and how many days a run takes depends heavily on difficulty, how thoroughly the world is explored, and how often death sets you back.
Controller Support
Darkwood features Full Controller Support for Xbox Controllers and PlayStation Controllers.
Good If You Like…
Welcome to the Game III, CloverPit, and Buckshot Roulette all share that same dread soaked, roguelike tension. If those have kept you on edge, Darkwood will too.
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