I have played quite a few indie games in my lifetime. I have reviewed a handful of them, either for BadFive or in some other format. The Church In The Darkness is one of the most disappointing indie games I have played on Switch so far.
SHAME
I try not to give indie games such a hard time. I always take into account the effort that one-man teams or smaller development teams can make in a short time-frame and often combine that with evaluating the price of the game. Most times, the indie games I play give you a lot of ‘bang for your buck’ so to speak. In my humble opinion, this game doesn’t do that, and I have had a very hard time recommending it to anyone. This game had been out for some time before making its way to Switch and some of the negative points I will make in this review should have been addressed prior to its release.
LOADING…
The bad impressions start right away. From the moment you boot the game, you are greeted with a title screen. Nothing wrong with that at all. But after around 60 seconds of loading with no visual progress indicator, you start wondering just what the hell is wrong with your Switch. 30 more seconds later you start thinking of rebooting the game and/or your Switch. It takes a little less than 2 whole minutes for the game to enter its main menu. That’s the longest loading time I’ve had on Switch so far when booting a game. I haven’t experienced such slow loading times since Duke Nukem Forever on the Xbox 360.
BAREBONES UI
Once the game finally loads, you are greeted by a user interface that’s as barebones as it gets, with a visual glitch to compliment it. When you try to view the game’s controls, the controller layout stays onscreen despite the fact that you exited that menu already. I apologise if this review feels a lot like a QA bug report, but I have to mention these issues.
MINDHUNTER
Once you start playing the game though, things get better. The basic storyline is engaging and there is some fun to be had in the game for a little while. In The Church In The Darkness, you play as an ex-law enforcement officer sent to rescue your cousin from a Manson-type cult run by Isaac and Rebecca Walker. Once you infiltrate their colony, you can complete your mission stealthily or by killing everyone. Your choice to incapacitate or kill enemies and your decisions will have an impact on your run and how the events of that run unravel. If you die, that’s it. You spawn at a different place on the map, with slightly different objectives and NPC placement. If you do manage to complete your objectives and get your cousin out, you will receive one of numerous endings available depending on the way you played, the people you interacted with, quests you’ve completed and lives taken.
TOO SHORT, TOO EXPENSIVE
The game offers a difficulty choice so all types of players will be able to finish the game and enjoy themselves. The issue stems from the fact that some of the higher difficulties feel cheap at times, especially with an aiming system that leaves a lot to be desired due to inaccuracies with locking on targets. In addition to that, while I do appreciate the exploration aspect of the game, where you can receive new side quests depending on the friendly NPCs you meet, the game’s length does not justify its asking price. Simply put, the game is not that enjoyable to warrant over 15 playthroughs to get all endings. This is a 1-3 hour experience with a lot of padding.
VISUALS/AUDIO
On the visual side, I can’t say I care much about the game’s style. It is dull and uninspired. The framerate hovers around 30 and very often feels choppy. The character models are simplistic and bland. Any action you take is followed by robotic, half-baked animations and a general feeling of jank. One great thing about the game though is its soundtrack and voice-acting, although the latter can suffer due to some heavy compression. Your adventure is paired with rocking tracks, ambience and excellent VO work (I especially love the fact that Isaac and Rebecca occasionally sing to lift morale through the colony’s many loudspeakers).
CONCLUSION
The Church In The Darkness is a very rough game and incredibly tough to recommend for $20. It pains me to say this but you will not get your money’s worth if you purchase this game. It’s a mediocre experience with a few good ideas thrown in the mix. Every sign points to this game being a cash grab. Bland UI, janky game design, glitches, long loading times, padding. Buy something else.
Review code provided by Terminals.io