Info about Dark Hours: Official game description: Roadmap ======= About the Game ============== **Dark Hours** is a co-op survival horror game for up to 4 players. Just when you think you've pulled off the perfect heist, your break-in is suddenly interrupted by an unexpected supernatural event. You find yourself trapped in the auction house you came to rob and you realize with horror that you are no longer alone... A demonic creature has taken over the place and you have become its new prey. Will you manage to escape? Will you survive this apocalyptic night? KEY FEATURES ------------ * **Cooperate:** Dark Hours is a 1-4 player cooperative experience where you must work together to escape the evil entity that is hunting you. You can't survive alone, stay close to your teammates and collaborate to find your way out of this nightmare. * **Explore:** Explore the area in search of a way out, solve co-op minigames, deactivate lasers and security cameras, fill your bag with valuable loots and take advantage of the building's secrets to get out of there. Your heist will never be the same in the procedural environments of Dark Hours. Don’t get lost! * **Manage your equipment:** A lock-picking set, a hacking device, a flashlight or a crowbar? Pick your gear and find all sorts of items during your exploration. Use them wisely with your teammates and you may have a chance to get out alive. Or not… * **Escape or survive:** There are only two ways out: find the exit or hide from the creature until morning. Will you make it through this dreadful night? GAMEPLAY FEATURES ----------------- * **Steal:** Remember, your first objective is to rob this place, so make sure to steal every valuable item you find. Score big! * **Best Thieves:** Carrying all that illegally-acquired loot can be tiring for your friends, so don't hesitate to discreetly offer your help by emptying their bags to steal the most precious items. There is no honor among thieves! * **Be stealthy:** Don’t make too much noise or the monster will find you. Be careful: the more you loot, the louder you get. In case of extreme urgency, you can (sneakily) fill your teammates' bags so they are noisier than you. * **Survive:** Seek refuge wherever you can or push your teammate to the entity's clutches. Survival justifies any action. Between us, it's better him than you, right? AND MORE -------- * **Escalating difficulty:** Throughout the night, the evil entity will grow stronger as you progress. * **Replayability:** No games are the same. The building layout, locked doors and items are procedurally generated, making each game different from the last. * **3 difficulty modes:** Normal, Hard & Nightmare. * **Locations:** Choose from different locations, each with a new scenario, evil entity, playable characters and items. * **Customization:** unlock unique items to customize your character. Live **a terrifying and fun co-op horror experience** where you will discover more about the origin of the dark hours! …and who your friends really are! Warning ------- This game contains flashing lights that may make it unsuitable for people with photosensitive epilepsy or other photosensitive conditions. Player discretion is advised. Release date: 24 Oct, 2024 Categories: Cooperative Multiplayer, Survival Horror, Heist Simulation, Exploration, Stealth Gameplay, Procedural Generation, Character Customization, Puzzle Solving - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Fun, enjoyable, and hilarious gameplay (weight 0.97): The game is consistently described as fun, enjoyable, and hilarious, especially when played with friends. Reviewers highlight the engaging gameplay loop, unique concept, and satisfying mechanics as key contributors to the positive experience. The game is also praised for its potential and replayability. - Enhanced by cooperative multiplayer (weight 0.94): Playing with friends significantly enhances the experience, leading to laughter, shared scares, and memorable moments. Teamwork, communication, and the ability to mess with each other are key aspects of the multiplayer fun. The game is often recommended as a great co-op experience. - Immersive and tense atmosphere (weight 0.45): The game creates an immersive and tense atmosphere through sound design, lighting, and well-designed environments. This atmosphere, combined with jump scares and suspenseful gameplay, contributes to a thrilling and memorable horror experience. The game balances scariness with humor. - Unique heist-horror blend, replayable (weight 0.34): The game uniquely blends heist and horror elements, creating a fresh and engaging experience. Procedurally generated environments and varied objectives ensure high replayability and unpredictability. This combination keeps the gameplay interesting and prevents it from becoming repetitive. - Varied and unique monster designs (weight 0.22): The game features a diverse range of monsters, each with unique abilities and mechanics. Players must adapt their strategies to outsmart these creatures, adding depth and challenge to the gameplay. The monster designs are often praised for their creativity and distinctiveness. - Emergent, humorous player interactions (weight 0.17): The game facilitates emergent and humorous player interactions, such as pushing friends into monsters, stealing loot, or using the defibrillator in chaotic ways. These interactions contribute to the game's overall fun and create memorable moments. The game allows for trolling. - Active development and updates (weight 0.16): The developers are actively updating the game with new content, bug fixes, and improvements. They are also responsive to player feedback and communicate through channels like Discord. This commitment to ongoing development enhances the game's potential and longevity. - Challenging scenarios, adjustable difficulty (weight 0.09): The game presents challenging scenarios and offers adjustable difficulty settings. The levels are large and detailed, requiring close attention and problem-solving skills. The game has the potential to startle players and presents a unique concept. - Unique and fun monster mechanics (weight 0.09): Specific monsters, like the Blind Ghoul and the Trickster, are highlighted for their unique mechanics and the fun they bring to the game. The Blind Ghoul's reliance on sound and the Trickster's mini-game create memorable and often hilarious encounters. These monsters add depth and variety to the gameplay. - Strategic player interaction options (weight 0.04): The game allows for strategic play and interaction with devices, monsters, and teammates. This includes the ability to sacrifice teammates for higher scores, heal each other, or use various methods to influence their actions. These elements add depth and complexity to the gameplay. Common complaints: - Lacks content; repetitive gameplay (weight 0.68): The most common complaint is the lack of content, specifically maps, monsters, and objectives. Players report the game becoming repetitive very quickly, sometimes within the first few hours. This severely impacts replayability and long-term engagement. - Unbalanced/poorly designed enemies (weight 0.39): Several enemy types are criticized for being unbalanced, unfair, or poorly designed. Some are considered too easy to cheese or avoid, while others are frustratingly difficult with little counterplay. Specific examples include the Mummy, Stone Stalkers, Kissers and Banshee, which are frequently mentioned as problematic. - Numerous bugs hinder gameplay (weight 0.32): Many reviewers mention encountering bugs that disrupt gameplay. These range from minor graphical glitches to game-breaking issues that prevent progression. The game's early access status is often cited as a reason, but the frequency and severity of bugs are a significant concern. - Ineffective/diminishing horror elements (weight 0.11): The game's horror elements are often criticized for being ineffective or diminishing quickly. Jump scares are seen as cheap and unearned, and the game lacks genuine tension. The initial scariness fades as players become familiar with the game's mechanics and enemy behaviors. - Frequent disconnections/multiplayer issues (weight 0.07): Players report frequent disconnections and other multiplayer issues. These problems disrupt co-op gameplay and can lead to lost progress. The game also suffers from glitches that cause players to become invisible or teleport under the map. - Inconsistent horror experience (weight 0.05): This cluster primarily contains general emotional responses to the game's horror elements. While some players found the game scary, others were not impressed. Due to the lack of specific details, this point has a low importance score. - Flawed level generation (weight 0.05): The procedural level generation is flawed, leading to nonsensical layouts and inaccessible areas. This contributes to the game's repetitive feel and can make navigation frustrating. The level design needs significant improvement. Gameplay feedback: - Diverse monsters with unique counters (weight 0.24): The game features a variety of monsters, each with unique behaviors, attack patterns, and vulnerabilities. Players must learn to identify and counter each monster using specific items or strategies. Monster difficulty scales with progress. - Random maps, puzzles, item collection (weight 0.23): The game features procedurally generated maps with varied layouts, requiring players to adapt to new environments each round. Gameplay involves exploration, puzzle-solving (finding keys, fuses), and item collection to progress and escape. The maps include locked rooms and vaults, adding a layer of complexity to navigation. - Cooperative heists with PvP sabotage (weight 0.2): The core gameplay loop revolves around cooperative heists in randomly generated maps. Players must steal specific items or reach a target value while avoiding monsters and completing objectives. Teamwork and coordination are essential, but players can also sabotage each other for personal gain. - PVP sabotage lacks impact (weight 0.03): The game encourages player-versus-player interaction through mechanics like stealing and sabotage. However, the rewards for these actions are minimal, and the mechanics themselves are simple, leading to a lack of meaningful impact. - Currency for cosmetics and equipment (weight 0.02): Players earn in-game currency by completing heists and objectives. This currency can be used to purchase cosmetics and equipment to aid in future missions, creating a progression system. - Cooperation with potential for griefing (weight 0.02): The game features cooperative mechanics that require teamwork to solve puzzles and escape. However, players can also hinder each other's progress, creating opportunities for both cooperation and conflict. - Simple, easily understandable gameplay (weight 0.02): The game's core gameplay loop is simple and easy to understand. However, some reviewers feel that the gameplay is too simplistic. - Object throwing mechanic (weight 0.01): Players can throw objects at each other and at ghosts. This mechanic adds a layer of interactivity and potential for both cooperation and chaos. Performance notes: - Performance regressions reported (weight 0.02): Some players report that the game does not properly utilize high-end hardware, and performance has decreased since a specific update. This suggests potential optimization regressions or issues with scaling to powerful systems. - Microphone sensitivity issues (weight 0.01): Some players are experiencing issues with voice chat, specifically with microphone sensitivity. This makes communication difficult as voices cut in and out, even at the highest volume settings. - Server stability improved (weight 0.01): The game's servers have become more stable after an update. This suggests that the developers are actively addressing server-related issues and improving the online experience. - Unclear/unhelpful feedback (weight 0): These points are too vague to be useful. 'Potato PC requirements' doesn't provide any specific information about the game's performance or optimization. 'Never heard of bugs' is not constructive feedback. - Irrelevant issue (weight 0): This point refers to Steam's microphone settings being faulty, which is not directly related to the game itself. Therefore, it is not relevant to the game's review. Recommendations: - Needs more content and polish (weight 0.7): Many reviewers express optimism about the game's potential but emphasize the need for continued development, content updates (maps, monsters), bug fixes, and balancing. They are looking forward to future updates and improvements, suggesting the game is promising but not yet fully realized. - Unplayable in current state (weight 0.46): Several reviewers caution against purchasing the game in its current state due to bugs, lack of content, and other issues. Some suggest waiting for further development or a more polished release before considering a purchase, while others recommend refunding immediately. - Anticipating future updates (weight 0.43): Reviewers are generally excited about the future of the game and are looking forward to future updates and content. They express hope that the developers will continue to support the game and add more features, maps, and monsters. - Overly positive scores (weight 0.21): Some reviewers gave the game a perfect score of 10/10, indicating a highly positive overall impression. However, these scores should be taken with a grain of salt, as they may not reflect the game's actual quality or the reviewer's true experience. - Best enjoyed with friends (weight 0.15): A strong consensus emerges that the game is significantly more enjoyable and suitable for multiplayer experiences with friends. Solo play is often discouraged due to difficulty or the nature of the gameplay, which benefits from cooperation and communication. - Good value for price (weight 0.11): Many reviewers find the game to be a good value for its current price, often around $10 or less. However, some reviewers suggest that the value is contingent on future content updates, and the price may increase as the game develops. - Recommended for horror fans (weight 0.11): The game is recommended for fans of the horror genre, particularly those who enjoy cooperative gameplay and survival mechanics. Some reviewers compare it to similar titles like Phasmophobia and Lethal Company, while others highlight its unique blend of heists and horror elements. - Try the demo first (weight 0.04): Several reviewers suggest trying the demo or prologue to get a feel for the game before purchasing. This allows potential players to form their own opinion and assess whether the game aligns with their preferences. - Not recommended currently (weight 0.03): Some reviewers express negative sentiments towards the game, citing issues such as poor quality, unplayability, and a waste of money. These reviewers often recommend against purchasing the game in its current state and may have refunded their purchase. Other player notes: - Suggestions for Improvement (weight 0.03): Reviewers suggest specific improvements and additions to enhance the gameplay experience. These include a lore system, more NPCs, and Steam Workshop support for community-generated content. - Unique Heist-Horror Combination (weight 0.02): The game uniquely blends heist, horror, and escape elements, drawing comparisons to games like Payday and Lethal Company. This combination creates a distinctive premise. - Voice Chat Dependent Gameplay (weight 0.02): Effective communication relies heavily on voice chat due to the absence of in-game text chat or ping systems. The lack of teammate location indicators further complicates coordination. - Item Selection/Discarding Issues (weight 0.01): Players may struggle to choose the right items due to a lack of knowledge about the enemy. The necessity of discarding items is also questioned. - Missing Advertised Monster (weight 0.01): A specific monster featured in the game's trailer is not actually present in the game. This discrepancy could lead to disappointment or frustration for players expecting to encounter it. - Expensive Limited-Time Cosmetics (weight 0.01): The developer introduced limited-time New Year's cosmetics with a high price tag, even with a discount. This point may indicate a potential negative sentiment towards monetization strategies. Emotions: No emotions}