Step into the oppressive atmosphere of 1984 East Germany, where the ominous Leviathan Corporation reigns supreme. This entity governs with an iron fist, implementing mass surveillance, rigid social class structures, and mind-altering drugs. Leviathan casts a long shadow over the city, promising a utopian future in exchange for unwavering citizen obedience.
KARMA: The Dark World plunges players into this unsettling setting as a first-person psychological thriller. The game crafts a beautifully dark and eerie ambiance, with unsettling twists lurking around every corner and a sense of a twisted presence permeating every thought. Your role is to delve into the minds of suspects, tasked with separating truth from deception.
In KARMA, you embody Daniel McGovern, an employee within the Leviathan Corporation holding the position of a roam agent. Your primary duty involves diving into the subconscious of suspects, reviewing their memories in search of evidence related to crimes or insubordination. However, what begins as a seemingly straightforward brief takes a dark turn when you enter the mind of a suspected traitor, uncovering a much larger and more complex situation unfolding beneath the surface.
Now, the responsibility falls upon you to dig deeper than ever before, blurring the lines between tangible reality and the fragmented visions within the brain dives. The central mystery revolves around identifying who is at the heart of this intricate situation and the unsettling reason why the suspect directly mentions your name.
The narrative of KARMA is described as dark, twisted, and utterly captivating. It grabs your attention from the outset with its intriguing premise and maintains a compelling pace throughout the majority of the game. The storytelling is rich and multifaceted, weaving together information from Leviathan’s propaganda infomercials, scattered letters and documents found within the game’s environments, overheard citizen conversations, and the evocative images and sounds encountered during your journey. This intricate layering effectively builds a vivid and immersive picture of the game’s world remarkably quickly. Personally, I found myself easily drawn into this world, eager to uncover more with each discovered piece of information.
The main progression of the story unfolds through the brain dives. As you investigate key events linked to the crimes, you gain significant insights into each character within the game, while simultaneously uncovering layers of your own character, Daniel, and his past. While these dives contribute to the overarching narrative, they also effectively paint a clear picture of the events that have led to the current precarious situation.
These mental explorations delve into deep and personal territory, expertly playing on the psychological aspects of the game. They consistently tap into certain nerves and feelings, amplifying the overall sense of unease that permeates the experience.
With each mission completed in KARMA, the tension is expertly paced, constantly compelling you to push forward. The game avoids becoming a relentless pressure cooker, instead demonstrating a keen understanding of when to escalate the intensity and when to provide moments of respite, allowing you to catch your breath.
True to the genre of psychological thrillers, the twists and mysteries form a crucial pillar of the story. Subtle hints are strategically placed throughout, gradually contributing to the larger narrative arc. Expect numerous moments where you’ll question everything you encounter and feel a sense of disorientation, but rest assured, the payoff is significant and well worth the anticipation.
I highly recommend thoroughly examining and absorbing every piece of information the game presents. The world is rich with small details that offer profound insights into specific aspects of the story and its inhabitants. Even the world-building itself is compelling enough to warrant dedicated exploration.
As mentioned earlier, KARMA. The Dark World is a first-person psychological thriller with a well-rounded approach to gameplay. I identified three primary elements that felt particularly well-executed and significantly enhanced the narrative in compelling ways.
Firstly, there’s the exploration aspect, which extends beyond simply navigating the game’s maps. It encompasses a deeper exploration of characters and the unfolding story. You directly control Daniel as he investigates the world around him, but you also accompany him on a more passive level as you delve into the minds of those under suspicion, controlling them within their memories. This creates a sensation akin to a twisted dream within a dream. While navigating these environments, you can interact with screens, letters, personal files, and various other elements, gradually piecing together the intricate story behind almost everything.
Next, the game incorporates both puzzles and mazes. These challenges appear both in the external world and within the memory sequences. However, the nature of these challenges differs significantly between the two realms. Within the memory dives, things are often distorted, and conventional logic doesn’t always apply. Therefore, keen observation of your surroundings becomes crucial to solving puzzles or navigating the disorienting mazes to reach your next objective. I found these puzzles to be well-designed, demanding enough to require genuine thought and exploration of the environment without being so obscure as to necessitate resorting to external guides.
The puzzles encountered in the real world lean more towards logical and code-breaking challenges. Again, these require a degree of investigation and perception but generally don’t present an overwhelming level of difficulty.
Finally, KARMA features what could be considered its combat element. To avoid spoilers, I’ll remain deliberately vague, but within each memory dive, there’s typically an end element or a specific task required to conclude the dive. This might involve a confrontation with a family member or facing a disturbed and twisted manifestation of a memory. Each of these encounters has specific conditions or actions that must be observed and understood to overcome them. These moments are often intense and, once again, necessitate careful attention to your surroundings to succeed. However, they proved to be a genuinely enjoyable aspect of the gameplay, often intense and sometimes brutal, adding a significant layer of engagement.
Overall, KARMA: The Dark World excels at immersing the player in its dystopian world and compelling narrative. Once I began playing, I found it incredibly difficult to pull myself away, ultimately finishing the game in a single sitting.
For those who appreciate a well-crafted thriller, it’s easy to become completely swept away by the world of KARMA. The game encourages you to form your own theories about who is responsible for the unfolding events, who can be trusted, and who cannot. Even the subtle occurrences in the background contribute to an intriguing narrative that constantly entices you to delve deeper.
My playthrough of KARMA was thoroughly enjoyable and I found it to be an absolutely fantastic experience. I honestly would love to learn much more about the rich world in which it is set. Dystopian futures are a personal favorite setting for video games and stories, and when a game executes it this well, it’s truly captivating.
With its engaging gameplay, fantastic graphics (which are genuinely impressive), and a compelling story, KARMA: The Dark World is a game I almost wish I could experience again for the first time. For now, I’ll eagerly await what Pollard Studios might bring next, whether it’s a continuation of this intriguing story or something entirely new.
A big thanks to Wired Productions for providing a review key for the game!
KARMA: The Dark World is available now on PC and PlayStation.
Until next time, stay caffeinated.
