The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark

Just when you thought it was safe, The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark is released and pulls you back into a strange, weird, macabre, and downright hilarious spooky world that needs your help.

Not Quite As Cool As Steve McQueen!

The original The Darkside Detective was a ton of fun and this time things are getting even spookier and weirder. The idea of The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark is that the game is split into six episodes with each one being its own spooky and funny tale. Detective McQueen is back from the first game and this time he really has his work cut out for him. Think of him as kind of like Detective Mulder, only not quite as suave and cool.

This game has six different stories to play through and they take you to some very interesting locations. There is the carnival, the retirement home, the independent wrestling circuit, and more! You never know what the heck is really going on and that is a huge part of the fun and appeal of a game like this.

So Beyond Absurd, It Makes Sense!

The gameplay on offer here in The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark is that of a classic point-and-click style adventure game. This is a genre that has really picked up steam over the last decade or so and I would argue that we are living in a golden age of point-and-click style games right now. You control Detective McQueen and you need to talk to people to try and piece together what is going on.

You will pick up various clues, items, and so on and then you need to try and put these to the right use. As this game is a bit on the strange side, you are forced to think outside of the box. What is neat about this is that some of the things you have to do are just so absurd that they will truly make your head spin. For some people this may be a tad too much, I get that. However, I would argue that things here are not obtuse to try and trip the player up. The puzzles are designed in this way to make you laugh more than anything else.

The Pixelated Dick With All The Tricks

I love and I mean love the art style that The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark has going on. This is done in a pixelated style that is clearly designed to tug at the nostalgia strings and make you think of those classic 90s point-and-click adventure games that we all love. While it is pixelated, there is a ton of little details in each scene here and the backgrounds especially have a ton of work done on them that really do catch your eye.

The whole game has a kind of Twin Peaks/X-Files thing going on, but with a real cheeky sense of humor. Despite the retro-style graphics, this really does shine through and get you more invested in the cases that Detective McQueen is trying to solve.

Pros:

• Detective McQueen is a very interesting character
• The pixel style really gives the game a ton of personality
• I loved the spooky soundtrack
• This game features six stories to play through

Cons:

• I get that the pixelated look is not for everyone
• Some of the puzzles maybe just a tad too out there