I’m not the biggest fan of exploratory games, but if there is one genre that does it right, it would have to be horror. I was fortunate enough to check out a 45-minute or so demo for KARMA: The Dark World, a brand-new and debut horror experience from China-based Pollard Studio.
KARMA: The Dark World coins itself as a first-person psychological thriller set in 1984. Like the Orwellian-inspired year, KARMA: The Dark World’s backdrop is one of oppression at the invisible hands of a mega-company known as the Leviathan Corporation.
As the player, you assume the role of an amnesic employee of the Leviathan Corporation, waking up strapped to a bed with alien-looking incisions on your arm and equally strange apparatuses all around you. From here, you quickly come across a room filled to the brim with dead bodies, all showing signs of having been experimented on in the same way as the player. Aesthetically, KARMA: The Dark World’s environments feature retro Cold War-inspired visuals that bring to mind the gaudy 70’s stylings of The Shining mixed with more contemporary influences like the FBC building found in Remedy’s Control.
“The gameplay in KARMA: The Dark World mostly consists of observing the environment, interacting with key objects, outrunning the monster and the occasional light puzzle element thrown in good for the measure.“
Before delving into the game proper, one area in KARMA: The Dark World that impressed me was the way in which the game handles calibrating audio and visual settings. Instead of a static menu or UI, players walk through interrogation or test chamber-style rooms in which the player can tweak their HDR and surround sound settings in a way that feels more like it’s a narrative element of the game itself rather than just a setting to better the gameplay experience.
After the grisly discovery of the pile of bodies, the player eventually runs into a mysterious older man, who, after some coaxing, straps you back into a chair. He sends your consciousness deep into the past in order to relive traumatic memories in the hopes of stitching together the bigger picture, ultimately revealing the mystery behind the player and the enigmatic Leviathan Corporation.
Delving into the past to relive past memories seems to be the central gameplay loop and structure KARMA: The Dark World will use for its different levels or chapters, though my time with the game was limited to only the first act. The first level or flashback sequence features a twisted take on what appears to be the offices of the Leviathan Corporation, with the main mission or objective of the level requiring the player to outrun and survive a monster that stalks the player throughout the labyrinthine-like environment.
The gameplay in KARMA: The Dark World mostly consists of observing the environment, interacting with key objects, outrunning the monster and the occasional light puzzle element thrown in good for the measure. One of the more interesting sequences in the game, towards the end of the demo, tasked me with completing a menial office job of stamping a seemingly endless pile of legal documents while a dystopian PSA-style video played in the periphery. Despite its intentionally mundane nature, the sequence stood out as it overstayed its welcome, not to the point of boredom, but just long enough to elicit a real sense of dread that punctuated the oppressive atmosphere the game seems to strive towards.
Unfortunately, at only around 45 minutes, there isn’t much more to say about the game. However, if you are a fan of psychological horror titles, KARMA: The Dark World is definitely worth keeping on your radar. Finally, on a side note, as the game seems to rely on Unreal Engine 5, I look forward to seeing how KARMA: The Dark World translates on PC via UEVR.
