Uncovering Corporate Secrets in KARMA: The Dark World

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... Read more