Hi all,
with the release date coming closer, I'd like to share with you some details on what you can expect from Dead of Darkness.
Game Length
The total game length of Dead of Darkness will be somewhere around 12 hours, depending on the difficulty setting (see below) and your playstyle. It's grown much bigger than I originally anticipated!
Difficulty Settings
There will be six difficulty settings in Dead of Darkness, four available from the start and two unlockable:
- Very Easy – Essentially a story mode, ideal for those unfamiliar with survival horror games or who simply want to enjoy the story.
- Easy – Easier than Normal, while still providing tense moments without major challenges. You won't have to worry about resource management on this difficulty setting.
- Moderate – If you're a survival horror veteran and know when do dodge enemies/how to manage your resources, this will most likely not be a challenge for you. If you're unfamiliar with classic survival-horror games though, this will already offer a descent challenge.
- Hard – Expect faster, stronger, more resilient enemies, and generally more of them in this mode. Planning your routes, kills and resources is essential to survive in this mode.
- Very Hard – Everything Hard mode has, but even more intense! There are a few more mean surprises in terms of obstacles and enemy placements. You need to pay very close attention to your resources and save as much of them as you can. You need to beat the game once to unlock this.
- In the Dead of Darkness – Enemies hit like trucks, are very fast, and take significant punishment before going down. There are even more enemies, and some traps are deadlier. You’ll need to be very familiar with the game to survive this mode, and even then you will die. I recommend playing this in New Game Plus the first time around (more on that below). Unlock this by beating the game on Very Hard.
You can change the difficulty whenever you like in the game, so don’t stress too much about your initial choice!
New Game Plus
Happy to announce that New Game Plus will be available at launch.
You can carry your maxed-out weapons into your new game and choose whatever difficulty setting you prefer.
Achievements
There will be 50 achievements, some of which will be pretty hard to unlock. I’m curious to see who will be the first one to do it (if anyone makes it at all!) – let me know!
Zapping System Inspirations
During the story, you will alternate between playing as Miles and Olivia. What you do with one character can influence your playthrough with the other one. That means you can leave ammo in a certain room, so the other character can pick it up later. The same goes for unlocking shortcuts, taking out enemies, or uncovering parts of the map.
This will be especially helpful in higher difficulty settings when you need to plan your routes and use of resources very carefully.
I hope this gives you a better picture of what you can expect when the game releases on January 23rd!
Let me know if you have any questions!
Markus