This cosmic horror adventure is an excellent game for horror fanatics!
London, England, you find yourself standing at the edge of a stone platform overlooking dark waters.
A crow lands on your shoulder and croaks softly. The world trembles as you sense shadowy beings moving all around you; they are coming closer…
What is this game all about?
Welcome to Dagon, an exploration-heavy horror game that’s uniquely cinematic in its delivery of claustrophobic terror. If anything, it’s more leisurely paced than something like Amnesia: The Dark Descent yet delivers far more impactful horrors through its immaculate visuals and ambiance. Let’s just say that the last thing you’ll ever want to do is go swimming.
Indeed, one of the most striking things about Dagon is its evocative visual style. Its wonderfully detailed environments look more like oil paintings than pixel art, and there aren’t any wasted pixels or empty spaces on the screen. Even the music and sound effects are a fitting complement to what you see – from the crack of lightning above a dark sea to the splashing of water from a creature’s tentacle, there’s an evident skill applied to all aspects of the presentation.
It makes for an immersive experience that draws you into its world.
But visual flair is only part of the story. Dagon’s gameplay is top-notch, too. At its heart, Dagon consists of two elements: exploration and combat. Exploration comes in the form of a few basic mechanics.
How can you play this game?
You can’t move forward until you spot a glowing “light” on the ground ahead – at which point you’ll see a corresponding sound from your headphones.
More often than not, this light will also be accompanied by an increasingly ominous voice that will tell you that something is wrong somewhere nearby and urge you to turn back. With each subsequent approach of these lights, these sounds become louder and more urgent.
If you push forward, you’ll trigger a quick-time event that will allow you to progress. This is done by placing your cursor over the light and pressing a particular key or key combination to move forward and then watching the harrowing experience unfold until it comes to an abrupt end.
Sometimes this involves walking down a corridor; other times, it can include crossing a rope bridge, entering a room with no apparent exit, descending into the depths below…and so on.
Dagon is a free space game that you can play on most platforms. Especially for all the PC players, it is a win-win situation since this game will take their minds off.
Image courtesy of Steininger/YouTube