The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark

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Summary

Delouse your room with sage and pack up your travel-sized ouija board, it’s time to re-enter Twin Lakes - America’s 34th most haunted city. Join Detective McQueen as he puzzles his way through 6 chilling cases, risking life and pixelated limb to solve the macabre mysteries that plague the poor town.


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The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark Reviews & Ratings

90
Review by Checkpoint Gaming
May 29, 2021

A ridiculous and funny point and click adventure that anyone can enjoy. The style of gameplay is simple, allowing you to enjoy the art, music and especially the writing even more. It will feed you that good mix of absurd and self-aware comedy that you didn’t even know you were hungry for. I really do encourage you to give it a go, especially if you’re on the fence about point and click adventures in general. It’s a game that doesn’t need a triple-A status or heavy content to be fantastic. Just a few sentient pixels, great writing and some paranormal cases to solve.

85
Review by Ragequit.gr
May 11, 2021

With substantial gameplay improvements but also some flaws compared to the first Darkside Detective, the second game in the series remains an adventure that would have made a splash if it had been released in 1994.

80
Review by RPG Fan
May 11, 2021

A Fumble in the Dark may have lost sight of what made the first iteration great in some respects, but for those who want more of the charismatic duo and excellent observational humor, this is an admirable sequel. More is on the way, as well, so for those who worry we’ll be waiting another three or four years for Francis and Dooley to return, fear not. As for me, I’m okay with the break if it means an assurance of quality in the future.

70
Review by PublicNuisance [user]
May 7, 2021

I had really enjoyed season one of The Darkside Detective because, for the most part, the puzzles made sense and were logical. I found thatI had really enjoyed season one of The Darkside Detective because, for the most part, the puzzles made sense and were logical. I found that the sequel, A Fumble in the Dark, lacked that to a degree. Many times I found myself combining things for no logical reason, sometimes even with the main character commenting to this fact of how little sense it made. There were also other times where I knew what the game wanted me to do but until I did something specific like go to a certain room I couldn’t proceed. Overall though the cases are still enjoyable and the humour is still as great as ever. It is this that saves it in my eyes as I really do enjoy the characters; the humour and the world of the game. Hopefully they return to more sensible puzzles in future sequels. The art style is what it is, you’ll either enjoy pixel games or you won’t.I played A Fumble in the Dark on Linux. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any bugs. Alt-Tab didn’t work. I could manually save at any time (save for certain cut scenes) but there was just the one save file. There is still auto save for those who prefer that. The game ran great performance wise. There were no graphics options but this is a pixel game after all. The game did seem to use Vsync even if there was no option to toggle it.Game Engine: UnityGraphics API: OpenGLSave System: Manual and AutoGame Version Played: 0.10.202.67rGPU Usage: 0-70 %CPU Usage: 2-7 %VRAM Usage: 388-598 MBRAM Usage: 1.8-2.2 GBFrame Rate: 132-144 FPSEverything I loved about the original was still here, I just didn’t enjoy many of the puzzles as much. That being said the game still was enjoyable for me and probably will be for those who liked the first Darkside Detective as well. I would try out the demo if you’re on the fence. I paid $13.09 CAD for the game and finished it in 7 hours and 42 minutes which made it more than fair value wise for me.My Score: 7/10My System:AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 21.0.3 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Manjaro 21.0.3 | Mate 1.24.1 | Kernel 5.12.1-2-MANJARO | AOC G2460P 1920*1080 @ 144hz

90
Review by Adventure Gamers
May 3, 2021

With the same charming aesthetic and just as many laughs and quirky paranormal phenomena as the first season, The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark is definitely worth playing for the comedically inclined.

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Game Information
Release Date April 14, 2021
Publisher Spooky Doorway, Akupara Games
Content Rated T (Teen)
Game Modes Single player
Player Perspectives Third person, Side view
Genres Point-and-click, Puzzle, Adventure, Indie
Themes Horror, Comedy, Mystery
Platforms Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Google Stadia