Fans of survival horror games (particularly those who aren’t fans of jump scares) may want to add Darkwood to their list of new games to check out this weekend. Set in “… a bizarre version of mid-80s Poland,” Darkwood is a story-driven horror game that places the player in a forest possessed by evil forces.

You may think you’ve been trapped in such a place before, but not like this. To survive the woods you’ll have to explore, scavenge, craft items and complete quests by day, as you’ll need to make sure your hidehout is fortified by nightfall. As you can imagine, that’s when things can really get ugly.

The game takes place in East-Central Europe, in a forest possessed by unknown evil forces that corrupt all the inhabitants of the woods -people, animals, and even the plants… Player’s goals are simple –survive at all cost and try to escape. To achieve this, players will have to uncover the story of the forest, craft new items, fight the hostile residents of the woods, trade with the friendlier ones, set up traps to keep enemies out of their hideouts and inject strange potions into their character’s bloodstream, so he can learn skills that will help him stay alive.

Darkwood’s features include:

  • Horror without jumpscares – Darkwood is an atmospheric, psychological horror that creates the feeling of tension without the usual horror tricks.
  • Day and night cycle – explore the world during the day and try to survive the night by hiding from evil forces in your shelter.
  • Randomly generated map – the world will not change during your adventure with Darkwood, but it can be completely different for your friends!
  • Crafting – scavenge for materials to create weapons, traps, health potions or your hideout upgrades.
  • Skills and perks – learn new powers by extracting a strange essence from mutated fauna and flora and injecting it into your bloodstream.
  • No hand holding – test your skills and figure things out on your own!
  • Impactful decisions – decide on the world of Darkwood, its inhabitants and the story you experience.

Darkwood is available now in the eShop for $14.99. For more information, visit www.crunchingkoalas.com.