The Church in the Darkness | |
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Developer(s) | Paranoid Productions |
Publisher(s) | Fellow Traveller |
Director(s) | Richard Rouse III |
Designer(s) | Richard Rouse III |
Programmer(s) | Richard Rouse III Carl Chavez Young Ben Young |
Writer(s) | Richard Rouse III |
Composer(s) | Ellen McLain John Patrick Lowrie |
Engine | Unity |
Platform(s) |
macOS Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 Xbox One |
Release | August 2, 2019 |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure, stealth [1] |
Mode(s) | Single-player [1] |
The Church in the Darkness is an action-adventure video game. It was originally announced in 2016 to ship in early 2017, [2] and was released in 2019 for Microsoft Windows, [2] macOS, [1] PlayStation 4, [3] and Xbox One. [2] It was designed by Richard Rouse III under the name Paranoid Productions.
The Church in the Darkness is an "action-infiltration" game [4] set inside a religious cult in the 1970s. [3] The game revolves around an ex-law enforcement officer named Vic who attempts to get inside an isolated religious colony called "Freedom Town" to check in on his sister's son, Alex. [4] [3] The leaders, Isaac and Rebecca Walker of the "Collective Justice Mission", preach socialism and sustainable agricultural living in a Christian society. They are voiced by the couple, John Patrick Lowrie and Ellen McLain. [5] [6] The story unfolds through Isaac and Rebecca's regular updates on the camp's public address system. [5]
Some elements of the game are procedurally generated, with each start changing people's allegiances, beliefs, and camp layout. [6]
The game's premise arises from Rouse's lifelong fascination with cults. Rouse has been a fan of " open-narrative" games since the mid-'80s and he was "stunned" to see the many popular games of 2016 with fixed narratives. [7] The game has been said to have "very obvious echoes of Jonestown". [4] Rouse was particularly intrigued by the Source family, a spiritual commune in the late 1960s which was situated in the Hollywood Hills. [5]
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | NS: 69/100
[8] PC: 65/100 [9] PS4: 58/100 [10] XONE: 58/100 [11] |
The game received "mixed or average" reception at Metacritic. [8] [9] [10] [11]
Robin Burks wrote for Screen Rant, "the big ideas don't live up to the hype with a game that's so small and gives the player very little to do." [12]
The Church in the Darkness | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Developer(s) | Paranoid Productions |
Publisher(s) | Fellow Traveller |
Director(s) | Richard Rouse III |
Designer(s) | Richard Rouse III |
Programmer(s) | Richard Rouse III Carl Chavez Young Ben Young |
Writer(s) | Richard Rouse III |
Composer(s) | Ellen McLain John Patrick Lowrie |
Engine | Unity |
Platform(s) |
macOS Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 Xbox One |
Release | August 2, 2019 |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure, stealth [1] |
Mode(s) | Single-player [1] |
The Church in the Darkness is an action-adventure video game. It was originally announced in 2016 to ship in early 2017, [2] and was released in 2019 for Microsoft Windows, [2] macOS, [1] PlayStation 4, [3] and Xbox One. [2] It was designed by Richard Rouse III under the name Paranoid Productions.
The Church in the Darkness is an "action-infiltration" game [4] set inside a religious cult in the 1970s. [3] The game revolves around an ex-law enforcement officer named Vic who attempts to get inside an isolated religious colony called "Freedom Town" to check in on his sister's son, Alex. [4] [3] The leaders, Isaac and Rebecca Walker of the "Collective Justice Mission", preach socialism and sustainable agricultural living in a Christian society. They are voiced by the couple, John Patrick Lowrie and Ellen McLain. [5] [6] The story unfolds through Isaac and Rebecca's regular updates on the camp's public address system. [5]
Some elements of the game are procedurally generated, with each start changing people's allegiances, beliefs, and camp layout. [6]
The game's premise arises from Rouse's lifelong fascination with cults. Rouse has been a fan of " open-narrative" games since the mid-'80s and he was "stunned" to see the many popular games of 2016 with fixed narratives. [7] The game has been said to have "very obvious echoes of Jonestown". [4] Rouse was particularly intrigued by the Source family, a spiritual commune in the late 1960s which was situated in the Hollywood Hills. [5]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | NS: 69/100
[8] PC: 65/100 [9] PS4: 58/100 [10] XONE: 58/100 [11] |
The game received "mixed or average" reception at Metacritic. [8] [9] [10] [11]
Robin Burks wrote for Screen Rant, "the big ideas don't live up to the hype with a game that's so small and gives the player very little to do." [12]