Darkway: Murder of King Mere

Really really really good. I haven't been this excited about a game in a while. I was immediately gripped by the world with its interesting characters, unique story, and awesome world building. The sound design is also very good, but I have to say I was disappointed with the voice acting. The poor quality takes away from the immersion and I found the inconsistency distracting at times. Like actors talking too fast, hearing them breathe into the microphone, inconsistent accents that were all jarring to listen to. My only other gripe is the typos and grammatical errors. Regardless I'm really impressed and super excited to see more!!

Genuinely such a fun and engaging game. Challenging almost to the point of sometimes being frustrating, but in a way that only motivates you to keep exploring and looking for more clues. Like every indie game out there it certainly doesn't lack in flaws and small bugs, especially since this was developed by a single person, but i honestly don't feel like they take too much from the game (dare i say they kind of add to it's charm). Definitely worth it, hoping for a sequel and more Darkway games!

fun game, cool worldbuilding

Interesting game with a lot of charm. The writing and world building are the strengths of the game. I am not sure if I found all of the evidence, but I did seem to come to the right conclusion anyways. Fun experience if you like games for style and presentation over mechanics and moment-to-moment gameplay. A great first game that has a true identity.

I am somewhat mixed, but definitely leaning towards positive in my experience with it. The style and overall visual side of the game is brilliant (if you're getting very low frames, add -dx11 as a start up command in steam, this fixed it for me and seems to be somewhat common) and is mainly what drew me to give it a try. The story is also intriguing and the free form way in which the investigation works is great, because it made me focus on the actual dialogues and in particular little tidbits that could become a hint later (like one character suggesting that all dogs that were in the army are trained to use crossbows, when talking about a certain conspiracy a character does not divulge much information about the third member, but refers to them as "she", and others examples). I was really enjoying the game (with an exception for the 2 fetch quests, I spent about an hour running around looking for the white stones haha) up until the last hour or so when I ran out of quests to follow but also things I found and thought to be crucial leads did not seem to lead me as close to the solution as I was hoping. My final hour of gameplay consisted of just running around the map spamming through all dialogue options in hopes of finding something I missed, but I ended up (shamefully!) having to look up a video to see who was the culprit. I hope it was just me who struggled with the end bit, as the crux of my experience was very enjoyable, I really do think this is a banger. TLDR: Great game, first 90% was fun, suddenly hit a wall at the end, would cautiously recommend.

This game bleeds passion. It is not polished, it is not perfect, and for that reason, I have thought more about this game than any other I've played this year. I can almost feel the determination of its creator through the screen -- it is quite inspiring. The voices seem to be performed by largely inexperienced individuals, which at times contributes to the indie charm, and at other times, can be a little distracting. Similarly, I found the movement system to be occasionally janky, but rewarding, if sometimes a little irritating. Some objects ([spoiler]particularly the white rocks[/spoiler]) were frustrating for me to find. I think some parts of the environment could be fleshed out a bit more, like the frozen lake and nature surrounding Ink. I played the entire game with the controller, but needed to use a mouse due to some UI bugs occasionally. I found the conversation UI to be a little basic, and I think some deeper thought could've resulted in something a little more engaging (for example, I found the "favor" option meaning asking if someone needed a favor accomplished, or helping to accomplish a favor, a little unintuitive.) The aesthetics are wonderful, well-shaded, and clearly reflect a powerful art direction. I quite enjoy the world building, and would be disappointed if I didn't get to explore this world in more detail in the future. I will be closely following Papke's work, and will instantly buy any future work. Excellent job!

Wow, this game was messy. I think it was super ambitious to make an open world indie game based in a city…with jumping. I enjoyed it but it could be better. I’m a big fan of games where you can accuse/convict the wrong person. The stakes are also upped during your investigation with some limited consequences for pushing too far too often during interviews. You can still get all the information you need without breaking a sweat though. I would’ve liked a higher difficulty option so it didn’t turn into spamming through dialogue while watching the “favor meter.” One of the introductory characters also gives up the goose with the gameplay loop, kind of breaking the fourth wall to explain it. I guess I might do something similar if I was developing a game and I was getting hammered with negative feedback because people didn’t know what to do. Some of the voice acting was really really bad. I understand VAs have an uphill battle doing dialogue for character models that don’t show they’re speaking, this is me being generous. There was one character that sounded like a bored classmate reading lines in class because their teacher made them. I won’t say who because they might read this review and I’ll feel bad. Some of the other voice actors were just not aligned with the character. They all seemed very young 😂. Burying any hopes for a sequel soon because it looks like they’re going to be patching this game for a while. Strong recommend for $8.

Do you like animals, mystery, intimate open worlds, and a game built by a developer who clearly cares about the player experience of their game just as much as they do about building an immersive and diverse world? Then this is the game for you. Instead of buying a coffee or whatever you were going to buy for almost no money, today, buy this game. It is well written and actually makes you feel as though you are a detective solving a mystery, without being so impossible to deduce it drives you crazy. Between the world-building lore, decisions actually mattering, and the potential growth for the main character, I am eager to see anything else in the Darkway Universe and any other projects from this dev! It is a must get. 100/100 -ExZacklyGaming

Surprisingly deep story, I found this game through an Instagram post from the creator and wanted to support them. This game is a beauty that I really enjoyed playing! I do wish I could have multiple saves to go through but maybe that defeats the point. I like it a lot regardless!

An absolute dream of a game. An incredibly impressive solo-dev mystery in a land of assassins, secrets, cold, murder, intrigue, war, cults and... dogs! A dash of A Short Hike, a bit of Dark Souls lore, a touch of Paradise Killer: it feels inspired by some great games but still feels very unique. The mystery mechanics help you unveil the story and never hold your hand when it comes to making your own conclusions. The setting is very compelling and I enjoyed my time with the characters a lot. This needs so much more attention.