Dusk 12, aka “The Territory of Darkness”, is a game developed by Orion Games and published by Buka in the CIS countries back in 2007. It is an odd example of a game that’s almost good, or so bad that it's good. Let’s take a closer look.
When it comes to the plot, Dusk 12 tried to go the Stalker route, with questionable sci-fi mumbo-jumbo about underground secret labs and experiments on humans and animals that supposedly led to the creation of a supersoldier and a whole bunch of mutants. Naturally, the experiments go wrong - shocking, I know - and you, the protagonist, get sent to the asscrack of Satan somewhere in Russia, called Chernozersk, to recover samples of the Dusk-12 virus that wreaked havoc in the city and mutated everyone it contacted with, amidst dealing with terrorists and local gangsters who took the local reins. Overall, it lacks the writing talent, depth, and logical structure of Stalker games, but it clearly seems inspired by them. Still, there are some interesting ideas, like that you get to play as two characters and experience the city both from a mutant’s and a soldier’s perspective, once in the past, and once in the present. The characters are bland and uninteresting, lacking charisma and personality, and the villain(s) seem evil for the sake of being evil, but who cares about the plot in Eurojank games, right?
What about the gameplay? As mentioned previously, you get to play as a mutant and a soldier, which seems to be the game’s main selling point. However, while the soldier missions just resemble your typical mid-2000s shooter, the mutant, Gorin’s missions seem a bit undercooked. Sure, Gorin has some fancy telekinetic and time-altering abilities, but he cannot use any weapons and kind of plays like the Crysis guy, but with his bare hands only. You can throw objects, slow or speed up time, punch enemies, and haul ass, but I couldn’t help but feel underpowered. Just let us use weapons! Both campaigns have a serious case of terrible map design, when the player has no idea where to go next. It’s easy to get stuck just for that reason alone.
The music is generic and repetitive, and the voice acting is terrible in English, but passable, if cringy, in Russian. Sound effects are fine, and interestingly, on the technical side, the game seems to run very well on modern systems. See my boy, Jarek the Gaming Dragon’s, review for a guide on how to set it up.
In conclusion, I played this game once as a kid, and my curiosity got the best of me. Do I recommend it? Only if you’re feeling curious or nostalgic. Otherwise, there are far better games out there with similar mechanics done a thousand times better. Go play Ubersoldier 2, for example, or better yet, see if your computer can run Crysis.
