Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder is a first-person 3D adventure / horror thriller video game. It takes place in an imaginary "Lovecraftian" place called Wellsmoth. As police detective Howard E. Loreid, players are tasked to solve the murder of Clark Field, a wealthy man involved in the occult. At the top of their list of suspects is Loath Nolder, a highly respected private investigator who mysteriously abandoned his last case for reasons unknown. Rumor had it that he ventured to several exotic places around the world. It remains a great mystery as to why Loath Nolder disappeared so suddenly, resurfacing five years later and resuming his investigations just as abruptly as he had left them. Why does this venerated P.I. now sit on the other side of the law?
What begins as a routine investigation becomes increasingly unsettling as the player experiences lucid dreams and apparent paranormal events. Sleep appears to distort the passage of time, and the player must distinguish between reality and hallucination while pursuing murder suspect Loath Nolder. The investigation gradually reveals disturbing information connected to both the case and the protagonist's mental state.
It is the first in an expected series of three games. The second game being Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage.
The story of the game was written with the impressions of the writer H. P. Lovecraft’s works. The game was temporarily without a publisher when Lighthouse Interactive went out of business. On June 2, 2009 it was announced that Iceberg Interactive acquired the publishing rights to this game.
Darkness Within was republished on November 14 on Steam with enhanced graphics and some more additions.
On November 3, 2015, original soundtracks of both Darkness Within 1 & 2 were officially released on Steam by Zoetrope.
Reception
Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder received mixed reviews upon its original release. On Metacritic, the game holds a score of 52/100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". On GameRankings, the game holds a score of 55.50% based on 14 reviews.
IGNs Charles Onyett gave the game a 5.1/10, strongly criticizing the game's graphics for being "intensely low-budget" but praising the sound design and voice acting. Brett Todd of GameSpot was even more critical of the game, giving it a 3.5/10 while pointing out the game's lack of scares and its "bland locations and graphics".
References
External links Darkness Within official website Official demo download from GamersHell.com Trailer from GameTrailers.com
Iceberg Interactive