The Darkside Detective is a 2017 point-and-click adventure developed by Spooky Doorway, and published by Akupara Games. It was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux on July 27, 2017, for Nintendo Switch on February 7, 2018 and for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Stadia in April 2021. A version for the Atari VCS released in August 2021. A limited run of 5,000 physical copies for the Nintendo Switch was released on 26 September 2019. A sequel, The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark, was released in April 2021.
Game Setting The Darkside Detective is set on the fictional city of Twin Lakes, a metropolis known for its occasional reports of criminal activity though several of them are discovered to be of a supernatural nature, as the city is linked to an otherworldly ghost world reflection of itself known as the 'Darkside'. Owing to this, the Twin Lakes' police department keeps its own (though underfunded) branch known as the Darkside Division, headed by Detective Francis McQueen and his partner Patrick Dooley, who investigate such cases.
The game is known for its satirical nature, drawing multiple references to pop culture, including its case names such as "Buy Hard" or "Don of the Dead". It also draws strong influence from buddy cop, science fiction and horror movie genres. All cases but "Buy Hard", "Polterguys" and "Baits Motel" (which are part of the Bonus Cases made available with an update) are available with the game.
Cases
"Malice in Wonderland" McQueen and Dooley are called in to investigate a missing child occurrence in the home of the wealthy Jones family. The child, Alice, has not been seen for over a day and there was no witnessing of her leaving the house, even though she was under the direct care of her babysitter, Nanny McPhiend. When McQueen goes to interrogate McPhiend in the master bedroom, he notices something under the bed, discovered to be a page related to occultism. As McQueen and Dooley search the house, they discover both a blacklight lamp and pencil, which they test at the upper attic, revealing a door-like drawing on the wall. McQueen completes it using the page as reference, opening a door to the Darkside in which he finds Alice within.
As they prepare to leave, Alice and McQueen are cornered by McPhiend, who knocked out Dooley while he was at door cover duty. It is revealed that McPhiend intended to use the doorway to trap both Alice's parents and take Alice into custody as a legal guardian, thus gaining access to the Jones' inheritance. However, Alice, while exploring, unintentionally entered the doorway as the shelf holding paint thinner collapsed and sprayed at the wall, cleaning a part of the drawing and closing the doorway, trapping Alice within.
McQueen manages to fool McPhiend into getting him and Alice to the real world, under the pretense of having to drag Dooley within as well. McQueen quickly grabs the paint thinner and splashes it on the doorway corner while McPhiend is within, trapping her in the Darkside. Alice is returned to her parents as McQueen and Dooley, now recovered, return to the precinct musing "what sort of paperwork covers this mess".
"Tome Alone" McQueen and Dooley arrive at the Twin Lakes Library to return some overdue books when they discover a storm with a mysterious purple vortex happening above the building, whose lights are also constantly flickering. As they ask the local Librarian, Doris, she suspects a frequently visiting child, Devon, is behind the occurrences. They approach Devon talking to a floating book, but he pretends to know nothing on the matter. They also come across Raxa, an occultism and computer science college student also investigating the occurrences in the Library, who reports a strange glow coming from a stack of microfilm.
As McQueen uses a viewmaster to investigate the microfilm, he spots an old case newspaper report with an eye-like drawing, that suddenly makes McQueen start seeing ghosts of popular literary authors across the Library, including Aleister Crowley, W.B. Yeats, Enid Blyton, Mary Shelley, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. After resolving a dispute between the ghosts of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe by using a book Doris was reading, "Guylight", McQueen discovers a secret passageway within the horror section of the Library, finding a clandestine collection of occult books, one of them being a tome charged by faulty electric wiring from the building's lightning rod on the rooftop. McQueen and Dooley head to the rooftop where they perform a bypass at the rod's wiring, cutting electric supply to the faulty wiring where the tome is. With the energy cut, the storm passes away and the ghosts all disappear.
McQueen and Dooley confiscate the occult books, making a deal with Doris not to issue a fine as the charges against Devon are dropped. McQueen also advises Doris to fix the faulty wiring as they return to the precinct.
"Disorient Express" McQueen is called by Dooley to pick him up for a ride after he learns the subway station is closed down. After learning that the station is closed due to a literal ghost train on the platform, however, McQueen decides to stay and investigate, discovering a portal to the Darkside at the tunnel where the ghost train is as well as other occurrences on the real world, such as a ghost using a toilet and a purple tentacle as well. Travelling to the Darkside, McQueen and Dooley come across their twisted versions of the Darkside, Agent McScream and Chief Ghouley of the Brightside Division, as well as they find the real world train, with Raxa suspiciously inside. Investigating the train station on the Darkside, McQueen is able to acquire a key to the control room on the real world, but is unable to get it across due to McScream, forcing McQueen to use the toilet tentacle, through a plunger, to transport the key between both worlds.
Using the key to unlock the control room, they find Tam, a disgruntled engineer who infected the control systems with a supernatural virus, as retaliation for being fired as he was sleeping on the job (explained by Tam that he attended black magic classes at midnight hour to the morning hours, where it was his shift immediately afterwards). With Raxa's aid, McQueen and Dooley are able to clean the infection and restore the control systems, allowing both the ghost train and the real world train to traverse to their respective worlds and restore transit. Tam is arrested and taken to the precinct.
"Police Farce" As McQueen and Dooley head out to Officer McNugget's retirement party at the precinct, they enter to discover the gift pile is on fire, which McQueen quickly puts away, revealing a mysterious urn. McQueen recognizes it as a magical urn meant to hold gremlins which belonged to a previously investigated Chinese store, but Dooley foolishly bought it as a gift and allowed the gremlins to run loose. McQueen and Dooley are forced to scramble across the precinct to collect all the gremlins provoking mischief (such as in the dispatch station, where a gremlin is eating the server's wiring and another in the shooting gallery is armed), neutralizing them with electricity and tear gas.
As all the gremlins are collected and put back in the urn, Dooley accidentally lets it slip to the floor, breaking it. Using a clay package from a union worker, McQueen makes a new urn, but requires a tome to enchant it and entrap the gremlins back again, which is in the evidence room, blocked by McQueen's rival, Detective McKing, on a dating attempt. McQueen spikes a cup of coffee with laxatives to force McKing to the bathroom, allowing McQueen to enter the evidence room, acquire the tome, perform the ritual and trap all gremlins back.
When McQueen and Dooley return to the party, they discover the party is over, with the cake being eaten, and are forced to clean their mess as the department's budget "doesn't allow for both your capers and the custodial staff".
"Loch Mess" McQueen is called by Dooley's "Bloodwolves" scout group to attend an emergency at their camp site (Ironically named Camp Site), during the group's jamboree. Arriving there, the kids present - including Devon from the Library - inform McQueen Dooley had mysteriously vanished. When McQueen, accompanied by the scouts, start to investigate, they come across a sentient oscilloscope named BETI (Based on SETI, though "much better" and with a camera lens resembling HAL 9000), which informs Dooley had crossed the camp's lake after receiving a high frequency wi-fi signal. McQueen uses BETI to track Dooley's location to an island amidst the lake.
As McQueen reaches the isle and finds a cave entrance, he encounters Dooley in the company of the Loch Ness Monster, named Nigel, who has summoned Dooley for aid in evading 'government pursuit', when he is actually being stalked by the sensationalist reporter Dick Brickman as well as avid conspiracy theorists. Using an adulterated version of the printed map from BETI, McQueen manages to lead Brickman to a wrong location in the island as he uses the reporter's camera to photograph a mockery of the monster (which are the Bloodwolves piled up in a Chewbacca-ish costume) for the conspiracy theorists. Finally, McQueen crafts a tin foil hat for Nigel to use, to prevent the government from tracking him.
With all this done, Nigel is confident enough to return to the lake and depart while Dooley returns for the jamboree to continue.
"Don of the Dead" McQueen and Dooley are summoned by Chief Scully, along with the entire staff, to attend occurrences during a city-wide riot, where a police officer was already injured. One detail that gets McQueen's attention is the mindless state of the supposed rioters. As he's dispatched, he's assigned to occurrences in three locations - The Twin Lakes Museum, a gift store in Chinatown (Revealed to be the store where Dooley had bought the urn with gremlins for the "Police Farce" party) and the mansion of the deceased crime boss Al Corpsone.
At the Mansion, they come across Raxa, now an "Inspooktor", after saving her when she is cornered by a rioter, revealed to be a zombie. Raxa informs she originally came to the mansion after learning of strange occurrences at the place, and her equipment's readings spiked when unknown creatures entered the mansion, supposedly looking for the Don. At the Chinatown store, they save the owner, Mister Wang, from his collection of monkey paws that started acting out of control. Wang tells McQueen that the paws started moving after some "floating goons" had robbed ritual components from the store. At the Museum, McQueen and Dooley investigate a break-in occurrence when they come across a mummy, which they lure back to its sarcophagus using a brain jar. McQueen and Dooley realize that a glass case of Osiris' bust was broken, with a gemstone missing. With what he learns of all three occurrences, McQueen realizes that criminals from the Darkside are intended on resurrecting Corpsone, utilizing the riot as a smoke screen to acquire the ritual components, Corpsone's corpse and the Gem of Osiris to perform the ritual.