GSY Review PS5 Xbox Series X PC

After the unforgiving in The First Berserker: Khazan we covered a few days ago, we are now going to tell you about KARMA: The Dark World, a new horrific walking simulator arriving today on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. To find out our verdict, we invite you to take the red pill and follow us inside.

Verdict


Daniel McGovern is a roam agent of the Thought Bureau, which means he's empowered to enter the minds of apprehended suspects to discover what they're hiding there. Although the main character is able to use highly advanced technology to probe the human brain, the story of KARMA: The Dark World is set in 1984, in a dystopian, uchronistic East Germany where citizens are controlled with an iron fist by the Leviathan corporation. Unsurprisingly, with such a choice of year and the tyrannical atmosphere depicted in the game, references to George Orwell's iconic novel 1984 are numerous, starting with the name of the research institute where Daniel will be investigating, which echoes that of the main character in the famous British novel. That being said, the world described here retains a certain originality, and the plot we follow, while not perfectly clear at the end of the adventure, has the merit of maintaining the player's curiosity and interest throughout the seven hours of this dark plunge into the human psyche. The visuals are meticulously rendered, although we do regret the poverty of certain textures (the texts appearing on some of them are too often very pixelated), as are the sound design and the English VO (it's also possible to play with Chinese voices). The major problem with KARMA: The Dark World is that it comes after so many narrative games tinged with psychological horror that the mechanics on which it's based have become very mundane. You'll discover many documents (optional or not), solve a bunch of puzzles (simple for the most part, as they too often rely on a date or time that reveals the hidden access code) and face a few enemies in scripted passages (you'll regularly run away from a threat but you'll also have to photograph a monster from behind several times without being seen, nothing very frightening nor exciting). It's clear that most of the work went into the art design, the staging ideas and the creation of the world and story. The whole thing works, of course, but for our part, we can't say that we were mesmerized by the experience. The game does allow itself a few rather singular sequences that could even be taken from another title since they look so different from the rest of the game, but that was not enough to fully convince us. We'd therefore recommend KARMA: The Dark World to those who appreciate strange, gloomy atmospheres and who aren't yet tired of horrific walking simulators, or those who haven't played too many of them thus far.
  • On the upside
  • Intriguing game world
  • Immersive atmosphere
  • Visually polished throughout
  • Convincing voice work...
  • ... with a few poignant cutscenes
  • Not too expensive
  • On the downside
  • Stale gameplay mechanics
  • Some textures are too blurry
  • Occasional framerate drops
  • Only seven hours
About the game
Platform
PC XBSX PS5
Published by
Wired Productions
Developed by
POLLARD STUDIO LLC
Patreon

$135 of $400 per month

What's up?
  • Loakum

    Loakum Ugh….scratch that previous comment. The upcoming Game of Thrones video game is a F’in mobile phone game. Why can’t they came an open world GoT game, like Witcher 3 or God of War? (> 3 Months ago)

  • Loakum

    Loakum By FAR, the upcoming Game of Thrones King’s Road was the Game of the Show! It plays like God of War Ragnarok! :) (> 3 Months ago)

  • Loakum

    Loakum @Driftwood Awesome! I’m loving it! It does show a much crisper picture and the frame rate looks good! I was playing Stella Blade and Dragonball Soarkling Blast! :) (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood @Loakum: enjoy, the one Sony sent us will be there on launch day. Coverage will follow asap. (> 3 Months ago)

  • Loakum

    Loakum *takes a large sip of victorious grape juice* ok….my PS5 pro arrived early! So much winning! :) (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood @reneyvane: non ils l'ont publié le 1er octobre et je crois que tu l'avais déjà linkée. ;) (> 3 Months ago)

  • reneyvane

    reneyvane Factornews à joué à KingdomComeDeliverance2 au Gamescom 2024 mais ne publie sa preview que maintenant ? [url] (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood Download is now functional again on Gamersyde. Sorry for the past 53 days or so when it wasn't. (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood Another (French) livestream today at 2:30 CEST but you're welcome to drop by and speak English. I will gladly answer in English when I get a chance to catch a breath. :) (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood GSY is getting some nice content at 3 pm CEST with our July podcast and some videos of the Deus Ex Mankind Divided preview build. :) (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood For once we'll be live at 4:30 pm CEST. Blim should not even be tired! (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood More Quantum Break coverage coming in a few hours, 9:00 a.m CEST. (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood We'll have a full review up for Firewatch at 7 pm CET. Videos will only be tomorrow though. (> 3 Months ago)

  • Driftwood

    Driftwood Tonight's livestream will be at 9:15 GMT+1, not GMT+2 as first stated. (> 3 Months ago)

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