Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, is attributed with saying, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Another young man named Alex was still finding his footing when he fell in with the Collective Justice Mission. Armed with a religious mission, and a town full of ammunition, the CJM aims for ‘true freedom.’ Let’s discuss another tale of the blind leading the blind in The Church in the Darkness.

How the Story Goes

Most people go through a time in their life where they feel lost. Who are you? What is your purpose? It’s a pivotal time for seeking knowledge and learning truths. But In a blind search for a righteous path, it’s not hard to stumble in the darkness looking for light. Alex is a young individual in one such situation.

So, when charismatic couple Isaac and Rebecca Walker present the Collective Justice Mission, a socialist utopia of sorts, Alex was enticed. This was a couple of years ago now. What started as a virtuous vision in Oakland, CA in the 1970’s quickly became an ostracized cult. In denial, and bent on righteous freedom, they relocated their community of faithful followers to South America. Thus, Alex became one of the first settlers in their compound called “Freedom Town.”

Above the Law

In The Church in the Darkness, you play as Vic, an ex-law enforcement officer. At the request of Alex’s mother (your sister), you go to South America on a reconnaissance mission of sorts. You are traveling to Freedom Town to find out what is really going on under the rule of Isaac and Rebecca Walker. Is Alex okay? Can you bring him home, or is something more sinister going on?

This brings us to the game itself. The first thing to note about The Church in the Darkness is that it is randomized. From starting the game, it will tell you that the disposition of both Isaac and Rebecca will differ each time, if you choose. Starting location, and the location of all NPC’s will also be randomized. What you do have control over is which item(s) you start with, and what gender and skin color you wish to have. Initially, I was very excited to hear that experiences will be different each time.

The Facts

Upon starting the game you’ll be placed at an indiscriminate location in the woods, just offshore. You arrive via watercraft and the goal is to make it to the first location circled on a crude map you have. The map is very basic and will give you a general sense of the lay of the land. Typically, this first destination to travel to will be an approximate location of a friendly NPC. That NPC will then either give you more information as to the whereabouts of your nephew, Alex, or the approximate location of another NPC.

All of these potential interactions fall under the randomization aspect as well, at least in terms of who you’ll come across and where they’ll send you. But, there are certain factors that will always be the same. One is, if an alarm is going off, you will be unable to speak to the friendly NPC’s. Two, each of those NPC’s will typically have the same conversation with you, so it’s really just a matter of when you run into them, and in which order. And lastly, it is not necessary to speak to any NPC, except Alex, to beat the game. Let’s talk about these.

The Church in the Darkness feels open, and on a grander scale than it actually is. In reality, it’s a short game meant to be beaten almost 20 different ways (as displayed by the number of alternate endings it has). There are four different difficulties, and anything above the easiest difficulty, Interloper, is going to be pretty tough. This is because the name of the game is to be as stealthy as possible. But, when everyone is strapped to the teeth and will chase you at first glance, this is easier said than done.

The First Red Flag

For a town that’s masquerading around, preaching peace and love and what not, it sure is violent. I guess that’s what you would call the first “red flag”. Every NPC, aside from the very few you can speak with, has a gun. Handgun, shotgun, or other, assume each person is ready to shoot you. Each NPC also has a cone field of view that, if crossed, will alert them to your presence. The closer you get them in their field of view, the faster they will shoot; with incredible accuracy might I add.

I don’t know how you are so identifiable so quickly but, luckily, they are as stupid as they are trigger-happy. If you are spotted, as long as you run more than 40-50 feet away from their field of view (I’m estimating here) they’ll give up chase. It’s not because they are tired. It’s more like they all have brain damage that affects their short-term memory a la “10 second Tom” from 50 First Dates. You can literally gun down any NPC, run away or hide, and they’ll forget it ever happened, regardless whether an alarm is going off. It’s both hilarious and a bit sad.

As for the alarms, they’re not too much to worry about either. Most times you would assume being on high alert would trigger excessive amounts of security, and heightened senses. While in The Church in the Darkness, neither apply. There may be an extra body or two that show up, and they may even move a step quicker, maybe. But, ultimately, there is no sense of urgency or panic instilled. It’s really just more annoying than anything.

The PA

What will happen is emcee Isaac or Rebecca Walker will put you on blast over their community intercom/ PA system. Their warnings are as ominous and exaggerated as they are crazy. They’ll be speaking of an intruder “coming to kill everyone,” like it’s the damn apocalypse or something. They also read scripture, aggressively, and have people sing folky songs. They preach their reassurance as to why things are the way they are, like it’s meant to be . . . I’m not sure if they are trying to convince themselves or the congregation. Regardless, the only thing truly getting killed in my playthrough was the immersion.

Which brings me to all the issues I noticed in The Church of the Darkness. First off, NPC’s are meaningless and completely unnecessary to advance and/ or beat the game. Fine, I can get with that – it opens up options. But the fact that you can’t speak with them if an alarm is going off is pretty dumb in my opinion. Maybe not the idea of it, but more so the implementation of it. How do they know it’s YOU specifically that triggered the alarm – that YOU are the one they shouldn’t converse with because you’re “dangerous”?

They wouldn’t. And the fact that they have very little issue speaking with you the second you turn off the alarm kills any notion that they aren’t just insentient, lifeless drones. But maybe that’s the point? They are so accustomed to being controlled, to doing everything they’re told, that something as simple as an auditory cue has them trained to turn on and off like flipping a switch . . . nahhh.

Falsehoods

Another issue I noticed was in the way the game comprehends your actions. You are able to play The Church in the Darkness with full stealth, with non-lethal methods of taking down your enemies. Or, you can go full on John Wick, that’s up to you. The issue is the game doesn’t discern between the two! IT’S ALL A LIE.

If you knock out Isaac or Rebecca, and stick them in cabinet somewhere, the other will almost immediately announce the unconscious to be dead. This is despite being in separate locations from each other! First off, hold up – how do you even know? Do ya’ll communicate telepathically, or is it secret hidden ear pieces like that hack televangelist Peter Popoff?

Second, let’s say, for argument’s sake, they were dead. After all, NPC’s will only wake up after being knocked out if you leave them on the ground. They won’t come back if you stick them in a pop-up closet somewhere. I imagine there’s room for interpretation there. Knowing this, and trying to be effective yet gentle, I stuck both Isaac and Rebecca in their own storage containers in their own individual rooms.

Redemption?

I proceeded to then bust my nephew Alex out of that godforsaken compound. After hearing the death announcement queue up on the intercom, I went on to beat the game. There’s a small cutscene that plays upon completion, letting you know the outcome of the situation; I assume it’s for closure. I come to find out in said cutscene they were still alive and killed most of their community via mass suicide by cyanide pills. What? Somebody lied! I should have gone back and stole their Nike Cortez’s on principle.

Aside from being a short, randomized game, the one redeeming factor is that new options will open up once you progress and/or beat it. This way, you won’t start completely fresh each time. You’ll be able to start with new items, and in a higher quantity. You may retain certain pieces of information you find and will have access to be able to find new items in game as well. I imagine all this will allow you to beat the game on higher difficulties. Starting out with next to nothing doesn’t to a whole lot for you when it’s one man versus the lord’s delusional army of crackshot drones.

Final Thoughts, pt. 1

Overall, The Church in the Darkness is about as fun as joining a cult. You get to listen to preachy lunatics, creepy singing, and eat stale bread. You’ll walk around soulless AI and squint to try and make everything look better as you do so. The controls are serviceable and the things that carry over game to game are . . . something. That’s the biggest compliment I can give it though. Well, maybe that and the effort that went into writing all the hand-written notes and newspaper article clippings. Those were interesting enough for a play at historical fiction.

Unfortunately, none of these things were able to persuade me to want to continue completing the game over and over. I rescued Alex a few times (and once left him there) and can’t, in good conscious, recommend the experience. The game can be beaten in anywhere from two minutes to two hours, but I suggest you get out of there as soon as possible. Or, you know, avoid it altogether.

Final Thoughts, pt. 2

I typically would end a review on my decision. Instead, I’d like to leave my suggestions in ways to make The Church in the Darkness a better experience for the player. First and foremost, the game needs emphasis on danger. You’re infiltrating a savage cult ready to put you in a ditch! Let’s get some sound effects at the very least – a heartbeat, some gasps for breath, some visual cue, or something!

Second, adjustments are needed for those NPC’s. I understand it may take some work to get a functioning system in place but they’re basically robots at this point. Have them search for you, or recruit a second person to come after you. If you hide, literally right in front of their eyes, they’ll go away like they didn’t see anything. Did I bribe them without realizing it?

Third, an option to swap the camera around a bit would be nice. The top-down look works just fine, but I can’t help but feel it’s to compensate for the sub-par graphics and/ or animations. The militia/ soldier types are probably the worst offenders here. I want to, at the very least, be able to zoom in and out.

Lastly, the loading screen to start up the game is painfully slow. I didn’t factor it into my overall score but I also didn’t want to express my thoughts here and not mention it. I’m not sure how this can be remedied, or if it can be, but if at all possible, cutting it in half would be a huge improvement. Thanks for hearing me out.

A huge thanks to all who read as well! I appreciate you taking the time to look over 2000 words, I know it’s a lot. If you’d like to continue the conversation, we have a community Discord and are Twitch affiliates! If you’d like to hear voices and see moving pictures, please join us on YouTube as well. Shameless Patreon link for monetary support because we love you! Until next time!