The description left little clues, however, and while the reviews were all glowing, I still didn't have the foggiest idea what the game was about, and I wondered even what kind of game it was. 

 

Flashes of action games left stumbling around in a dark screen made me hesitate, but I sucked it up and hit the download button. 

 

 

I couldn't have been more shocked with what I discovered. 

Awake. Head throbbing. Vision Blurry. The room is cold. The fire is dead. The room is freezing. 

 

Light fire.

 

That's where you begin in A Dark Room. The screen is dark. And only the cold, white text of the story adorns the page. 

 

 

You click "Light Fire," and the darkness is replaced by a soft gray glow. 

 

The light from the fire spills from the windows, out into the dark. The fire is burning. A ragged strangers stumbles through the door and collapses in the corner.

 

Stoke fire. 

 

The fire is roaring. 

 

The room is hot as the screen blazes white. And the story begins to unfold before you in crisp text that flows down the left-hand side of the screen. 

 

After warming herself at your fire, the stranger calms and offers to help you. She's a builder and can make you traps for catching creatures that will provide fur and meat. She can build huts that will attract other lost souls wandering the forest who, in exchange for shelter, will become a worker for you. 

 

And so A Dark Room begins. 

In case you haven't caught on yet... A Dark Room is a text-based adventure. There are no graphics to speak of save a simplistic interface with only a splash of blue to represent actions you can take. 

 

 

The lack of color or graphics doesn't take away from the game, however. The simplicity only adds to the mesmerizing qualities of the story, something that was skillfully crafted and well executed. 

 

Graphics could only detract from the story. This is a game best left to your imagination. 

I was amazed at how quickly I was sucked into this game. It completely blew me away and ate up hours of my time before I even knew what was happening. 

 

Everything about A Dark Room is amazing. And there's hardly anything to it! 

 

 

Maybe I'm showing my age... and my love of reading probably doesn't hurt, but I found this game to be both innovative and retro at the same time. The text-based actions and the enthralling story that revealed itself over time reminded me of my old "choose your own adventure" books that I read as I child. And yet, in today's market there's nothing even resembling A Dark Room out there. 

 

The writing was superb and before I knew it, images of the twisted and scarred landscape that was described to me sharpened into focus, and I was lost in the story, trying to not only survive, but thrive in the strange world I found myself in. 

 

Once you venture out from your area, you'll traverse a text-based map, where you'll find random monster encounters, and you'll be forced to "Stab, Shoot, Punch" or whatever you can do in order to survive. Of course you're just tapping the words, but the battles are still immersive, and I found myself holding my breath, fearful that I might not win the fight and be forced back to my settlement, stripped of all my possessions. 

 

 

Your travels will take you further out into the world, but the more you progress, the more worried your builder becomes. She warns of repeating the evils of the past. 

 

It will be up to you whether you heed her words or continue to shape your community. 

This part is easy... there is none. You have only the sound of your own thoughts to keep you company as the story marches on.