Karma: The Dark World Review - I Am the Protector of This Crumbling Castle
Imagine being able to look into someone’s memories, to see the world as they see it. It’s a power that would likely be abused, much like how it’s used in POLLARD STUDIO LLC’s psychological horror game Karma: The Dark World. In Karma: The Dark World you play as Daniel McGovern, a ROAM agent who works for the omnipresent Leviathan Corporation. It’s Daniel’s job to interrogate suspects and witnesses, diving into their memories using special technology in order to uncover the information the corporation needs.
Right off the bat, Karma looks incredible. I felt immersed right away as the eerie and bizarre environment came to life. Based in 1984 in East Germany, the world feels oppressive and Daniel seems confined by Leviathan though he’s known as a loyal employee. Things take a strange turn when he must dive into one of his suspect's minds, forced to live through the man’s memory. This will happen a few times throughout the game with a couple of suspects, Daniel jumping between the past and the present with the world changing as you do. His first suspect's mind is clearly scared. And sometimes things will take a turn while you’re in the middle of a brain dive, if the suspect resists their interrogation.
I loved Karma: The Dark World’s way of changing the game subtly through the use of these suspects' memories. Daniel’s world looks different from Sean’s world and it looks different from the other suspect’s world as well. Things twist and move as memories get jumbled in the dive and the horror that it creates is intriguing. And the way that some things carry over from dives, indicates that maybe this method of interrogation isn’t exactly safe for Daniel. Despite really enjoying the start of the game, Karma did eventually fall into the trap of repeating horror tropes that you see in every horror game which did disappoint me. You’ll encounter a looping room/hallway puzzle like the one seen in Silent Hills’ P.T. Demo and an invisible water monster/creature which has been repeated so often lately in titles like Alan Wake 2 or Bramble: The Mountain King. It’s just something that has been done so much it’s disappointing when you encounter it again.
When it comes to the game’s overall story, I was pretty all-in at first. Its introduction is very strong, but things start to get weirder as the story goes on. I love when a psychological horror does something new. It’s a genre drowning with copycats so finding something unique and interesting is difficult, but some of the story choices that are made in Karma: The Dark World are mystifying and simply don’t fit with the rest of the game. One moment you’re playing a dark horror and the next you’re floating around as two ribbons (I called them Twizzlers until I realized they were ribbons) intertwined. Granted the ribbon moment takes place in someone’s mind, but the execution of it feels awkward as if the game is attempting to force the player into having a light, emotional moment with a character you’ve barely gotten to know.
There are story moments that are done very well, like the way that Karma introduces players to Sean. In this instance, you’re given time to piece together Sean’s history and feel sympathy for him by the end of your time with him in the game. It’s paced smoothly and feels natural. By the end, you know what happened to him and why. It’s something the latter half of the game seems to try to achieve again, but doesn’t succeed leaving the player wondering if they’re even playing the same game as before. I desperately wanted to understand the choices I was making, hoping that by the end I’d eventually have that “ah-ha” moment, but really I just finished Daniel’s story feeling more confused than when I started.
While you’re exploring Karma: The Dark World’s eerie environments, there are some puzzles to be solved. There’s an interesting (and really terrifying) series involving a camera, where players are able to see something different when looking through the lens of a camera and must take photos in order to remove objects from the environment. Puzzles like this took me a few moments to get the hang of, but it was other puzzles, like one involving clocks towards the end of the game that had me convinced I’d be stumped forever. I spent literal hours overanalyzing every inch of the room and the clocks before eventually solving the puzzle via a very painful trial-and-error guess. I’ll be interested to see if anyone else struggles as much as I did, but I came pretty close to giving up entirely if I hadn’t been able to blindly guess. The lack of any real hints in the environment to help, or any indication that you’re on the right track at all made this particular puzzle, and a handful of others, more frustrating than enjoyable.
The game also has optional puzzles that act as collectibles and, I’m just being 100% honest here, I couldn’t solve a single one of them. They’re described as “logic” puzzles and they look like small puzzle boxes hidden in the environment. Each of the puzzles includes images that you’re meant to examine and, in doing so, work out the answer to the puzzle. It was a bit demoralizing to not be able to solve any of these puzzles, but maybe their answers will be obvious for others. It might have been helpful to be given a practice puzzle to start that could help players with solving future boxes. Either way, you don’t need them in order to progress, but hopefully you’ll have more luck than I did, especially if you’re going for a completionist run.
Karma: The Dark World is a gorgeous game and I loved looking at it and appreciating the immense amount of detail that went into the world both inside and outside of the character’s minds. I think the biggest crack you’ll find is in its story which is a little too “wibbly wobbly” by the end. I was unable to interpret what really happened once the credits rolled (and was even more confused after a mid-credits scene), painfully going through the details multiple times to try to come up with some semblance of a timeline without much success. And that, for me, is a pretty big disappointment. I know that some players, fans of Remedy Games, for example, love games that are satisfyingly twisty, but this felt more confusing and strange than anything. It’s definitely got a few spooks to offer so if you’re looking for something that has moments that will make your skin crawl, this one will definitely deliver, but you might still be scratching your head trying to piece together what on Earth happened in the story when you’re done, that is, if you manage to solve that clock puzzle.
Breakdown
Game Name: Karma: The Dark World
Developer: POLLARD STUDIO LLC
Publisher: Wired Productions, Gamera Games
Availability: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Accessibility:
Adjustable field of view
Toggle on/off camera shake
Toggle on/off motion blur
Game Length: 5-6 hours
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
Final Thoughts
Karma: The Dark World looks fantastic from its suffocating, winding corridors to its disorienting moving floors and darkened corners. It also sounds incredible, with a haunting soundtrack and unsettling sound design. The world they’ve built is one I found myself intrigued by but was ultimately disappointed when it threw out one too many confusing and just full on perplexing moments. And some of its puzzles, even, were infuriating. If you like something twisty with a similar vibe to Control, you might find a new favorite here, but it left me, ultimately, in the dark.