Game Review: The Darkside Detective by Spooky Doorway

 
 

The Darkside Detective is a humorous point-and-click pixel art detective game about solving supernatural mysteries. Go along with best friends Detective McQueen and Officer Dooley, explore various locations in the city, and solve cases about all the weird stuff going on.


The Darkside Detective - Promo image showing pixel art of Detective McQueen holding a lantern, standing in a darkened doorway with glowing symbols around it.

Official Description:

Grab your trench coat, tune your sixth sense and join the Darkside Division as they investigate the outright bizarre, the downright dangerous and the confusing cases of Twin Lakes. Flesh-hungry tentacles, mafian zombies, and the occasional missing sock are no match for The Darkside Detective.

Where cultists crawl, where demons dwell, where the occult… occults? *ahem* That’s where you’ll find Detective Francis McQueen, the lead investigator of the criminally underfunded Darkside Division. When evil darkens the doorsteps of Twin Lakes City – hell, even when it just loiters around shop fronts or hangs out in shady alleyways – he’s there, ready to investigate the cases that nobody else will.

He is The Darkside Detective.

More Info:

You can get more info and download the game on Steam, itch.io, or the official website!

Long Review:

This was so cute and fun!

The point-and-click mystery solving element is fun and sometimes involves a bit of thinking but is not too hard. There are occasionally mini games, which are not too hard either.

There’s a lot of humor. It’s really fun just clicking on as much as possible to see all the jokes. Like the book titles in each genre section at the library.

But the friendship between McQueen and Dooley is honestly just as great as the humor and mystery solving. They were childhood friends, still friends as adults and also work partners, and they’re so different yet so supportive of each other. Their little friendship moments genuinely made me smile! *SPOILER* (Like when Dooley said McQueen was better than McKing, and it meant a lot to him. And how McQueen would always rush to help Dooley when he got into trouble. And their excitement at finding a photo booth at the mall and taking a photo montage together. And how Dooley was genuinely grateful and excited about the shitty motel McQueen took him to for his birthday.) *END SPOILER* They really care about each other. I also love that the bonus episodes were just McQueen and Dooley bonding time. Weird supernatural stuff still happened, but they weren’t cases, just things that happened while the two best friends were hanging out.

Also, Dooley is the himbo-est of himbos, and it’s great.

There’s really cute pixel art too! And lots of fun locations to look at.

Overall, a really fun game!

*Source/Cost: I played this on Utomik with a monthly subscription.*

Screenshot from The Darkside Detective showing pixel art of McQueen and Dooley standing outside a motel, McQueen saying, 'I love you, buddy. Don't ever change.'

Short Review:

– Point-and-click mystery solving and mini games that are fun and not too hard
– Lots of humor
– An adorable friendship
– Cute pixel art
– Overall cute and fun!

Accessibility:

(May not include everything)
– Not accessible for blind / visually impaired players and screen reader users.

 
 
 
 

Talk to me!

Have you played The Darkside Detective?
Do you like point-and-click detective games?

 
 
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Your Thoughts

 

10 thoughts on “Game Review: The Darkside Detective by Spooky Doorway

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  1. Greg

    I really like the detective/ mystery/ occult thing so this appeals to me. A weird supernatural game- plus pixels! I’ve been liking pixel art lately. Yes please.

  2. Wren

    I think there aren’t enough games that mix the spooky and the funny. It’s nice to see some new ones.