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I have a bit of a secret share. Ok, here it is: I may not be as tough and manly as I let on. I mean, I can watch a horror movie, but not really enjoy it, and when it comes to playing a horror game? This is a first for me, at least in the respect of what I consider horror. Darkness Within: In Pursuit ofLoath Nolder is a horror adventure game inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft; and it has let me to draw the conclusion that I'm really just a giant wuss.

Detective Howard Loreid has just been given the task of investigating the death of a wealthy middle aged man, Clark Field. The prime suspect in the case right off the bat is famous private investigator, Loath Nolder - Howard's idol no less. Loath is reputed to be an extremely intelligent investigator and finding him five years after his disappearance in the middle of his last case - will certainly not be easy. You begin of Darkness Within inside Howard's dream, where you start to see the bizarre and twisted version of the world through his eyes. After waking Howard gets the call about the case, the game starts becomes a more traditional crime solving game, however that doesn't last long.

After heading into the office and catching up on the case, you drive off to Loath's office, long ago sealed by police tape. You'll find various inconsistencies, and some odd literature, paper clippings and more about possible paranormal activity. Could this be why Loath disappeared? Was this his last case? Eventually you'll be able to move on to investigate the residence of Clark Field, the victim, the hints of paranormal activity, and occult followings.

Darkness Within is quite different from most adventure games around, in an extremely good way. It is difficult to tell a story nearly as well as this title has even to this point, because Darkness Within has something that most adventure games don't, and that is atmosphere. Beautiful textures and graphics paint all the areas you visit, filled with heavy use of shadows and strong lighting effects. Things just look creepy. Additionally, as you explore the scenes you'll notice everything is in 3D, not the usual 2D static environments of many titles in the Adventure game genre. You can rotate the camera nearly 360° both vertically and horizontally, and explore items from all angles. The coloring for the images is all top notch; with rich colors that fit the style, and more importantly vintage of the documents, and structures you are roaming.

Alright, so the graphics look great, they are spooky. The camera work is fantastic … but is that enough? Darkness Within has the best use of music and sound effects I have ever heard in an adventure game. I find this difficult to explain. However, documentation in the game story exists about many areas you will visit beforehand. When you finally do investigate that area and it is like dйjа vu! There is a very subtle use of music, it pops up every once in a while just to make you think something is going to go wrong, and scare the [insert appropriate slang term here] out of you. As you move from area to area, floor boards will creak, and ambient noises will whistle or worse - sending a real chill down your spine (if not yours then definitely mine). There were times I swore I heard voices, or something else, and just when you think you Howard was going nuts, you have to stop and wonder about yourself. The sound is simply top notch, and was actually able to make the whole game seem like it was happening in real time, not scene/location dependent as adventure games tend to be.

There is a little more to the atmosphere then already mentioned - being a horror game - it is very fitting that it so happens to be fear. There were certainly times where I was startled, but more importantly there are times where your character is as well! A shadow, an image, a noise... they get to Howard's head over time, the further you delve into the world of the paranormal, the more insane Howard becomes. Just moving into an area doesn't set off the fear either, as you explore and adjust your vision to an object - that is when things begin to go wrong. Your camera can start to shake, your character panic, and start to run, your vision will blur - it is fantastic! Really, it is just..... wow!

Alright, so back to what is going on in the game; I got side tracked a bit.

Clark's house is just filled with documentation for you to read, and hope to understand. You are able to find books with several pages of reading about the occult, old religions and many other aspects of history, many of these are clues to solving puzzles. The progression of evidence in Darkness Within is a bit unusual as well. You will never simply wander and pick up items that aren't useful, Howard must see a need for them before he'll think of taking it. In a similar sense some of the books you get to read will be marked as having clues in them, using a pencil you can pick out and underline what you think is a clue. Now if Howard can understand the clue (again, you might have the correct clue but Howard will not have a context for it, so it will not count) he'll make a "mental note" of it.

That brings other somewhat unique elements: the inventory viewer and thinking screen. Each item you pick up is able to be viewed, from flipping it, to rotating, and zooming in, whatever you need you can see it in a fully 3D view, because some evidence definitely has hidden clues on it. Each mental note that Howard makes will get registered almost as an inventory item in Howard's "brain." If you get stuck in an area, you can attempt to put two and two together, so to speak, you can often come up with another angle to the story. From combining items, to figuring out hidden locations from a variety of clues, it is definitely an interesting part of the game. My only complaint about it is that many things which should yield results, often don't, and need to be figured out manually, or a different way; the whole thinking aspect felt underutilized.

The further you keep pushing into the mystery, the more paranoid you will become. Are you hearing things? Seeing things? You have nightmares, vivid and frightening, you wake up after days asleep and start to lose your sanity, can Howard hold on to things? This is where the horror really comes from! What is real, what is imagined, what will kill you? The line between dementia and reality gets thinner. Especially after I really had nightmares about the game! I was waking up all night hearing those damn noises after spending way too much time in Clark's house!

Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder, in my opinion, is just a fantastic adventure game. It most certainly ranks among the top I have ever played; containing quite challenging puzzles that can't be solved by just clicking on items, you need to read through books and figure out dates and sequences sometimes. The atmosphere is unbelievable, by far the best of any adventure game I've seen, and the story you play through is nearly as great. My two complaints of the game are it is somewhat short, only about 9 hours of play time, the ending just sort of hit me from nowhere (luckily it does have some replay value.) From what I have seen, it is possible two more parts will come out in the series to fill out where things left off - hopefully.

I'd strongly recommend this game to just about anyone, it really breaks the mold and should be enjoyed by more than the small adventure community that exists. All the little details were not skipped over, and it really makes the game true to what is should be, just don't play it too close to bed time!