Hear the voice in your head that haunts and tortures you. Follow its commands to the edge of the world. Embrace the darkness in Dark Atlas: Infernum, a first-person horror experience where you must remember who you are, stop the apocalypse, and face your demons. is a first-person psychological horror game.

Remember who you are, stop the apocalypse, and face your demons

Dark Atlas: Infernum drops you, Natalia Asensio, Grand Mistress of the Night Council, into a world which feels post-apocalyptic, with some heavy gothic vibes mixed with futuristic designs.

Your only initial clue about what your goal is, comes from a telephone call that informs you that you son is in hospital and that you must come quickly. The only problem is that you already appear to be in a wrecked hospital albeit one with numerous piles of skulls. Your also teased with television screens which show chaos in the streets and piles of bodies stacking up.

This is only a prelude to the real action where you must dive deep into you own mind to discover secrets and defeat the mysterious entity known only as ‘The Word’. This will involve stealth and puzzle solving. The puzzles remain balanced, nicely difficult without becoming frustrating.

It’s an ambitiously bleak psychological horror

The only thing I didn’t quite understand is that whilst roaming around in your own head there are radios which add to the bleak outlook by transmitting various reports of how the world is going to hell. This adds to both the story and the atmosphere, but I’m not sure how that works if you’re stuck in your own subconscious.

It’s an ambitiously bleak psychological horror, strewn with heavy atmospheric music and effects. The overall feeling is one of constant foreboding, as the world of your mind is made up of many levels, all feeling claustrophobic. The atmosphere weighs the player down and pleasantly the game doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares.

The lore is enriched with several collectables, one hundred and ten in all, split across audio files, tarot, documents and codexs which the player can pick up during exploration. Across your play you need to find out what happened to your son, Samuel, what is the dark gap in your memory and what does it mean and ultimately ‘The Word’ wants you to find the Corona Radiata, an object of incomprehensible power.

Defeat the mysterious entity known only as ‘The Word’

Overall, the game presents you with a coherent and genuinely interesting story to uncover with some effective emotional beats. The prologue itself, which acts as a kind of tutorial can feel slow and a little confusing at first, but once you get the idea of looking at everything and gauging the strengths of the puzzles the game begins properly with Chapter One.

Along with the atmospheric soundtrack, the visuals do a lot of the heavy lifting in the game. Her mind is full of dramatic lighting, oppressive architecture and unsettling enemy designs.

Ultimately, Dark Atlas: Infernum is a dark, methodical, and lore-heavy adventure that knows its audience. It won’t appeal to everyone, but for fans of the atmospheric horror genre who enjoy challenge, mystery, and world-building, it stands as a compelling and confident entry.

9

Charles Packer