Darkland (C64) for Windows

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Darkland is a free action game for Windows by developer Psytronik Software. Although it was designed for the Commodore 64,you can play it on Windows via a C64 emulator. In this spooky, Halloween-themed adventure, you must travel through Darkland, a place filled with terrors. 

Being a title inspired by the Commodore 64 era, this horror game offers the same thrills as Deep City, Sinister Within: Decay or BITCH HELL but it doesn’t have modern features that you’re probably used to, such as 3D graphics or visual effects. Nevertheless, it still doesn't feel hopelessly antiquated.

A blast from the present

Darkland is a brand new game, not to be confused with original C64 titles. As such, it has gameplay elements you won’t typically find in games developed for the C64 in its heyday.

The premise here is that you must cross a creepy landscape populated with monsters. The catch is that you can’t see them because the land is dark. You need to use your flashlight to make them visible and shoot them.

It’s still a C64 title

The graphics in Darkland are terrible by today’s standards but excellent from a C64 perspective. Everything is bleak; even your character shows as an anthropomorphic figure with no features. Sometimes you see shadows moving in the dark, and the mist surrounds you from time to time.

Sounds are what you would expect too, but there’s an annoying whistling sound throughout the whole game that’s definitely creepy, but it can also drive you crazy. You’ll likely turn off the sound before long, which is a shame.

For nostalgics and indie fans

Darkland is an interesting title for several reasons, one of the most important being it’s a C64 title. It’s not every day that new games are released for this veteran home computer. This will make it a must for any Commodore 64 fans out there, as well as new fans looking for a retro-horror game.

Even though everything you do in the title is point-and-shoot, it’s very addictive. It also takes skill to figure out how the flashlight works as you walk toward your objective. However, the fact that you need an emulator for this will undoubtedly put off some people.