Games that allow you to do whatever while playing are some of my favorite ones to play. Today most of the open-world games claim to be very open however you are often left closed behind certain scripted missions and playthrough which is not really open-world and they sort of take away your freedom of how you complete the missions. The Church in the Darkness is a brand new game by Fellow Traveller and Paranoid Productions which lets you loose on a compound of a cult and this is our review of this brilliant game.
On the paper, The Church in the Darkness sounds like a typical top-down game where stealth plays a key role and you have to avoid the enemies and reach your goal however that is not the scenario here. Let’s start with the background of the game before we dig deep in the exploration and gameplay freedom this brilliant game offers. The Church in the Darkness is essentially based on the compound of a cult which is known as Collective Justice Mission.
Collective Justice Mission (CJM) is run by Isaac and Rebecca Walker who act the leaders of this cult and based on the fact that the US government does not want them around, they have moved to the jungles of South America where they have settled in a small town which they have made themselves called Freedom Town. Just like every cult story, people follow the leaders and leave the rest of the world to join the Collective Justice Mission.
Now, your main goal in the game is to find your nephew Alex who has left the normal life and has decided to follow CJM and live with them in Freedom Town and extract him. The game starts in the typical tutorial mode where it teaches you the basics of the game and then lets you loose on the Freedom Town to find Alex and leave the area with or without him depending on the scenarios.
Coming to the gameplay, this is the domain where The Church in the Darkness really shines. Despite the game having the same map for each playthrough, everything is shuffled every time you play the game. You can complete the game within 15 minutes or you can take hours and hours to explore each and every nook and cranny of Freedom Town and then decide to finish the game. This is the best aspect of the game that it does not force you to end the game. It gives you the freedom to do whatever you want.
Speaking of freedom, how you decide to find Alex and complete the game is entirely up to you. The Church in the Darkness features 19 unique endings based on the decisions that you make in the game which is a huge number of endings for a game featuring only one randomizing map. You can choose to be stealthy or you can play as a mass murderer and murder everyone in the game. I can assure you that you will be playing the game more than once because it is highly addictive.
Since you will be playing the game more than once, I will recommend that for your first playthrough, play it any way you like. Explore the map, find important documents, meet people, run errands for them, learn the basics of the game, kill people and whatnot. Learn everything that you want about the game in your first playthrough. After that, play it again and this time try to get the full stealth ending. Once done, you can try to explore and mix and match the things you did earlier to obtain different endings in the game.
My favorite run of the game was my mass murderer run where I killed 66 people in the town including Rebecca and Isaac and since I was on a bloodbath, my nephew refused to leave with me. I ended up killing Alex as well and when I was thinking the game would be over, it did not. It still allowed me to continue the massacre until I was done and could leave the area anytime I wanted. Another important aspect to note here is that both Isaac and Rebecca get different personalities in every playthrough as well.
During another one of my playthroughs, I managed to escape with Alex, however, Rebecca turned out to be a bad guy and burned the church while Isaac was in there along with some of the cult members. The thing is, no matter how you play the game, some foreign elements will add up in the mix and give you a different ending which really makes The Church in the Darkness amazing for both short and long time sessions.
You can explore Freedom Town as a shadow or run through like a brute killing everyone. There are also different ways of getting information as well in the game. You can meet different people in the game which will provide you with help, mark locations on the map or point you in the right direction. If you do not want to interact with people, you can look for information inside structures by searching wardrobes and shelves.
You will find notes, announcements and other helpful information that will help you find Alex all on your own without relying on anyone. The enemies vary in the game as well. Depending on the difficulty settings you choose, the enemies are a real threat even on easy difficulties. If you get cornered, the cult members will mow you down and lock you up. You get 2 chances before the game is permanently over and you have to begin a new game.
The Church in the Darkness reminded me heavily of Far Cry 5 while I was playing it. The cult music playing in the background, cult members having different rituals, the cult leaders giving motivational speeches and the continuous propaganda against the US government. The game could be a decent Far Cry 5 top-down game. Sneaking around enemies felt like I was moving around in enemy outposts in Far Cry 5. Only the view is from the top.
The setting of the game is also very good. The game is highly detailed as you can notice that special attention was given to everything. The special effects are pretty decent as well. Visually, The Church in the Darkness is pretty decent as well while the sound design of the game is solid as well. The level of detail inside the structures is amazing as well and while you are exploring Freedom Town, it really does give you a sense that you are present inside a self-made cult town which is still under development.
Like I mentioned earlier, the game map remains the same. Every time you play, the locations of points of interest shuffle each time. They are never in the same place so you will always need to find their locations no matter how good your last run went. The point of insertion is different every time as well so you will need to develop a strategy for every point of insertion. Some open into deserted areas while some will put you right in the middle of the action.
Every time you complete a walkthrough, you earn some new items that you can choose before starting a game. These items range from weapons to different useful items such as alarm bypass kits and medkits. You can choose only a handful of items so you will be required to choose the best ones depending on your playthrough mood. The game also offers you disguises which will make it difficult for enemies to recognize you. You can find these items in the town as well while exploring so you do not have to worry if you are unable to take everything with you right from the start.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my playthroughs of Freedom Town. I have not yet managed to unlock all the endings of the game but the ones I’ve got are really fun ones and it is amazing to see how even your little actions in the game will cause the ending to reach a new point. The Church in the Darkness deserves a spot in your library and I will recommend that you give this amazing game a shot. You will get hooked once you try to unlock as many endings as possible. Heck, it is fun even just for exploring the town and doing whatever you want with the cult members.
Final Verdict
The Church in the Darkness is an excellent game that may market itself as a stealth and infiltration game but in reality, it offers way more than that. You can go on an absolute bloodbath in the game as you slaughter everyone that comes in your way or you can simply choose the stealthy way to find your nephew. A balanced way works as well if that is your game. This is what I am talking about from the start of this review. The game does not dictate you what to do in the game, you dictate it what you want to do in the game and it follows.
Score: 9.2/10
