I just finished the demo for Karma: The Dark World, and honestly, I have no idea what I just played. It’s difficult to put into words how I feel about what I just played, but I’m going to try.
To start, I went into this demo blind. I didn’t watch the trailer (debuted at Day of the Devs in June this year) or read the description of what I was getting myself into. All I was told was that it was a horror game, and it looked cool.
What in the hell?
Karma: The Dark World starts with you start waking up in a hospital, having no idea or memory of what is going on. Luckily, after helping dispose of a dead body, you’ll run into a man who will help you, just as soon as you prove you’re not one of those bodies you helped get rid of.
After some back and forth with this guy, he puts a contraption on your head that will help you retrieve your memories. This basically leads to what looks like one of the worst drug trips ever recorded in human history. Fun huh?
On this “trip” to your memories, you’ll make your way through hallways and air ducts, running from a horrible looking monster. This will lead you to the most bizarre looking Christmas tree you’ve seen, made up of Christmas lights and TVs.
You’ll eventually learn you work (worked?) for a company called the Leviathan Corporation, boringly stamping meaningless paperwork. All the while sipping on something called “Blue bottle” which seems to calm you down and take you off a trip to mental break town as your working. As you stamp paperwork, the screen in front of you will inform you that the Leviathan company basically owns you. They can work you as long as they want, pay you what they want and you’ll like it. Hence the need for Blue Bottle I guess
This literally leads to your character having a mental break. As you’re literally mentally cracking, you’ll read a memo about all the benefits of this Blue Bottle drug. However, it does appear to be extremely addictive. As you walk away from your desk, you’ll begin to get chased by the monster again.
That leads to a trip to another scene where you’re talking to an agent with the Thought Bureau. It appears the company you used to work for (the monster that chased you got you fired?) is up to something, and in order to save your child, you’ve cut a deal to help the Bureau take down them down . After talking to a screen displaying someone or something referred to as “Mother” the demo pretty much ends, leading to a trailer for the game.
Conclusion
After that, I have questions. The two biggest being “what the hell just happened?” And “when can I buy this?”. Sadly, I don’t yet have an answer for the second question. However, the demo for the game launched as part of Steam Next Fest. As I write this, Next Fest ended yesterday, but the demo is still up, so go play it. I’ll be checking the whole game out as soon as possible.
As it stands, this game is slated to drop on PC, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime in the near future.
Gamer Social Club was lucky enough to receive a code for the demo from the Publisher – Wired Productions
