Something about horror games and movies just does it for me. Some people don’t enjoy the uncomfortable feeling that comes with a story and creatures that seem not of this world, and get your heart racing. I am definitely not one of those people.
If you’ve read either of my previews for Karma: The Dark World, not only would you know that but you would also know I’ve been extremely hyped for this game, almost like it’s been calling my name from the dark void, But with all that personal hype I got myself into, the one question is does it deliver?
The Story
In Karma: The Dark World, you are Daniel McGovern, a ROAM agent for the Leviathan Corporation, which you are extremely loyal to. Will that loyalty last? Only time will tell. Your first task in the game is to track down Sean Mehndez, a one-legged researcher working for the Winston institute who’s been demoted to a clerical position due to Mediocre performance. It appears he’s stolen some property that you need to track down.
Once you finally find him, he has a back story that will make even the most loyal employee wonder if what he’s doing is right. This is true for everyone you meet. Everyone’s story is never quite what it seems on the surface, and you’ll discover that by investigating people’s memories. If that sounds kind of insane in totally is but the more I learned about these characters, the more I kept wanting to learn.
Gameplay
Karma really offers two things when it comes to gameplay. Psychological horror and puzzles, and it does both very very well. I wouldn’t come to this title expecting the next Call of Duty. In fact there’s only a single scene involving a gun.
However, whether it’s body’s hanging from the ceiling, a monster chasing you down a dark pathway or back stories to characters that will induce trauma for many days to come, Karma has a lot that will get your heart rate up enough to get your doctor worried about you.
As far as the puzzles go, there isn’t a sidekick here that’s going to be pointing you in the right direction. These puzzles will test you but they are balanced well. Some are more clear then others and there’s a few that might get you stuck on for a bit as they did me. Some horror games have puzzles with solutions that make you wonder how you ever were going to get what it was asking however, there’s none of that here. They are all vary solvable. Puzzle games tend to have many choke points where you could lose players that don’t want to be challenged that hard, and this doesn’t have one of those.
Performance
Karma The Dark World was built in Unreal Engine 5, which has a checkered history as it stands however, one thing in Karma’s favor is its a smaller game in comparison to many Unreal Engine 5 titles these days. I am happy to report that all the settings seem to operate how they are supposed to on my AMD 7800xt GPU and my Intel i9900k CPU. Far as FPS goes, the capped frame rate runs at a pretty stable 60 FPS, and uncapped doesn’t often dip under 90 FPS on my rig and cut scenes on uncapped run at 75 FPS.
Steam Deck
This game is not Steam Deck verified, however that might not always be the case. At first I couldn’t get it to launch at all but as the updates have come in its gotten better. You can get 30 fps on the Steam Deck, however in this game I wouldn’t call that playable
Conclusion
So, to answer the question posed at the beginning of this review, yes, it vary much lived up to the hype. Karma The Dark World is not an action-packed thrill ride, and it never tried to be. Karma is extremely good at a couple of things and doesn’t stray from that, which I enjoy a lot and feel more games need to do. Keep it simple and don’t overstay your welcome.
Sometimes, this game will tear at your heart. Sometimes, it will fuel anger, and sometimes, it will seem like watching Donnie Darko take acid. I can’t recommend this enough
Thanks to POLLARD STUDIO LLC for providing a review code. Karma: The Dark World was reviewed on PC and releases on PC and PS5 on the 27th of March 2025.
