One of the first such questions Karma: The Dark World brings up is about the nature of memories. In the game, you take on the role of Roam Agent Daniel McGovern, working for the Leviathan Corporation as a peacekeeper of sorts. As a Roam Agent, you are tasked with investigating various small-scale crimes that might threaten the hegemony and power of the Leviathan Corporation. To do so, you will be exploring various crime scenes to find clues, and occasionally, your investigations might even end up taking into peoples’ minds and memories.

"I noticed just how much inspiration Karma: The Dark World takes from David Lynch’s classic TV show Twin Peaks"

The idea of being able to explore the minds of people is where the game is able to flex its horror muscles. While the “real-world” parts of Karma: The Dark World tend to be generally creepy, with a sense of dread constantly weighing you down, the minds of the various people you get to explore are where most of the game’s horror aspects intensify, becoming tense and oftentimes frightening. The parts of the game where you get to explore the minds of your suspects are often the most interesting, both visually and thematically.

The first time I jumped into the memories of a suspect was around the time I noticed just how much inspiration Karma: The Dark World takes from David Lynch’s classic TV show Twin Peaks. While the game doesn’t have the campiness of the seminal show, it does feature similar surreal imagery, including a room draped in red where we get to experience some of our suspect’s deepest regrets.

The story in Karma: The Dark World is told in a non-linear fashion. The game kicks things off by having the player wake up with no idea of who or where they are. After a short bout of exploration, we meet another person who, in a series of events, straps us into a chair and throws us into the depths of our own mind. From this point on, the game makes the protagonist’s role and objectives quite clear: solve crimes and, in the process, maybe even figure out the nature of the Leviathan Corporation.

You will constantly be hopping between different time frames as you get further into the story, and will ultimately have to figure out the actual order of events yourself. The game does provide plenty of hints in its story through environmental clues, however. Subtlety also feels like it was not the priority when it came to the story of Karma: The Dark World. The allusions to classic dystopian fiction like 1984 is ever-present, especially considering the role the Leviathan Corporation plays in the everyday lives of the game’s citizens.

Speaking of which, the Leviathan Corporation definitely sits right up there with the most nefarious antagonistic forces in gaming. Alongside running its dictatorship to fuel further profits, hints of how the company tends to treat regular citizens can often feel downright horrifying. An early example of this pops up when you find a letter where a person was punished for picking up something they shouldn’t have, ultimately being forced to live out the rest of their life as a pipe cleaner, while also losing what is referred to as “social credit”.

"Subtlety also feels like it was not the priority when it came to the story of Karma: The Dark World."

At its most basic level, the core gameplay revolves around slowly and methodically exploring crime scenes in order to find the way forward. Obstacles often take the form of puzzles that can range quite a bit in difficulty, from just needing to find a hidden vent, to figuring out the combination to a lock from environmental clues. A lot of the core gameplay structure feels like it was taken right out of a classic Resident Evil game, and unfortunately, things never really get much more complicated than that.

There isn’t really any combat in Karma: The Dark World, and the most you’ll end up running when facing down a horrifying creature as you traverse a suspect’s mind, and sometimes even hiding. Ultimately, the full extent of the gameplay falls under what the studio itself likes to refer to as a “cinematic interactive story.” Now, don’t get me wrong; this is far from a walking-sim where you just get to passively experience a story happening around you. You get a lot more agency in this game, and absorbing every drop of environmental storytelling along with the main story being presented is incredibly important to enjoying the game.

When it comes to atmosphere, Karma: The Dark World has absolutely nailed it. Visuals are a big part of this, and the environments are often downright gorgeous. This is especially true for the creepy parts of the game that have you enter peoples’ minds. Even in the “real world”, the dreariness of the world and the oppressive nature of the Leviathan Corporation’s iron fist on society feels ever-present. The audio is downright fantastic too; most of the music you get to hear tends to be diegetic – with the sound probably coming out from a record player nearby. There are a few musical stings used to heighten the tension here and there, but most of the time, you mostly end up with just the environmental sounds and your own thoughts to keep you company.

"When it comes to atmosphere, Karma: The Dark World has absolutely nailed it."

The only downside with the visuals is that the character models aren’t quite as polished as the rest of the game tends to feel. This even ends up being a detractor to the atmosphere when the ambient lighting can’t quite cover up for the models. Most of the time, however, this tends to be a non-issue, since just about every other aspect of the visuals tends to make up for the relatively poor character models, be it through the expert use of lighting and volumetric fog effects, or even just a heavy dose of surrealism thanks to the distorted perspectives you often get to see through.

Karma: The Dark World is ultimately an interesting experience. It’s the rare horror game where, while you’re not killing things and counting bullets by the buckets, you’re also not focused entirely on hiding. Rather, investigation is the most important thing here, and the puzzle design, even if somewhat simplistic at times, goes a long way in reinforcing this idea. Pair that with some deliciously-thick atmosphere courtesy of excellent visuals and audio, as well as an intriguing story that’s being told in a compelling way, and you get a horror experience that is well worth your time.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Based on SNK’s side-scrolling shoot ’em up series, Metal Slug Tactics reimagines its action as a turn-based tactical RPG. There are multiple characters to select for teams, whether the P.F. Squad or the recently revealed Ikari Warriors. By positioning allies close together, they can execute Sync attacks, though you’re also encouraged to reposition and take advantage of unique abilities.

Interestingly, Metal Slug Tactics is akin to a rogue-like. You can upgrade weapons and skills at outposts throughout the campaign, but it’s back to the beginning after your squad wipes. For more information, check out what critics think of the title on Metacritic. The PC version currently has a 78 Metascore based on 22 reviews.

The Ikari Warriors consist of Clark Still, Ralf Jones and Leona Heidern. You’ve likely seen them in The King of Fighters series, but they starred in their own series before arriving in Metal Slug 6. Each has unique skills, like Leona’s ability to create decoys out of defeated enemies for a turn (who can participate in Sync attacks).

Ralf is good at close-quarters combat and charging at enemies, while Clark can soak up damage and inflict status damage over a wide area. By carefully coordinating them, players can wipe out enemies in one fell swoop, making it easier to achieve bonus objectives like receiving less than a certain amount of damage.

Alongside Xbox, Metal Slug Tactics will also be available for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC on November 5th.

"The biggest learnings are how to make our story and gameplay more accessible to players who are unfamiliar with Asian culture, address difficulty levels, and cater to horror enthusiasts. These are the most valuable insights we learned through our journey of The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation."

The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation was quite well received by its players, but what are the biggest learnings that you’ve taken from it into the development of its sequel?

The biggest learnings are how to make our story and gameplay more accessible to players who are unfamiliar with Asian culture, address difficulty levels, and cater to horror enthusiasts. These are the most valuable insights we learned through our journey of The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation.

Described as a reimagined adaptation of The Bridge Curse 2: Ritual, what sort of a balance does the game strike between paying homage to the film and bringing its own original ideas to the table?

We identify the unresolved characters, events, and elements in the movie, and use the movie’s setting as the basis for the game setting. Then we add our twists in the gameplay which still match the concept and tone of the movie but give a new vibe. The development process can be quite terrifying!

How heavily does The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication de-emphasize combat? Does it introduce any new combat elements, or is it focused primarily on stealth like its predecessor was?

In The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication we incorporate an oil lamp as a passive defense mechanism, providing players with opportunities to escape and prolong their gaming experience. Different types of ghosts correspond to various interactive modes, offering players more enjoyment during gameplay.

The Bridge Curse 2’s campus horror setting is looking like one of its bigger selling points, but how is the game looking to differentiate itself from the first game in this area? 

Every school has its own ghost stories, and the atmosphere of each campus is unique. As players delve into the campus environment, they will discover differences from The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation, leading to variations in the gaming experience.

Audio design can be quite a vital part of the experience in horror games, perhaps more so than in most other genres. What should players expect from The Bridge Curse 2 on that front? Specifically, what should players expect on the more powerful current-gen hardware?

We will strive to optimize the hardware to the best of our abilities. To enhance the immersion, we have carefully designed every spatial effect in the game, from the atmosphere to realistic sound effects with dynamic variations and well-acting voiceovers, as well as the dramatic tone behind cutscenes and levels. Hope to bring players a unique sound experience that is different from other horror games.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of the game be?

8-10 hours.

Given that you have experience working with all the current-gen consoles, I was hoping to pick your brain on some of the differences between them. For instance, where their GPUs are concerned, the PS5 clocks in at 10.28 teraflops, behind the Xbox Series X’s 12 teraflops. In real terms, however, how much of an impact does that difference have during development?

Under the circumstance that the game has been fully optimized, I think both are capable of ensuring excellent game performance, but we place a greater emphasis on the smoothness of overall operation and the quality of graphics presentation, beyond just GPU specifications.

The PS5 features an incredibly fast SSD with 5.5GB/s raw bandwidth. How can developers take advantage of this, and how does this compare to the Xbox Series X’s 2.4GB/s raw bandwidth?

Indeed, the SSD of the PS5 does provide faster loading speeds for games, particularly during map transitions. Additionally, the PS5’s file decompression speed also appears to be faster, resulting in noticeable differences in mipmap streaming for textures.

Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X boast Zen 2 CPUs, but there is a difference in the processors of both consoles. The Xbox Series X features 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz, whereas the PS5 features 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz. Your thoughts on this difference?

In theory, within similar architectures, a higher-frequency CPU can offer advantages in certain aspects of gaming. However, in scenarios where games have high graphical demands, the difference in smoothness may not be significant.

"Our goal is to achieve 4K/60FPS on both PS5 and Xbox Series X."

The Xbox Series S features lesser hardware compared to Xbox Series and Microsoft is pushing it as a 1440p/60 FPS console. Do you think it will be able to hold up for the more graphically intensive games as this generation progresses?

The Xbox Series S offers a good price-performance ratio within its price range, and most of the games will also be optimized for the Xbox Series S version, ensuring decent performance even on non-4K screens. So yes, we do think it’s capable of holding up games with high graphics.

What frame rate and resolution will the game target on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S?

Our goal is to achieve 4K/60FPS on both PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Built on Unreal Engine and described as a first person narrative-driven psychological horror title, The Dark World: Karma will put players in the shows of an investigation officer who can enter others’ brains, explore their memories, and uncover the mysteries of the story. Appropriately enough for a psychological horror game, players will come across many grotesque monstrosities, from people with monitors for heads to monsters with many hands. Check out the trailer below.

Previously set for a 2022 release, The Dark World: Karma is now due out sometime in 2023 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.