The Church in the Darkness Critic Reviews (2024)

60 24%

The Church in the Darkness is ranked in the 17th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.

View Review Charts

DefaultMost Popular

Score: Highest to LowestScore: Lowest to HighestNewest FirstOldest First

Next

Jeff Marchiafava

Game Informer

Top Critic

5 / 10.0

Aug 2, 2019

Procedural generation does little to bolster the one-dimensional gameplay and lack of a compelling narrative

Read full review

Jim Hargreaves

TheSixthAxis

Top Critic

3 / 10

Aug 2, 2019

There are some intriguing ideas at play here. Decent stealth mechanics and a captivating cultist backdrop will reel you in though there just isn't enough substance to make The Church in the Darkness a lasting, worthwhile experience.

Read full review

Chris White

God is a Geek

Top Critic

6.5 / 10.0

Aug 4, 2019

The Church in the Darkness has created a story that makes you question the cult's motives with every playthrough. No game is the same, but even though their are some neat ideas, the technical issues can really hamper your enjoyment.

Read full review

Tomas Franzese

DualShockers

Top Critic

5 / 10.0

Aug 2, 2019

The Church in the Darkness tells an engrossing and chilling tale, but it's technical problems will suck you right out of the experience.

Read full review

7.5 / 10.0

Aug 6, 2019

That said, The Church in the Darkness is a smart stealth game that impressively warps to reflect your actions. It lets you get in and break out as you see fit. While failure still feels like failure, success is sweet and varied. Once it gets a hold of you, you may not want to break out, at all.

Read full review

Randy Kalista

Gaming Nexus

Top Critic

5.5 / 10.0

Sep 3, 2019

While interesting on paper, The Church in the Darkness is mostly just a collection of anti-capitalist audio logs blaring over harder-than-it-needs-to-be stealth gameplay. There's no love lost in this place.

Read full review

Arthur Protasio

COGconnected

Top Critic

75 / 100

Aug 8, 2019

In sum, The Church in the Darkness is a highly replayable game with shifting gameplay goals for each playthrough.

Read full review

Tim McDonald

PC Invasion

Top Critic

Aug 6, 2019

While I can't call The Church in the Darkness bad, it's a disappointingly limited experience. Once the excellent setting and the randomization wear off you're left with a clunky top-down stealth game.

Read full review

Joe Apsey

PlayStation Universe

Top Critic

8 / 10.0

Aug 2, 2019

Discovering the secrets of the Freedom Town cult, who has power and influence where, as well as the inner workings of the leadership are the best parts of The Church In The Darkness. That combines with excellent stealth gameplay, a dynamic and engaging scenario-based narrative, and some excellent characters with great voice acting to create a memorable and unique experience. An experience that is only held back by a few technical issues and some missing quality of life features.

Read full review

5 / 10

Aug 2, 2019

The Church in the Darkness has some good ideas, but they're not properly realised. Gameplay never ventures out of its basic boundaries, while the narrative doesn't offer up enough variety or compelling subplots to engage with. The Church in the Darkness is competent for a couple of playthroughs, but it's an experience that you'll quickly forget about.

Read full review

Robin Burks

Screen Rant

Top Critic

Aug 5, 2019

The Church in the Darkness seems to have an interesting concept, but the reality is that infiltrating a 1970s cult isn't as much fun as it might seem.

Read full review

Max Moeller

TechRaptor

Top Critic

4.5 / 10.0

Aug 2, 2019

The Church in the Darkness is full of bold narrative topics, but the gameplay and presentation fail to match, making it quite difficult to experience the message.

Read full review

Jennifer Sheffield

Pure Nintendo

Top Critic

8 / 10.0

Aug 14, 2019

"The Church in the Darkness" takes the unsettling approach of realism. It's convincing as a story of a 1970s cult, and Freedom Town is a chilling look inside an isolated cult in the middle of the jungles of South America.

Read full review

Aza Hudson

WellPlayed

8 / 10.0

Aug 1, 2019

The Church in the Darkness is a thought-provoking experience that should absolutely be on everybody’s to-play list

Read full review

Scott De Lacy

Impulsegamer

Top Critic

3.4 / 5.0

Aug 14, 2019

A challenging, randomised religious infiltrator game.

Read full review

Suzie Ford

GameSpace

Top Critic

8 / 10.0

Aug 2, 2019

The Church in the Darkness send you creeping into the heart of the South American jungle to uncover the mysteries of a cult, the lure of their message, and the status of your nephew. Will they welcome you with the love of Jesus or is God the only one in this camp who will have mercy on your wretched soul?

Read full review

Алексей Лихачев

3DNews

Top Critic

5 / 10.0

Aug 18, 2019

An interesting idea but mediocre execution. When your game is supposed to be replayed almost 20 times, samey gameplay becomes a major issue.

Review in Russian | Read full review

Aria Moghadam

Gamefa

Top Critic

6 / 10.0

Aug 10, 2019

The Church in the Darkness tries to be different and it is, but it's not always "good different". Gameplay is boring and dull, but the whole atmosphere and story are acceptable and fun at times. Each time that you start the campaign, some things are different, which makes increases replay value. Overall It's not a memorable experience but it's a different one that you can try for its nice atmosohere and story-telling.

Review in Persian | Read full review

Harvard L.

Digitally Downloaded

Top Critic

Aug 13, 2019

The Church in the Darkness has much more value as an idea and as a story creation tool than it has as a game. For people like myself, it’s interesting how the information the game sets as constant from the beginning, but does not reveal to the player, can influence the way a narrative organically develops, and guides the player to adopt different play styles to suit.

Read full review

Mark Delaney

GameSkinny

Top Critic

Aug 2, 2019

The Church in the Darkness is an ambitious game and delivers on its premise almost all the way. It's worth sipping this Kool-Aid.

Read full review

Next

The Church in the Darkness Critic Reviews (2024)

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Golda Nolan II

Last Updated:

Views: 5381

Rating: 4.8 / 5 (78 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Golda Nolan II

Birthday: 1998-05-14

Address: Suite 369 9754 Roberts Pines, West Benitaburgh, NM 69180-7958

Phone: +522993866487

Job: Sales Executive

Hobby: Worldbuilding, Shopping, Quilting, Cooking, Homebrewing, Leather crafting, Pet

Introduction: My name is Golda Nolan II, I am a thoughtful, clever, cute, jolly, brave, powerful, splendid person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.