This is Niche Spotlight. In this column, we regularly introduce new games to our fans, so please leave feedback and let us know if there’s a game you want us to cover!
Today’s Spotlight is The Church in the Darkness, a stealth adventure game by Paranoid Productions and Fellow Traveller.
The Church in the Darkness is a narrative-focused, choice-driven stealth adventure game inspired by the Jonestown Massacre. In 1977, Isaac and Rebecca Walker have moved their congregation to South America to escape investigations by the US government. The charismatic leaders have promised their followers that they’ll build a communist utopia in the jungle called Freedom Town, but the relatives they left behind aren’t convinced.
You play as Vic, a retired cop that has traveled to Freedom Town to check on his nephew, Alex. It doesn’t take long before you realize that something is deeply wrong in Freedom Town. Sneak around the compound, take out guards, or pick a more violent and direct approach as you try to find your nephew and discover the truth about what’s happening in the jungles of South America. You can check out the launch trailer above.
The Church in the Darkness is available on Windows PC, Mac (both via Steam and GOG), PS4, Switch, and Xbox One for $19.99.
Here’s a rundown of the game:
No one is forced to join a cult. It welcomes you. It understands you. It envelops you until the words become more than truth—they make you whole.
In the late 1970s, the charismatic Isaac and Rebecca Walker lead the Collective Justice Mission. Labeled radicals and feeling persecuted by the US government, they relocate their followers to the one place they believe they can create a socialist utopia: the jungles of South America. There they build Freedom Town. But relatives left behind in the US become worried: what exactly is going on at this compound in the jungle?
You play as Vic, an ex-law enforcement officer who has snuck into Freedom Town to check on their nephew, Alex. Whether you choose stealth or violence, you must infiltrate the commune, find out what’s going on within, and locate your nephew, before it’s too late.
The dynamic story of The Church in the Darkness changes every time you play. It’s up to you to explore Freedom Town, figure out the shifting personalities and motivations of the cult leaders, and decide what to do.
Key Features:
- What ending will you get? Will you get Alex out, whether he wants to go with you or not? Will you confront the cult leaders? Will you join the cult?
- Unlock every ending for each scenario by trying different play styles or making different choices.
- Multiple ways to play: Avoid detection completely, taking out guards and civilians non-lethally, or kill anyone who gets in your way.
- Interview characters from Freedom Town and search for clues. Documents and letters scattered around camp will hint at the true nature of the commune.
- Fully voiced game, starring Ellen McLain (best known as GLaDOS in Portal) and John Patrick Lowrie (the Sniper from Team Fortress 2) as the cult leaders, Rebecca and Isaac Walker.
How dangerous are the Walkers? How far will you go to uncover the truth and save Alex? Could it all have turned out differently?
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