Publisher: Spooky Doorway
Developer: Spooky Doorway
Year: 2017
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series,

Rating: 7

After playing a bunch of serious games in a row, sometimes you just need something that’s stupid fun. The Darkside Detective, a buddy cop adventure about paranormal detective work, is the perfect remedy.

In a sendup of The X-Files, Francis McQueen, the least respected detective of his precinct, is assigned to the Darkside Division. He’s assigned a partner who is somewhat skeptical of the work being done, but (unlike Dana Scully) is monumentally stupid. When you point out a train is glowing, he unironically remarks, “Maybe it’s pregnant?” Yet he’s affable and willing to let McQueen do all the hard work while he collects a paycheck. Your job is to investigate six cases (plus three bonus cases if you like) to figure out just what the heck is going on in Twin Lakes City.

You control McQueen in a two-dimensional, low-resolution (yet well-animated and highly colorful and detailed) environment. Your first case is to find a missing child of a wealthy family. The stuffy father can’t be bothered to look for her. The mother is uncontrollably weeping and is of no help. And the disgruntled nanny complains about both of them. The modus operandi is simply to talk to everyone and click on everything, all with the press of a button. McQueen will shamelessly pick up anything not nailed down if he thinks he could use it later (even if there is no logical reason to at the moment).

There’s not a single action you can take in the game that isn’t punctuated by a goofy or snarky quip. The characters know they’re in an adventure game and will regularly break the fourth wall. They will make fun of their own propensities to partake in adventure game clichés, including combining disparate items into makeshift tools to solve obtuse puzzles. Every character you meet has a distinct, often over-the-top personality. The United States’ justice system is relentlessly mocked. It makes fun on every pop culture sci-fi you can think of, including 2001, Back to the Future, Star Wars, Ghost, Twin Peaks, and of course The X-Files, just to name a few of dozens. Your boss is named Scully, and at one point she directs you to keep the city safe from “the oogie boogie men and the oogie boogie women and the non-binary oogie- boogies. No discrimination on oogie boogies. ….except to keep them out the city.” At one point you can even talk to the ghosts of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams.

One would think that the endless stream of jokes would get exhausting, but I was mostly smiling throughout. I laughed out loud at least a dozen times. But the best part? The puzzles are fun! Not just because they’re goofy, but because many require just enough logical deduction to be satisfying when you figure them out. In just the first case there’s a brilliant use of paint thinner to send a spirit back where it belongs. You’ll also need to figure out how to use a toilet tentacle monster to your advantage and how to get a ghostly janitor to fix an elevator. I only looked up one hint (in part thanks to a helpful but optional hotspot highlighter), and that’s because I was stuck for fifteen minutes. The game is brisk and easy, but your brain stays fully engaged, which makes all the jokes feel deserving.

Each case is relatively bite-sized, none of which should take more than an hour, often less than that. While the final three cases are optional, the final one ends on a cliffhanger to prepare you for the sequel, The Dark Side Detective: A Fumble in the Dark.