Teddy Bears are no strangers to video games, but they seldom get to star in one until now. The Darkest Tales has been delighting players since its release last October with its unique spin on the whole Alice in Wonderland thing. You’ll get to play as Teddy, a surprisingly skilled and violent protagonist, off to rescue his owner, Alicia from a sinister dream world. There is an unexpected level of quality to the storytelling with fantastic voice acting and gorgeous art design all packaged into this storybook presentation.
Your search for Alicia will take you to some eerily stunning level designs with multiple layers of parallax scrolling to create richly detailed worlds that are perfect backdrops for the exploration and platforming along with plenty of furious combat. Teddy brings some melee and ranged combat abilities to the table with a makeshift pair of scissors and needles that can be crafted into arrows and grappling hooks to start with, and more weapons appearing later in the game. Each level has a distinct look and is based on a twisted version of any of several well-known fairytales. There are plenty of tales to experience, and each seems to be the perfect length, moving on to something fresh before it gets boring.
Fans of Ori or Hollow Knight will feel right at home with the look and feel of this game. There is a good blend of combat and exploration along with some fantastic boss fights (and some not so great) that will challenge and frustrate you. You are encouraged to explore in search of hidden orbs that will unlock up to six skill slots where you can equip any of 25 skills…once you find them, and they are hidden pretty well. You can use special Time Travel Mirrors to revisit previous levels to collect them all.
XP is earned by defeating your enemies and Teddy has a few stats he can manage when you level-up. The skill tree was pretty basic, and I didn’t like how you couldn’t see the entire tree, only the next tier, so there was no way to pre-plan your upgrade path. Most of the stat boosts weren’t that significant, which took some of the stress off of finding them all in a single playthrough.
I was concerned about some control issues, mostly an unreliable double-jump and just about any of the flying sections. Some of the combat animations are also a bit lengthy which can make the game lag at times. It’s nothing game-breaking but would be so much better if it were fixed in an update. A concern some may have is with the surprising level of blood and violence and genuine scary moments that turns this from a charming Tim Burton experience to something closer to a Quentin Tarantino slasher.
The storybook presentation for The Darkest Tales combines some truly stunning art design along with some fun and surprisingly good (and yes, annoying) voice acting. It’s a unique mix of banter between Teddy, and his sidekick, Lighty that will hopefully take the edge off the tense gameplay before it gets too repetitive. There is a lot to like here and anyone who enjoys an old-school action/combat/adventure with killer boss fights can look forward to several hours of challenging and charming gameplay.
