Dark Echo Review
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.1
Device Reviewed On: iPad Air
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Monsters aren’t what makes horror movies scary. It’s the idea of the monster that truly frightens us. The shrouded inhuman figure we can barely make out forces us to fill in the terrifying details with our own imagination. That’s why whenever the monster fully arrives, it just looks silly and the fear disappears. What makes Dark Echo one of the tensest, most ingenious horror games on the App Store is that it’s all about not seeing the monster.
These ghouls pursue players, creating frantic chases to the exit. Tapping loudly produces more sound and reveals more of the map, but tapping quietly prevents the monsters from detecting you and allows for stealthier movement. It’s an incredibly tense experience, and the manageable length and size of each area keeps things from getting too frustrating while scouring the map for keys and doors.
Conventional wisdom might say that piling on the gory details makes video games scarier. But Dark Echo rejects that and creates one of the most spine-chilling iOS games around through the horrific power of the unseen and the sheer force of creative, intelligent, and masterfully constructed minimalism. Fear is the mind killer.