2Dark is a 2017 isometric Stealth Survival Horror game by Gloomywood, published by Bigben Interactive and created by Frederick Raynal (creator of Alone in the Dark). Set in the year 1976, it tells the story of Mr. Smith, a detective whose life was turned upside down seven years ago when his wife was murdered and his children kidnapped while they were on a camping trip. He explores the town of Gloomywood to solve a mystery involving disappearing children.
After 2Dark's release, people saw that the game was protected with the DRM Denuvo. During the Ulule campaign, Gloomywood promised that the game was going to be DRM-free. As of April 19, 2017, six days after having been cracked by CPY, Denuvo was removed from 2Dark.
Tropes that apply to 2Dark:
- Ambiguously Bi: Sylvia Scarlett may or may not be in a physical relationship with her companion and fellow kid taxidermist Elisa: however, she definitely has the hots for Ernest Miguele, the boss of the next level, as made clear by the love letter the player finds in his hospice.
- An Arm and a Leg: "Delicatessen" has his left arm missing and Dr. Krach lost both legs.
- Asshole Victim: Most of the killers encountered by Smith very much deserve their fate.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Dr. Krach nails Smith's cat before kidnapping Jessie's daughter.
- Bald of Evil: Doggy Doug is bald and mean.
- Big Bad: Dr. Sergei Krach is the one who killed Mr. Smith's wife, kidnapped and brainwashed his children, and is responsible for the disappearance of the other children in Gloomywood.
- Bittersweet Ending: If the player decides to spare Sandra and Martin, Smith gets a medal of honor for saving the children from Dr. Krach. However, Smith will be traumatized by everything he's seen and his children have irrevocably been shaped into murderous sociopaths who will be likely put into an asylum.
- Black Widow: Adelaide, one of the crazy women in the final level, is this. The player can overhear her recount before a painting of herself how "Franciso was old. So I killed him. Andre was fat. So I killed him. Max was dumb. So I killed him."
- Body Horror: Dr. Miguele's abominations. There are also the failed experiments preserved into jars in his lab.
- Chainsaw Good: Delicatessen uses a chainsaw holding it with the right arm.
- Circus of Fear: Antonio Petronelli's lair is an abandoned circus.
- Cluster F-Bomb: The characters, especially Smith, all swear like a bunch of sailors.
- Collection Sidequest: Every level has around a dozen of hidden candies to collect, and the player's final star rating is affected by how many they have found. They do serve a practical gameplay function — they help to quiet the children they are rescuing, or attract their attention so that they don't stray too far — but it's still a pretty bizarre element in such a dark game.
- Creepy Souvenir: The dolls around Sylvia's tower are children she and Elisa killed, and stuffed.
- Death of a Child: Brutally and tearfully played straight.
- Children can die in very violent ways. Smith himself can end up accidentally killing children, though doing so instantly results in a Game Over.
- The "Delicatessen" level also has a young girl as the youngest member of the cannibal family. Her dialogue reveals that her uncle tried molesting her and so she carries a straight razor in self-defence — a razor she'll easily turn on the player, if she spots them. Killing her doesn't result in a Game Over, and has no ill consequences beyond simply adding one to the "Innocents" death tally at the end of the level, same as if they killed an adult who wasn't threatening them/could have been avoided.
- Developer's Foresight:
- A lot of the little things can trigger their own responses. For instance, in the final level, there's a child guarded by two nameless, hooded members of Krach's cult. Killing just one and having the other discover the body leads to him remarking "You want to save the kids, Smith, right? Let me make that task easier for you by one." and he heads straight to kill the child unless the player can thwart him in time.
- Also averted in the second level: sending Mayuka, the girl Sylvia and Elisa wanted to turn into a doll, onto the first floor through the dumb waiter before actually killing them will still have them talk in her room about how they should give her a straw hat and the like, oblivious that the girl is not there anymore.
- Disposable Woman: The fate of Smith's wife, Helen, in the opening sequence of the game. And her death is the main reason why Smith is searching the disappeared children in Gloomywood.
- Downer Ending: If the player decides to execute Sandra and Martin in the final level, Smith is arrested and framed for everything by the police, while receiving a What the Hell, Hero? by Jessie.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Doggy Doug. His nickname is so horrible that even Smith lampshades this by saying: "What a dumb name..."
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In Miguele's hospice, the player can discover a love letter from Sylvia addressed to him. Of course, it's suitably twisted, praising "his predatory smile", and finishing with "I love you, and I love the taste of your blood".
- Even Evil Has Standards: After Smith kills the first level's boss, Antonio Petronelli, the next one, Sylvia Scarlett will admit to her friend/partner Elisa that he was "an evil bastard" and she "enjoyed his stupid shows, but won't weep at his grave". This is also quite hypocritical, since their own shared hobby consists of killing children and turning their bodies into dolls, which is far more evil than anything Petronelli actually did.
- Evil All Along: In the fifth level, Smith find this out about tv2 Gloomywood journalist Paul Roger.
- Expy: Most of the characters resemble some notable ones:
- Mr. Smith is an alcoholic widowed version of Edward Carnby.
- Antonio Petronelli is Pennywise with some elements of the Joker.
- Sylvia Scarlett has a butler named Benjamin Sagot, who is pretty clearly styled after Alfred Pennyworth.
- Delicatessen is a one-armed Leatherface wearing a pig mask like Piggsy.
- Dr. Ernest Miguele is a badly scarred Frankenstein with elements of real-life nazi Mad Scientist Josef Mengele; in fact, the player can find a "New Scientist International" in his clinic that has him on its cover, and straight-up calls him "a modern Dr. Frankenstein", who defends a thesis of immortality.
- Doggy Doug is a metal-jawed Shell-Shocked Veteran version of Dr. Faustus. He also bears some resemblance to The Dark Knight's version of Bane.
- Eyepatch of Power: Smith has one.
- Fan Disservice: Scarlett's tower has a painting of her laying practically naked on a couch, in all her obese glory.
- Fangs Are Evil: Doggy Doug's mouth is full of steel sharp teeth.
- Fat Bitch: The "Princess" Sylvia Scarlett. She hardly ever goes outside her tower, and loves eating cakes by the dozen, making her predictably obese as a result. She also pays her employees well, but uses this as a license to treat them poorly. And that's not mention her hobby of killing children and turning their bodies into stuffed dolls. After the player gets through her level, they can overhear hospice's nurses in the next one gossip about her, and how she was once pulled over for speeding while blind drunk.
- Floorboard Failure: Nearly every level has some broken floorboards on it. Smith will instantly fall through and die if he steps on these.
- Sometimes, this can be turned against Smith's enemies too. One of the female psychos in the final level, Adelaide, will regularly check on her painting, and monologue about her kills in front of it. This painting can be moved right in front of the crack on the floor; she won't notice, step there, and die.
- Friendly Fireproof: Averted. Careless shooting will kill friendly characters. Killing any of the children the player were meant to rescue leads to an instant game over, while killing people who weren't aggressive or even helpful (like Carlotta in the first level) will stay on their conscience.
- Girls with Moustaches: Carlotta, the bearded woman in the first level.
- Gratuitous Latin: Being a medic, Miguele knows Latin, and likes to drop some of it in his speech. If he kills Smith, for instance, he'll exclaim "Acta est fabula! The long path of your destiny ends here!"
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Delicatessen can die like this while is dragged unconscious by Smith into a circular saw.
- Hollywood Darkness: Averted, as the dark parts of the level are really dark. Smith is completely hidden when he enters such shadows, and the player can only tell where he is because the game places two blue footsteps on their screen where his feet are.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Betty, the prostitute near the Mermaids' Tavern.
- Hulk Speak: Dr. Miguele's abominations speak like this.
- Human Resources: Miguele uses his hospice as a front for his real business — killing children and selling their organs (specifically advertising them as such).
- I'm a Humanitarian: Lewis "Delicatessen" Normann, who prefers to eat children. Also the horned-skull wearing hermit near Doggy Doug's Scrap Yard.
- Infinite Flashlight: Averted. It runs on batteries, and has to have them replaced every once in a while.
- Karmic Death: Some bad guys can die in a very karmic way:
- Petronelli can be lured near the cages containing lions and devoured by them.
- Sylvia Scarlett can die by eating a poisoned cake.
- Dr. Miguele can be trapped into a gas chamber and die by gas poisoning.
- Kevlard: Sylvia Scarlett is very fat, and is the boss with the highest amount of health in the game, who actually says "Hee hee hee! That tickles!" or "Try a little harder and I might just feel a little sting", in response to getting shot. To offset that, her level is the only one in the game where the player can get a machine gun (though this all-but-requires killing her security), so that they can still bring her down in head-on combat. (Though poisoning her food is the preferred alternative.)
- Like Father, Like Son: Sylvia's father built a huge doll factory. His daughter takes it a step further by killing real girls and stuffing their bodies to use as dolls.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Ernest Miguele, who both kill children to traffic in their organs, and turns people into deformed, mentally stunted abominations.
- Monster Clown: Antonio Petronelli, who kidnaps children and sends most of them to feed the needs of the other psychopaths (where most get killed), while keeping a few for himself to train into circus pets.
- Multiple Endings: Two of them, depending on a single choice made in the final level. (Three if you count the Non-Standard Game Over that can also occur there.)
- Smith manages to avoid a confrontation with his grown-up and brainwashed children. The police gives him a medal for everything he's done, while his children are put into an asylum, and he may also start a relationship with Jessie.
- Smith knocks Dr. Krach off his wheelchair and places him in a gas chamber. He doesn't kill him until his cries for help lure in his grown-up children, at which point he locks the door, and kills them all. Doing so gets him arrested at the end as well.
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Nintendo Hard: It is very easy to get killed unless the player knows exactly what they are doing. While they can save, it is both difficult to do, and the total number of saves is limited; after a certain point, further attempts to save through smoking simply end up with Smith choking to death on his cigarette. - No Celebrities Were Harmed: Delicatessen slightly resembles Rainn Wilson when he's without the pig mask. He also bears a slight resemblance to Jack Black.
- Non-Standard Game Over:
- In the last level, if the player takes the shortcut on their left, Smith gets captured and imprisoned. Dr. Sergei Krach will mock him and his Brainwashed and Crazy children will kill him instantly.
- Another one also happens if the player saves too often. Since saving is done through smoking cigarettes, consuming too many kills Smith.
- Offing the Offspring: Smith can kill his children, Sandra and Martin, together with Dr. Krach in the final level. Doing so is pretty much the only action the player can take that'll result in a different ending.
- One-Hit Kill: A sneak attack with a knife amounts to this on everyone besides the level bosses.
- Off with His Head!: Smith's wife, Helen, is decapitated in the opening sequence.
- Poirot Speak: Carlotta the bearded woman speaks English while using random Spanish words.
- Psycho Lesbian: Sylvia Scarlett lives on top of her tower with Elisa, who is all but outright stated to be her girlfriend. Their shared hobby is to buy kidnapped children from Antonio Petronelli, kill them, and turn their bodies into stuffed dolls.
- Rat Stomp: Downplayed. Practically every level will have at least a few rats in the dark, damp backskirts/basements the player'll generally have to sneak through. These will bite if they come too close, and accidentally pissing off a whole swarm can easily lead to Smith getting overwhelmed.
- Retraux: The game is made as if it was released in the 90s.
- Save Scumming: Averted. The only way to save through smoking a cigarette, which requires the player to combine them with a lighter and so takes a few seconds and can only be done in a safe place. Moreover, Smith's lungs will give out if they smoke too many.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Douglas "Doggy Doug" Potapis. It is heavy implied that he fought in Vietnam.
- Shoot Out the Lock: Averted when the player finds a chained-up kid in Miguele's hospice. The chain is considered a part of their model, so shooting it will still kill them, no matter how finely the player aim.
- Stealing the Credit: Police detective Conrad takes credit for solving all the crimes the player discovers. Smith doesn't mind that, though, as that takes the heat off his persona. Though the bad guys still catch on to him by the end of the game.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: An alternate way of dealing with Sylvia Scarlett is to place rat poison in her cake before it's sent upstairs through the food elevator. The player can poison her assistant/girlfriend's champagne alongside it as well.
- Taxidermy Is Creepy: Played to its extreme in Sylvia's tower, since she kills children to turn into stuffed dolls.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: It's possible, though difficult, to kill virtually everyone besides the children on each level. Even if it's people like Sylvia's cooks and security or medics at the Ernesto's hospice, who are kept away from their bosses' inner sanctums, and had no idea about the crimes that took place there.
- Welcome to Corneria: While players might find it inconvenient at first to read the little bits of dialogue from a level's NPCs while sneaking, they'll all eventually repeat themselves in time, so it balances out.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: Played with, as the game considers essentially all of the people on each level who aren't bosses and who can be bypassed without killing "innocents", and adds their kills to a respectively named tally. Even when it's people like Petronelli's thugs, who are clearly involved in what's going on, or members of the cannibal family.
- Would Hurt a Child: The bad guys are very fond of abusing, kidnapping, brainwashing and killing children.
