Image credit: Skunx Games
Mascot horror is a genre with a cult following, and I’m proud to be a loyal cultist. It’s a unique area of the horror world, prioritizing interesting creature design, nerve-wracking chase sequences, and fun puzzles.
The latest mascot horror to enter the arena is Dark Pals: The 1st Floor, taking players deep into the heart of an abandoned children’s mental health facility. Here’s Kyusai’s spoiler-free review of the horror gem, looking at the good, the familiar, and the downright weird.
Gleefully authentic mascot horror
In Dark Pals: The 1st Floor, you’re thrown into an abandoned children’s mental health facility, armed only with a strange creature that fires ink blobs on command, and tasked with exploring the murky corridors that unravel before you.
With a seemingly evil director-figure espousing propaganda on gigantic, tattered screens, and a wealth of unnerving puppets, it felt like classic mascot horror right from the jump. I was wandering around the first section of the game, going, “Oh, this was made by a team that loves mascot horror just as much as I do.”
The core gameplay in Dark Pals is largely made up of exploration and puzzle-solving, with a few chase sequences thrown in for good measure. I won’t spoil when the latter happens, but I’ll say that the game is best enjoyed with headphones to get the full experience.
The ink-chucking creature you’ll be working with is called an Ink Blaster, and this little critter will help you solve the majority of the puzzles you come across. It’s a cute little creature, and I immediately bonded with it like the Companion Cube, feeling guilty whenever I had to leave it on the floor to pick up another item.
The puzzles in Dark Pals strike a good balance between being engaging and simple enough to avoid getting stuck in one place for too long. There was a good momentum to the game, both in its core gameplay and its story.
One of the highlights of Dark Pals was getting to see the various characters dotted throughout the game world. As any good mascot horror should, Dark Pals took its time with setting up the reveal for the first monster, hinting at it nicely with eerie artwork and environmental clues.
A little on the nose, but still fun
I’ve spent a lot of time in the mascot horror niche, running away from all manner of ghouls, goblins, and suspiciously bloodthirsty animatronics.
My first impression of Dark Pals: The 1st Floor was that it had been made by folks who had a clear reverence for the genre, and this stayed true throughout my playthrough. The monster designs, game world, and story had all been crafted with care and attention to detail.
That being said, some moments felt a little too on the nose. Seeing a room with evil intentions clearly spelled out their intentions beat for beat on a handy infographic poster elicited an eyeroll, and I found myself wishing that the story required a little more work from the player to uncover.
Is it a subgenre that’s known for its subtlety, admittedly? As a fan – no. But there’s an interesting story in Dark Pals that I was excited to learn more about, and I’m hoping that future instalments in the story leave a little more up to the player.
Outside of this, I was enchanted by the aesthetic of Dark Pals. The monster designs were ridiculously fun and felt perfectly in tune with the game’s setting, and I found the world delightfully eerie to explore.
Performance-wise, Dark Pals: The 1st Floor ran well during my time with it. I played on a fairly mid-range PC and didn’t run into any major issues, with no glitches, quirks, or visual bugs.
Mascot horror lovers, you’ll have a grand time with Dark Pals: The 1st Floor. It’s a celebration of mascot horror and what makes this weird niche of the horror world wonderful, with a fun gameplay loop and an interesting game world.
I’m hoping to see more from the game in the future if there are other instalments, as it felt like there was potential for the story to develop and get even more interesting. The story was clear and fun here, but mascot horror thrives when there’s a level of murkiness and mystery to its lore.
FAQs
Dark Pals: The 1st Floor was developed and published by Skunx Games.
Dark Pals: The 1st Floor is a mascot horror game that focuses on exploration and puzzle-solving.
Dark Pals: The 1st Floor is certainly unnerving and startling at times, but I wouldn’t say it’s scary in the same way that a game like ROUTINE is scary.
Based on the Steam page, Dark Pals is playable on Steam Deck, but best enjoyed on PC.
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