Dark Hours Review

Developer: Piece of Cake Studios 

Platform: PC (Reviewed)

Genre: Action, Adventure

Publisher: Piece of Cake Studios, Kepler Ghost

Dark Hours is a co-op survival horror game that delves into the world of burglary. This game is developed by Piece of Cake Studios and published by Piece of Cake Studios and Kepler Ghost. Dark Hours is currently only available on Windows.

Dark Hours takes a straightforward concept, professional thieves sneaking into high-security locations to steal priceless artefacts, but adds a much darker twist. You and your crew are specialists in pulling off high-stakes heists in places like eerie mansions, sinister museums and other cursed locations. What starts as your typical job to steal as many items as possible quickly turns into you hiding and fighting for your life against horrifying monsters.

The goal is simple in Dark Hours: Complete your objectives (whether that be stealing a statue or trashing a painting), steal loot to reach a ‘quota’, and either survive until morning or by finding the exit. Every run feels unpredictable, especially because of the game’s procedural generation that ensures no heists play out the same way, though after some time, it gets quite repetitive. You could say that Dark Hours is like a blend between Crime Simulator and Phasmaphobia.

Dark Hours keeps its controls accessible and intuitive, even though there is no explicit tutorial, though you are given information ‘as tips’ throughout your gameplay. The game’s UI does a nice job at highlighting controls on screen and giving short item descriptions to help you figure things out naturally. 

Each player is equipped with a personal backpack and a shared team backpack, which is a clever mechanic that encourages chaos and cooperation. You can share your loot collectively or be greedy and keep some for yourself, though be wary, as others can easily access your bag.

I did like that the game offers quite a nice selection of tools to help you with your break-ins. These include things like plungers to open vent doors or hacking devices that unlock safes through little directional arrow puzzles. These tools are not just for show, but add nicely to the gameplay, requiring teamwork for successful heists to be pulled off. Unfortunately, the items are single-use per round, so even if you survive the mission, you will end up losing them (not as cost-efficient). Additionally, some tools work against certain monsters, and you can never know what monster you will encounter next, which will have you wasting money on buying items every round. 

The game also includes a reputation system across three ‘classes’, though it’s a bit unclear how you actually pick one, and it seems to assign it automatically. As you complete heists, you can earn credit that you can spend in the shop to unlock tools, cosmetics and items. 

Dark Hours features an atmosphere that is eerie and daunting. The hyperrealistic graphics are very well detailed, from the picturesque paintings hanging on the wall to pristine white statues in the halls. Every map feels unique, with incredible attention to detail. Monsters are especially terrifying, each one designed with distinct characteristics that make them feel fresh (like a wrath that freezes an entire room with her scream). With the visuals, the sound design is quite nice as you can pick up subtle audio cues between different monsters, which adds to the tension. I loved how the game uses ambient sounds to make you constantly second-guess whether there’s something behind you.

Dark Hours is built around its multiplayer experience. You can play solo, but the game is much more fun with others, up to 4 players. Players can join in several ways: join via quick play (where you can select a language as a filter, though I found that searching lobbies was a bit slow, maybe a matter of how many players are active in the game at the moment), make a private/public lobby, or you can join a random lobby. Some monsters are more difficult than others, especially if you have not yet understood their pattern, and having friends on the teams allows you to be revived for longer survival rates. 

As Dark Hours is multiplayer, the game features an in-game voice chat. Prior to a bug fix, the mic in-game was muffled with static sounds, where the voices were unclear and too quiet. Thankful, the developers patched where improvement was evident, though the voice-chat still had occasional cutouts in voices.

Dark Hours features three main game modes that add versatility to the rotation: Heist Mode, a classic experience where you need to find fuses across the map to open the vault and steal the target item. Competitive Heights is a race against other players to grab the most loot before time runs out. Golden tag is a fast-paced mode where one player becomes the ‘golden burglar’, similar to how one player’s hot potato.

Dark Hours is chaotic, scary and hilarious at the same time. There is something incredibly satisfying about screaming at your teammates to act as bait while you grant the loot, or what everyone panics when a monster appears out of nowhere. The general gameplay loop was quite enjoyable, though we did run into occasional bugs. A few crashes popped up with ‘Fatal Error’ messages, mostly when trying to join random lobbies. 

The other players we played with had the following to say about the game. Vroggo said the following, ‘Dark Hours is an enjoyable and solid game. A gameplay session boils down to looting items for money, doing objectives, buying equipment, and avoiding the paranormal beings as you navigate throughout the map. I like that there were activities that involved working together, like hacking the vault, which prompted some teamwork, other than splitting apart to find loot. The graphics were decent, and the monsters, plus the sounds, definitely gave me the spooks. So much so that I mistook my friend for the monster when I opened the door at one point.’

Moody had the following to say, ‘I will say that the main lobby felt quite similar to the lobby if you have ever played Phasmaphobia, where there is a shop to buy items, check your reputation level and more. I quite liked the customisation options, which caught me by surprise. You can choose outfit colours and even unlock accessories like face covers or glasses. You earn a decent amount of money from the turn-outs of your heists, but sometimes it is not as much as the time you spent in the round. Dark Hours was more fun with others than it was when playing by myself. I just wish there was a section, or a book, where we could learn more about the monsters after encountering them, as sometimes I was clueless. One of the monsters was referred to as ‘Groot’ because of its build.’

Whether you’re playing solo or teaming up with friends, Dark Hours offers a thrilling blend of heist strategy and survival horror. With its detailed visuals, tense sound design and unpredictable monster encounters, it offers a twist to typical co-op experiences. The game’s progression system, customisation options, specialised tools and unique mechanics are engaging. While there are still a few bugs, the developers are dedicated to improving the experience. As more updates roll out, this title is only set to get better, so be sure to check out Dark Hours!

Overall: 7/10

S & S Reviews

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