If this was a written horror story, you'd think the plot needed lots of work
I tend to prefer 1st person shooter horror survival games, but I gave this a try based on reviews. I've really enjoyed games like Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, and Penumbra.

First the good points:
Music and sound effects are very good.
Graphics are good, for a point and click interface.

Now the disappointments:
The storyline / plot has a lot of potential arcs, but really fails to deliver because it ends so abruptly. Either the designers should have followed through on the mystery of what happened to Loath Nolder as well as the deceased Clark Field, instead of derailing the story at what feels like halfway through the game with the player character's shock at uncovering his family history. The result is not one, but two storylines that are incomplete, and leave the player expecting more. What about the underground saurian beings and temples? What about the cultists? For that matter, what about Loath Nolder (not to mention why bother with him in the first place)? To me, it seemed you were uncovering potential clues that were in fact pointless to the game.

The game's design is also disappointing, in terms of the limited areas you can visit. As a basic point and click adventure, the game has to rely on other factors to keep the player's interest. The locations turned out to be very limited, and some locations had areas that were just unneccesary to the game. Late in the game, I thought I would be able to investigate newly uncovered areas with a hidden map feature, but the game instead drops these locations entirely for the 'surprise' plotline of the player character, Howard. I would have liked to see sites such as the cemeteries, dig sites, etc.

Lastly, the timeframe in the game was confusing; It is 2011, and yet so much of the atmosphere is reminiscent of an HP Lovecraft story, with letters, diaries, notes, newspaper clippings, and tape recordings. With the exception of one unremarkable cell phone, the game is very low tech. If the designers wanted to emulate a Lovecraft story, why didn't they just set it in the past? It makes little sense to play a detective uncovering faded letters and diaries in an age of e-mail, text messaging, and internet websites... Just as an added point, the character has a computer in his office, and never uses it during the game. I rest my case.

This was probably a very simple game to program, most of the work was done by two people. The developers need to really weave a plot better than they did, and either follow through completely on clues or storylines that they reveal, or not bother to include them in the first place. I hope that the next game they develope will show improvements over this one.

Hands down the scariest game ever - If you don't mind copious amounts of reading...
If you enjoy games that are intensely creepy but aren't of the hack and slash variety, then you will love this game. If you've ever played "Scratches" - this is like Scratches on crack. Its ten times scarier, but theres also ten times the amount of reading; If you've played classic adventure games before, you know the deal - there's books on the table, books on the shelf, sheaves of paper lying around everywhere, ready to be read and parsed and analyzed (no walk-throughs are necessary, just patience). If you're in a rush playing games and want quick action, don't bother with this game. If you're a thinking type who enjoys HG Wells, solving mysteries and prefers scariness to sort of build up slowly and then scare the living crap out of you, then this game is well worth the time and effort.. Don't let the puzzles scare you though, playing on Standard level I never got stuck on a clue for more than 20 minutes, most of them were pretty intuitive anyway.

A creepy adventure game with minor flaws.
"Darkness Within" is a creepy point and click in the same category as Scratches. The game plays mind games with you, using ambient sound and dark lonely locations. The voice acting is very well done, but very scarce. At times I had to remove my headphones to keep playing. It was just too tense to play with sound! The clue finding system is kinda odd, and clues aren't too prevalent. But a lot of the puzzles seem relevant and logical.

Just a note that after reaching the mansion I ran into a bug, and had to install a patch to fix it. Regardless, I'm glad I bought this game and look forward to the new "Darkness Within 2"!

Best of the Adventure Games
Darkness Within:In Pursuit of Loath Nolder is by far the best adventure game I have ever played. The unexpected waiting to occur at any moment. My X-Fi
definitely enhanced the experience. EDGY-no boredom in this game.

The story line slowly draws you into a feeling of fright, dread, & terror.

Thanks Lighthouse-Interactive, Darkness Within is worth every penny.
Far cry from Shadow Tor's Barrow Hill, the worst adventure game I've ever played. BORING, unless you're afraid of crickets.

Very good adventure game
I especially liked that you could choose from 3 different levels of play. There is a built in hint system, if you are roaming around wondering what to do or where to go next, a ? will pop up and give a slight hint, such as, look at the photos closer. I need that in all the games I play. ha-ha I would recommend this game.