When buying "DARK NIGHT WITH FLOPPA" for $0.75 AUD, I wasn't sure what to expect going into it. Was it going to be just another crappy indie horror game? Was this just nothing... but a cash grab? These are two big questions that I had lingering in my mind as I booted it up... and I was immediately enthralled in it's AAA quality environments and sound design. The questions were gone as soon as I grabbed the first page... this game is officially one of, if not, THE best game I have ever had the opportunity to play... in my entire life.

Before getting into the juicy contents of the game, let me quickly preface it by explaining how the game works. In "DARK NIGHT WITH FLOPPA", there are two main levels, each of them managing to differentiate themselves from each other despite having very similar gameplay: 'Forest', and 'Winter'. In 'Forest', the player is stuck in a disturbing, secretive and atmospheric forest, which has many branching paths. 'Winter', on the other hand, sticks the player in a very moody, dim forest-like environment with snow leaking from the sky. Throughout the 'Winter' map, there are campfires placed throughout. These are incredibly important for this map, and I'll get into why later. But I just want to quickly point out the fact that the game is incredibly open, and allows you to explore many different areas throughout each map. It helps with immersion a lot, and it compliments the AI of the main antagonist of the game, "Floppa".

Now, let me start of by talking about the map, the 'Forest'. In this map, the player is stranded in the wilderness, stuck with nothing but a camera and a flashlight. Progressing through the woods, the player must look for eight pictures of cats that are hidden on trees, rocks, and other environmental pieces. After collecting one or two of the pictures, Floppa is released into the wilderness, stalking your every move. You must reluctantly continue, despite the fact that Floppa is hiding... and so you collect another page. And then another... and this is when the game becomes a real challenge. Floppa is given an increase in speed, and he becomes much more of an actual enemy. He typically appears right in front of the player, and he begins to drain your camera's battery. Once your camera runs out of it's battery, you lose. Now, the way to combat this is by running away from Floppa. Doing so will result in two things, depending on something incredibly important that I will get into in a moment. Either he will A: stay in place and never move, or B: he will teleport once again in front of you. Now, what does this depend on? You may be asking. Well... you have to keep him in your eyesight from afar. If you lose him from your eyesight for even a SECOND, then he will teleport close by once again, causing you to lose more battery. And so, with this in mind, you must spot the pictures through the shrouds of darkness that surround you and Floppa, making for a great challenge and an incredibly heart-pounding gameplay loop. With all of this in mind, you must collect the four other pages that are around the map, and upon collecting the last page, the game congratulates you and you are able to move onto the next and FINAL map... 'Winter'.

With the map 'Winter', it introduces a new gameplay mechanic/gimmick. Do you remember how I pointed out the campfires in my paragraph above? Well... with this new gameplay mechanic, comes campfires. These campfires are surrounding multiple areas within the 'Winter' map, and act as a way for the player to heat up after running through the dark, freezing surroundings. With this idea at hand, the player notices a bar at the bottom of the screen, which when away from campfires slowly counts down. This is the way the game tracks your heat, and it creates for some seriously tense moments when adding Floppa and the eight pages into the mix. Imagine this: you're stranded in an area lacking campfires, you reach for the fourth page, and Floppa appears out of nowhere. You're losing heat quickly, and so you run through the debris of the winter forest with Floppa on your tail. Your heart is racing, but luckily for you, you spot a lone campfire in the distance, its orange light emanating barely bright enough for you to spot it. You take a run for it, Floppa consistently teleporting right near you, and so you turn to maintain eye contact with him, and you slowly back towards the campfire, it's warming embrace giving you a soft but tender hug. You did it, you barely escaped Floppa with your life. This is how it feels to go through the 'Winter' map, and it's absolutely horrifying. This map alone is scarier than some of the biggest horror titles in recent history, scarier than games like Outlast, Resident Evil, Alien Isolation, and many others. Hell, even P.T has nothing on DARK NIGHT WITH FLOPPA. Everything about this game is so heart-pounding and horrific, yet so aesthetically pleasing and rewarding. How the game manages to balance it's astonishing visuals and incredibly tense gameplay is absolutely insane, and it creates for one of the best horror experiences out there.

With everything that I said above, I just want to get into one of my personal favourite aspects of DARK NIGHT WITH FLOPPA: the sound design. Absolutely everything about this game's sound design is simply nothing short of revolutionary, and I am all here for it. I simply cannot believe just how immersive the audio in this game is, and it adds to the already meticulously crafted world that the developers had already perfected. It really helps to keep you on your toes as you progress through each handmade environment, defending yourself from Floppa and collecting the eight pictures surrounding you within the terrifyingly dreary evergreen. Just hearing the noises that emanate from Floppa instilled so, so much fear into me, it was absolutely horrific. My fight or flight responses came in, and I was stuck to my chair, petrified of Floppa. Hell, I was considering dashing from my chair to hide away from Floppa, this demonstrates just how immersive DARK NIGHT WITH FLOPPA's sound design is, and just how much it enhances the experience overall. It's so beautiful just how rich the audio in the game is, and it's truly wondrous just how much blood, sweat and tears went into this pulse-pounding, mind-numbing experience of a game, and I'm so glad that I got to experience it in this lifetime.

And so, in conclusion, DARK NIGHT WITH FLOPPA is most definitely one of the most beautiful indie horror games I've ever experienced in my entire life. I'm surprised the game doesn't have more attention than it already does, and I highly encourage you to share the game with your friends and family. This game is genuinely one that almost everyone in the world can enjoy, with it's rich, meticulously crafted environments, to it's incredibly disturbing, heart-racing gameplay, this game truly includes something for everyone. Thank you for reading, and I hope that you enjoy playing through DARK NIGHT WITH FLOPPA!