Browser
Posted: 2024-02-09
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This is another browser based incremental thats what the genre is called game you can play here. If you already started playing, my number one tip for this game is DO NOT IDLE ON THE VILLAGE TAB. Literally stay anywhere else. This advice applies to the mobile version as well.
Ohhh, boy. This review is going to have a lot of spoilers. I'll try my best to keep this review as neat looking as possible
There are 2 versions of adr, and i played the browser version. From what I’ve read, the mobile version of the game is a much richer version of the game. There are more direct story beats, and the tone of the game’s narrative is much harsher. I’ll talk more about the specific differences later. From what I’ve read, the mobile version is absolutely worth playing over the browser version. I like the browser version just fine but... we’ll see. >.>
The game starts with you starting a fire. The first person to wander in and join you is builder. She’s great, i love her. She helps you build anything you need, including huts to encourage others to settle in your newly established village.
The Village is a resource generating and management system. You set traps and collect wood to hurry it along. Any villagers you have can be assigned to specific tasks to generate specific resources. Watch out, bc certain roles will reduce other resources to get the job done. (Tanners will take 10 fur to make 1 leather, for example.) Events occur at random and eventually you earn a compass, which opens up the Dusty Path tab.
The Dusty Path is a rogue-lite rpg adventure. You’re job is to explore the area beyond your settlement and collect more goods. Oh, and you have to make it back alive if you want to keep anything. Walking consumes water and food. Its very punishing especially in the early game. Good luck (b^u^)b
I can’t really say much more without revealing MAJOR spoilers. The next bit is going to be covered in spoiler tags.
A Dark Room is pretty subtle in its telling until it’s not. This is especially true in the browser version. You’re going to be doing a lot of reading between the lines. The first reveal is that the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. (This is most obvious while exploring A Dusty Path.) The second reveal is that you are an alien, and everyone referred to as a wanderer is also an alien. The last reveal is that you are partially responsible for said apocalypse. The end goal of the game is revealed when you find a starship. Your character plans to use that to escape back into outerspace.
Most of these reveals are indirect (at least in the browser version) so it’s up to the player to read carefully and pick up on the implications of the game. It explains why the pc and the builder are set apart from the other villagers. It also explains why so many people are hostile to you on sight. Young teens and children attacking you is a common encounter. I mean, the cloth and charms (and some of the meat) you find in your traps could only come from humans. This game is not above implying cannibalism.
The further out you venture, the more alien tech you find. This stuff is easily the best in the game, which gently implies humans didn’t stand a chance when the alien fleet attacked. The game paints an especially gruesome picture in the locations at the furthest edge of the map, which have more descriptions of desolated cities, ravaged environments from battlefields, and bodies littering starships.
As far as i can tell, the browser has two endings depending on if you find the fleet beacon. The ending without it skips straight to showing you your score. If you do find it, you will be given extra text that is somehow more ambiguous (imo). Genuinely i like this true(er) ending. It requires you to do more reading between the lines like you’ve likely been doing most of the game. The way I read it, the wanderer dies. The old starship cannot run his life support long enough in time for the fleet to pick him up, but calling upon the fleet could likely bring further suffering to the planet below.
I love this game. It explores the sci-fi genre in a very satisfying way. Up until this playthrough, I never got far in the game. I used to give up right around when i unlock A Dusty Path (i really don’t like rogue-likes or rogue-lites) but I’m really glad i pushed through this time around. I replayed as result of revisiting the Candy Box games, and adr was directly inspired by those games so naturally I tried adr anytime I decided i was done with cb1 and 2. I like adr bc it happens to hit all the genres and gameplay styles i really like, but at the end of the day, adr is just a good game.
Mobile Version Superiority
Like i mentioned before, the mobile version is pretty different, and I think it would make for a richer experience of the game.
It’s pretty clear in the browser version what the setting and immediate history is supposed to be, but from what I’ve read, the devs weren’t quite satisfied and decided to flesh out the pc and builder characters in the mobile version of the game. The same playthrough on the mobile version reveals that the pc will eventually start to refer to the villagers as slaves and will continue to do so until the end of the game. If i was supposed to pick up on this implication in the browser version, i did not pick up on that at all. As a result, the game is much kinder in the browser version by virtue of being more ambiguous.
The builder is also expanded on in the mobile version. Apparently she’s the reason the pc survives when they pass out during the Dusty Path adventures. She also has more opinions on what the player does. She makes it pretty clear she hates your plan to escape into space and rejoin the fleet and she’ll eventually abandon you completely and never return. The browser version has her as a more neutral presence. She remains in the village no matter what you do, and it’s unclear whether she joins you on the ship or not.
Both versions of the game invite you to replay the game after you beat it, but the storyline in the mobile version incentivises the player to try beating the game without building any huts and therefore without resorting to slavery. I have no idea if this pacifist run exists in the browser version, but apparently your reward for the hutless run is that builder doesnt hate your guts and joins you on the starship at the end of the game.
All in all its a great game. For reading this far, here are a few more tips: You’ll generally want to avoid the “do nothing” option for net gains. Hoard scales and teeth above all else. Last but certainly not least, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DONT HANG THE THIEF.
As an aside, I found out while looking this game up that Candy Box and A Dark Room were the direct inspirations for Cookie Clicker. The natural progression would be to play that next. Cookie Clicker is kinda renown for its infamy so it feels weirdly redundant to review it. I mean, the real reason i don’t wanna review it is because I’ve already been playing Cookie Clicker for yrs on my phone so I don’t feel like reviewing it