“Angel In The Dark” is a free independent horror game in the visual novel style. For those of you not familiar with the term, a visual novel is a style of video game consisting usually of static images, or sometimes images with limited motion, and text (we’ll cover more of how these games are played later in this column). However, “Angel In The Dark” offers a very unique spin on this niche genre. It is a visual novel without any visuals. Since the main character is in total darkness throughout the game, the creator has decided to omit the visual element altogether. As I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now, I am a sucker for a good gimmick, so that intrigued me. Let’s take a look at this strange, self-contradictory little game.

“Angel In The Dark” is about two people trying to make their way out a cave. Neither character remembers exactly they wound up in the cave. They remember going about their daily lives and then just all of a sudden ending up in this cave. So, naturally, the game follows the player character and their mysterious companion Lucia as they try to stumble their way back on out of the cave. The game does have a major plot twist, however I felt that it was very predictable. I feel like if you’re going to try for that sort of a twist then their really ought to be a red herring or two, or at least less aggressive hinting toward it. There are four different endings to the game, but honestly I didn’t feel that any of them were really meaningfully distinct from one another. They all arrive at the same end point, they just take different paths to get there. The style of writing reminded me an awful lot of anime. There is also plenty of vulgar language and gross imagery.

This is the part where I normally talk about how a game looks, but, as mentioned, there are literally no visuals to this game other than text. I guess all that I can really say is that the font looks like it would have been right at home on a 90s alt rock album cover.

The audio element of “Angel In The Dark” is also very minimalist. There is no voice acting to go with any of the dialogue. Instead, the game pretty much just relies on sound effects to set its scenes. In keeping with the tone of the writing, many of the sound effects are somewhat cartoonish. Not in a Tom & Jerry kind of way, but again in a very anime sort of fashion. While they weren’t what I was at first expecting, they definitely fit in with the tone of the story.

Okay, so I promised I’d explain more about how a visual novel is played. It’s actually very simple. Part of the story unfolds through text, sound effects, sometimes voice acting, and visuals (except not in this case because of the game’s gimmick). Every so often, the player makes a choice, which will then alter how the game plays out from there and so forth. So it’s kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Most of these games offer quite a lot of choices and will often have over a hundred different ways that the story can play out. However, there are only two choices in each play through of “Angel In The Dark” that will make any impact on the story outside of a couple altered lines of dialogue. But to be fair, it’s possible to see all four of this game’s endings in under an hour. So obviously there’s not going to be a ton of choices there.

So what’s the final verdict? I don’t know. There is definitely an audience for the vulgar edginess that “Angel In The Dark” trades in. I, however, am not that audience. I am so far removed from being the audience for this game that I cannot tell whether it succeeds or fails at what it is trying to do.