KARMA: The Dark World | PS5 Review

The trailer for KARMA: The Dark World is where this one begins for me. A movie lover with prime watching years in the 90s, the trailer screamed “David Lynch!” at me and I knew I wanted to play it. Imagine my delight when The Gaming Outsider was provided a review copy! 

Everything that I was hoping for is in the game, although we’ll also find out why this game might not work for all gamers. My score will be high and others might disagree. Let’s dive in!

Heavily Inspired Story Is Confusing and Awesome

I need to be very vague here because very little makes sense in this alternative world actually inspired by the classic novel 1984 by George Orwell. KARMA: The Dark World largely takes place in 1984 where the “Thought Bureau” employs agents, most who have television sets for heads, who arrest and kill citizens for their anti-establishment plans and actions. The television set heads are a metaphor for the loss of personality, media control of their lives, surveillance, and the dehumanization caused by technology. Almost immediately, I got the point.

The player assumes the role of agent Daniel McGovern, who thankfully still has his real head. He wakes up in a room. Is it a hospital? Is it an institution? Is it a company building? Still within the opening cutscene, Daniel yanks tubes from his arms. Was that blood that splurted out? Was it oil? Honestly, I still don’t know, but it was gross. 

I walk down the hallway and find myself in a room with a doctor (?). He is largely off his rocker but provides me with Daniel’s main goal, “You must find your memories!”

The rest of the game is Daniel trying to solve a mystery involving an employee stealing an object to save his family, but that’s only the beginning! Daniel is even able to dive into people’s memories, similar to the dream-diving in Inception. Only Daniel isn’t there to plant ideas or thoughts, he’s investigating a crime. The game’s intentional blurring of boundaries between the real world and surreal dreamscapes is a key part of the experience.

Going any further into the story will be balancing on a line that might fall into spoilers.

Simple Gameplay Promotes the Story

The game plays mostly like an interactive movie. The player walks around each room or building, talks when necessary, and unveils the next step. However, there are also puzzles that you must solve in order to advance the narrative. Some puzzles are putting things in the right order, audio and visual clues to help open the next area, or finding pieces that must go together. 

As spoiler free as I can be, there are also monsters that you must evade in some scenes. You must either use stealth and timing to get across the room or you must run and avoid obstacles as they chase you down a hallway. These moments aren’t that difficult but, as I will note in the next section, they are tremendously tense. 

Pushing buttons when prompted, puzzle solving, and evasion are the bulk of the activity. The controls are tight and perfect. The game is on a rail, though. Sure, you can walk around the room or the building, but there is only one outcome or solution in each scene which leads to the next scene/puzzle.

Graphics and Sound: The Highlight of the Game

This is where KARMA: The Dark World truly shines! The graphics during my playthrough were consistently crisp and gorgeous. The totalitarian grays and browns, the set pieces and color palette that is expected in games or films with these themes, is on point. From the buildings where people work to the apartments where they live, everything is controlled and void of personality or hope, with the exception of the copies of 1984 by George Orwell which are there for puzzle solving and to remind you of the nucleus of inspiration for the game. Obviously, that book would have been destroyed long ago in this world. Zero lag and smooth transitions kept the game moving along positively.

This is where I noticed the David Lynch inspiration. The set pieces had that certain flair. There’s an entire sequence in the game that takes place in a room that looks remarkably similar to the Red Room from Twin Peaks. (The room where Agent Cooper hangs out with The Man From Another Place.) The strange, dreamlike sequences also had that feeling to it. 

The sound plays an important role throughout the game. Whether it’s the music to give you goosebumps while investigating or while running from that monster mentioned above, the music pumps the adrenaline or supports the mood of the scene. I was thoroughly impressed by the sound design and music. It made me go on a hunt for other projects that Geng Li worked on, the most famous being PUBG.

I cannot speak highly enough about the graphics and music. They kept me engrossed in the game and inspired me to keep moving forward. I had to solve the mystery and enjoy every moment of that journey thanks to the environment that the wonderful crew at Pollard Studio created.

Karma: The Dark World Final Verdict

I enjoyed every moment of KARMA: The Dark World. The puzzles and game play stumped me in a couple of places but I was never frustrated with it. In fact, once I figured out what I was missing, they were smack-my-head moments. In other words, the solutions are challenging but not filled with nonsense or guessing. 

The story itself had a few head scratching moments thanks to the David Lynchian-style confusion. There was one moment where a side character kept shouting “Hands!” and I was not sure if this was just another piece of a nightmare or if it actually meant something. 

And, whoa nelly, the metaphors! I got the feeling that some of them were a commentary on AAA studios taking away the autonomy of the game makers: Doing what we’re told, no innovation, no excitement. Corporations are evil, bosses are terrible, employees are mindless drones with no personality. 

Like many games before it, KARMA: The Dark World has also placed an indictment on social media and being plugged in all the time. We’re losing our humanity. We need to unplug every once in a while and experience life! Interact with real people and, most of all, love our friends and family. In the words of my younger friends, Touch Grass. 

KARMA: The Dark World is highly recommended. It tells a fantastic story through an intriguing mystery and has a satisfying conclusion that wraps up the story nicely. Just stick around for the mid-credits scene.

To hear me talk more about KARMA: The Dark World, be sure to listen to the March 27th, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 1:22:01 time stamp.

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy of KARMA: The Dark World provided by Neohype for coverage purposes. It is also available on PC via Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store. It will arrive on Xbox Series X/S at a later date.