The term “grimdark” is inspired by the tagline of tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000 which is as follows “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.” Which builds upon the world incredibly in nothing but a short sentence. I don’t see grimdark as a genre but as a tone, a depressing world absent of comfort. These are universes crafted not to be comfortable, but almost completely hopeless.
Typically in a videogame you know what you should be doing, there is usually a righteous path to follow. A grimdark universe is typically devoid of any feel good choices, survival is possible but at extreme costs. In a grimdark world victory rarely feels clean, there are no perfect endings here. You are not a hero here to save this dying world, you are a participant forced to endure it.
One of our favorite examples of a disturbing grimdark style game is Fear & Hunger.
Fear & Hunger follows one of four selectable characters into the self-titled dungeons of Fear & Hunger on their search for a man named Le’garde. Your intent before the delve may have been pure, or it may have not been. Shortly after entering the dungeons however, you’ll soon realize any initial optimism you once carried down here is gone. This was not a conscious thing either. As you traverse the dark depths clambering over corpses and decay it doesn’t take long for the bleak and hopeless atmosphere to consume you. Not only as the character but as the player.
This game by design is one of the most difficult games out there, it’s actually pretty unfair sometimes. That’s the point. One of Fear & Hungers favorite mechanics to use against you is the coin flip mechanic. It’s pretty self explanatory but I’ll go into a little more detail.
You walk up to a tattered wooden bed in a cellblock, the only way to save in this game is to sleep or find an exceedingly rare book. You decide this is a safe place to rest your weary eyes. As you crawl into bed… a menu opens. Heads or tails. You decide on heads and the coin flips, you cross your fingers tightly as you haven’t saved in quite some time. It lands on tails. Something is approaching you from the darkness. The screen fades and you are no longer in bed, the combat menu opens and you are facing down one of the many horrific abominations guarding this dungeon. You feel strong killing intent. You won’t be escaping this one.
This is a dark but disturbing end to countless runs of Fear & Hunger, further cementing it’s grim and disturbing style. It’s a game where you control characters, but without the power fantasy. It’s a true horror experience that feels both fantastical, but very real. Typically in a grimdark story, you are not the hero.
So why do we like this style of game? Allow me to explain myself. It’s the most honest look at horror that has been achieved, where no matter what you do there is always the chance of failure. Usually this chance is pretty high. In such a hopeless environment the only thing that you can possibly do that even feels correct is to merely survive. Your friends and even your core objectives become optional in the face of your own desperate survival. You will need to make horrific sacrifices in order to survive in these grimdark universes. That’s what makes these experiences so great.
lol this is fire