Dusklander is a survival game about a goth girl trapped in a dark nightmare world.
Hope wakes up with a glowing sigil on her hand and has no idea what happened, where she is or how to handle this situation. You need to gather resources, learn to combine them and figure out the rules of survival in this strange place. Each death brings you back to where you started and serves as a valuable learning experience. With time you start to notice that the fabric of this nightmare reality can be shaped by the power of your will.
This strange world is locked in the state of everlasting dusk. The only sure source of Light is the glowing sigil on your hand. The power of your Light fades when you spend time in the darkness but it can be restored by absorbing the essence of fire. This makes fire starting an essential survival skill in this place.
Your Light not only allows you to see and move around. It is also your protection against dangers lurking in the dark. It can be used to shield yourself from enemy attacks sacrificing Light instead of Vitality. A well timed parry can even stun the enemy and refund its Light cost.
You need to make sure to keep your Light alive. The Shadows sense when its power fades and they start to circle around you like vultures. Be careless enough to let it die and they'll waste no time in tearing you apart.
This place is rich in resources that can be used for crafting and setting up camps. Gathering some of them requires specialized tools. Creating tools should be your top priority after starting a fire. Better weapons and armors are crucial for hunting more dangerous creatures. While fortifying your camp increases your chance of surviving attacks from predators roaming these lands.
Eating and drinking is required to keep your body alive. You need to purify water, cook food and learn to take advantage of the beneficial effects of different meals.
Each death allows you to reflect on what you learned and increases your ability to Weave. Weaving lets you gradually conjure more and more resources. You can even learn to create items that bend the rules of this nightmare.
Initially it seems that there is no way to escape this place. Then you start to notice strange gates towering above sacrificial altars. The correct sacrifice summons a guardian of this Land. Defeating the guardian activates the gate and allows you to travel to another Land. You can only hope that one of these gates will eventually be a portal to the waking world and your true way out.
Each nightmarish Land has its own unique resources, creatures and environmental conditions. Mastering them allows you to craft better recipes and make your survival more effective. Learning to conjure these resources allows you to use them even in Lands where they don't exist naturally.
Every attempt to get out is different. After each of your deaths the Lands shift and twist, changing their shape. Nothing you created can survive this process. There is however a single strange Land that seems to defy this rule. Exploiting it can tip the scales to your favor.
