Dark Matter , the 2D sci-fi horror game that went up for sale on GOG and Steam late last week, isn't everything it purported to be. After about five hours of play the character enters a room, the doors slam shut, and an on-screen message informs the player that the game is over. Players and developers are currently arguing over whether the game is “complete,” but the discrepancy is enough that GOG has begun to offer refunds to buyers.
As seen in Let's Play videos like the above, the game ends with a text screen reading “The mag-lock door slams closed behind [your character], locking away the Engineering section, and her dreams of rescue.” Customers immediately began complaining on forums that the game being sold was unfinished.
Sorting out the true intentions of the developers through a nest of forum posts is murky at best, but there's some evidence to suggest that the released version of the game is basically unchanged from footage of a “closed alpha” version recorded four months ago . In that footage, the ending claims that the player has finished the first two chapters of the game, with two more left to come.
In a forum post , Iceberg Interactive CEO Erik Schreuder explains that Dark Matter will become an episodic adventure with future episodes funded by the success of this first installment. “[Following the failed Kickstarter drive] The idea was then formed to make Dark Matter an episodic series,” Schreuder writes, “with episodes selling at a budget price of $14.99. Any further episodes would, however, need to be dependent on the success of the previous installment. The first installment is what has launched recently on Steam and is simply called Dark Matter.” The problem there, of course, is that nothing in the game's description indicates that the game is episodic.
GOG has revised the game's description to read “ The first half of a thrilling, gripping story,” (revision in bold) and offered refunds to anyone who thought they were buying the full game. As of this writing, Steam hasn't taken any action and isn't offering refunds.
Thanks, Gameranx .
