Dark Matter
Skip · Action · 2013
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
SKIP IT.
The value isn't there at $9.99.
- Length
- 4.3h
- Value
- $2.32/hr
- Reviews
- 45% positive
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Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, Shader Model 3.0 compatible videocard, 256 MB nVidia or ATI graphics card, 1 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Dark Matter is a 2.5D side-scrolling survival horror game, set in a derelict spaceship besieged by a sinister alien presence, and infested with deadly parasites. As the Ensign, you must explore fetid hallways and abandoned facilities, scavenging for parts and blueprints, expanding your arsenal to up to four deadly weapons and freely...
What drives the score
How to read this
Every input gets a grade, S to D, read from the buyer's side. The score is multiplicative, so an input only counts as raising when it sits near the top of its own scale. Anything with real room left is holding the score back, because that room is the gap to 100. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. The exact weights stay secret.
The value story
June 2024 is where it bottomed out, at $0.99. It has been discounted 134 times in the 13 years tracked here, typically at 82 percent off, with about 4 weeks between sales. Today it is at full price. The last sale was this month, and on this game's rhythm the next one tends to arrive within 4 weeks.
It is pricier than 74 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 99 percent. Dex ($19.99, scores 48) outscores it, and so does Ghost Song ($19.99, scores 55). Both sit among its closest neighbours.
The drop-off
13% start to <1% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
What players say
Dark Matter is a 2.5D sci-fi survival horror adventure developed by InterWave Studios and published by Iceberg Interactive that sets out to merge the exploratory structure of classic Metroid-style games with the oppressive atmosphere of space-bound horror. The premise is immediately familiar yet promising: you awaken alone on a vast, derelict spacecraft, its corridors swallowed by darkness and crawling with hostile...
I have been playing games since 1982 and have played a lot! I bought this because it reminded me of a game called Obliterator, that I played on the Atari ST in 1988, by the developer Psygnosis. I wanted a bit of nostalgia and retro and boy did I get it but with modern trappings. This is a very good retro side scrolling adventure, with good atmosphere. It is fairly straightforward and so good to play short sessions...
( STUNNED UPDATE: Wow, instantly loved the main masterful voice acting like a ship AI. Finally goggled and he is D. C. DOUGLAS, no less ! Legion in Mass Effect. Resident Evil's Albert Wesker, Star Wars Jedi Survivor's Rayvis, so many other high caliber games. Now I must play them all: Guarantee of a rich story. ) --- Expected a modest though interesting game, found a really epic extended scifi dungeon crawl metroid...
Player reviews from Steam: the most helpful all-time, plus the newest that clear the same quality bar, with the hours each player had put in when they wrote it. The mix of Recommended and Not recommended follows the game's Steam ratio. Rotates daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
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Dark Matter scores 0/100 on the BANG Score (a skip). The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/251410/dark-matterThe BANG Score is one number for value, 0 to 100: price against how it reviews and how long it was built to be. It answers the money question and stops there; whether the game is for you is still your call.
Reviews set the ceiling and price moves you inside it, so a cheap game that reviews badly cannot climb. Ratings from few reviewers are shrunk toward the middle, so 100 percent from nine people does not outrank 96 percent from ninety thousand. Length comes from HowLongToBeat where it can be matched, measured against a per-genre floor so a five-hour narrative game is judged against other narrative games rather than against a sixty-hour RPG. Where no verified length exists the score says so and carries a dock, because the biggest input is then a guess. The full method, including where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 20, price as of Sep 24.
A number here look wrong? Tell me what it got wrong and I will look at the inputs behind it.