The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark
Worth it · Narrative · 2021
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $14.99, a BANGER if it drops to $9.63.
- Length
- 7.8h
- Value
- $1.92/hr
- Reviews
- 96% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 4 GB of memory, Intel HD (Integrated), GeForce 6 Series/Radeon R7 Series, 2 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Delouse your room with sage and pack up your travel-sized ouija board, it’s time to re-enter Twin Lakes - America’s 34th most haunted city. Join Detective McQueen as he puzzles his way through 9 chilling cases, risking life and pixelated limb to solve the macabre mysteries that plague the poor town.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
The lowest price on record is $5.24, set in September 2026. 53 discounts in the 5 years on record. They run about 45 percent off, roughly 5 weeks apart. Past sales have already crossed the $9.63 BANGER line 39 times.
Against its own genre it lands in the top 2 percent on value. It is pricier than 80 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 98 percent. Among the games that feel like it, The Rise of the Golden Idol ($13.99, scores 78) beats it on value, while it beats The Darkside Detective ($14.99, scores 67).
84 from critics against 96 percent from players, and the player number comes from people who own the game.
Of the 369 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 2 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written April 2021 to August 2026.
It carries Valve's Deck Verified rating and runs 7.8 hours, about as long as a handheld game wants to be.
The drop-off
68% start to 9% 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
Players
7 players online when we last checked, on Sep 30, 15:49 UTC.
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
Like its predecessor, a love letter to all the classic '90s point'n'click adventures. This sequel is an improvement on the original (longer episodes with better puzzles), but don't play it until you've completed the original, as it brings back characters and makes a lot of references to the previous game's hi-jinks.
This is very similar to the first game (and picks up chronologically where the first one left off): Mini point-and-click adventure episodes where you control Detective Francis Mcqueen and his friends as they solve spooky happenings in the town of Twin Lakes. You don't carry any inventory between episodes and there are no game overs or soft locks. I liked this one less than the first. The adventures are much bigger...
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark scores 77/100 on the BANG Score (worth it) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/795420/the-darkside-detective-a-fumble-in-the-darkReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 26, price as of Oct 1.
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