Bane of Darkness

Bane of Darkness casts the player as Lovec, a vampire hunter storming a gothic mansion hidden deep in the forests of Bohemia to rescue his beloved Eliska from the vampire lord Mikhail. It is a student university project, credited to a small team working under the name SketchyCat Games, released for free on Steam on 4 December 2025 with no Early Access period and no planned purchases of any kind. The scope is deliberately, openly small: a single linear run through a forest and a mansion, fighting skeletons, ghouls, skulls and animated armour along the way, wrapped in cinematic cutscenes that bookend the action.

Fast, satisfying combat in a very short window

What every review in the small sample agrees on is that the combat itself feels good. Reviewers describe the movement as fast, praise the dash attack for letting them "vanquish foes at light speed," and single out the area-of-effect and projectile abilities as feeling powerful in a way that one reviewer explicitly frames as a relief: "I'm tired in a video game of being handicapped, I want to feel OP." That reviewer, admitting they aren't sure whether overwhelming power was the intended design, still gives the game a full recommendation and says the team "definitely have something here." Another reviewer dares readers to finish a run in under four minutes, calling it "doable, but challenging," which gives a concrete sense of just how short and how tightly choreographed the whole experience is.

The art direction draws similarly consistent praise. Reviewers call the gothic Bohemian mansion setting immediately atmospheric, crediting it with establishing "a nice dark fantasy feeling from the start," and one reviewer goes out of their way to give "mega props" to the artist behind the game's visual style, noting that the whole thing was made by a small team. The game's decision to skip lengthy exposition and drop the player straight into the action is also called out positively, with one reviewer appreciating that it "gets straight to the point instead of spending ages explaining everything before letting me actually play."

A demo's shape, honestly worn

Where every review lands on the same complaint is scope. There is no boss fight anywhere in the current build, something multiple reviewers flag directly, with one describing the whole thing as feeling "like a tech demo" where "all the skills were pretty much more or less auto or 'cast on' mechanic" rather than a fully realised combat system. Reported playtimes back this up tightly: across the review sample, sessions cluster between roughly 10 and 50 minutes, and several reviewers frame their recommendation explicitly around the fact that trying it costs nothing, rather than around any expectation of lasting value. One reviewer who enjoyed their run still wonders aloud what the game's "Guild Quest," tied to killing 1,000 monsters, actually unlocks, having expected it might gate a fight against Mikhail himself, only to find nothing happens once the tally is hit.

Presentation has one specific rough edge: voice acting volume is reported as inconsistent within scenes, with one reviewer saying it swings noticeably between too loud and too quiet, though they add that it "made me laugh" rather than breaking their enjoyment of the run. No Steam achievements exist for the game at time of writing, consistent with a project built primarily as a portfolio piece rather than a commercial release with long-term support planned.

A full credits list for a ten-minute game

Steam's store page lists an unusually complete credits roll for a project this size: a producer, a lead designer, two narrative writers, a dedicated logo designer, an original score composer working separately from the gameplay-music and SFX composer, a voice-over artist, a lead artist handling 2D cutscenes and concept art, separate UI art, two people credited on 3D environments, a dedicated character modeller and animator, four people credited on visual effects, and a programming team. That level of role specialisation, on a free ten-minute release, is part of why reviewers keep describing the result as punching above its size: it reads less like a solo jam entry and more like a small studio's proof-of-concept trailer, built by a team large enough to actually specialise, even if the finished scope stayed deliberately narrow.

Where reviewers want it to go next

The recurring theme across the positive reviews isn't just enjoyment of what exists, it's hope for what SketchyCat Games might build from it. One reviewer explicitly says they can see the current formula "evolving into a rogue like or even a linear hack and slash," listing multiple directions the small team could take the concept if they continued development. Another hopes for "a full release to the game or maybe some updates in the future," specifically praising the UI as strong enough to build on. That framing, a promising foundation rather than a finished product, runs through nearly every review in the sample and shapes the overall reception more than any single complaint about length or missing content.

Final verdict

Bane of Darkness is a short, polished proof of concept: ten to fifteen minutes of genuinely satisfying dash-and-blast combat wrapped in strong gothic art direction, built by a small student team with no financial stakes attached for the player. It doesn't pretend to be more than that, and reviewers who tried it seem to appreciate the honesty of a tight, well-made slice over a padded, unfinished full release. There's real craft here, and it costs nothing to see for yourself, but treat it as a demonstration of what SketchyCat Games could build rather than a complete game with a beginning, middle and end.