Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the GingerBrave man! Yes, Studio FreshDoh! The developers behind the abundance of CookieRun games have taken to the virtual reality world with their newest title – CookieRun: The Darkest Night.
In this first-person action-adventure, you must take the mantle of becoming the legendary GingerBrave and put a stop to the dark cookies and their master the Darkest Lord Cookie. You are the Chosen One and only you can bring back the light in the dark in a series of chapters. This is CookieRun: The Darkest Night!
ME LOVE COOKIE!
Story
Rise Sir, GingerBrave, you must save the day! Yes, you play as a gingerbread man who one day finds himself in a large industrial oven, you are awoken by the Will of the Cookies, a spirit cookie that reminds me of something from a Legend of Zelda game that informs you that you are their only hope in completing an impossible task.
Once you realise that you’re the only Gingerbread to have awoken task yourself in finding a way to escape the oven. Following the smoke, you come across enemies eating the other gingerbread cookies.
Using a candy cane, you must defeat the enemies and continue to the exit door to the oven to become free. All is well until you suddenly encounter our main antagonist Darkest Lord Cookie, an evil cookie with the intent to destroy.
Trapped with no way to escape you are saved by the Wizard Cookie who helps you from becoming a GingerBurnt man. Now with your new ally who informs you he was sent by the Prophet Cookie to rescue you after receiving a prophecy.
Together you must get out of the kitchen – meet with the Prophet Cookie and become The Chosen One! Kinda like Harry Potter without the death and gloom side of losing your parents and being a wizard. You must save the Kingdom from the Darkest Lord Cookie and bring order back to the cookies!
Keep Calm And Bake Cookies
Gameplay
CookieRun: The Darkest Night explores the RPG elements of an action-adventure game, using different types of weapons such as swords, daggers, and candy canes! Yes, candy canes can be used singularly or dual-wield, same with the other weapons, or spice it up and use one candy cane and one sword!
Combat in CookieRun: The Darkest Night uses elements from franchises like Skyrim and other first-person games such as enemies having a health bar and being able to use your weapon to deflect an enemy’s attack.
Your attack speed is based on how quickly you can swing your weapon at the enemies, plus how quickly you swing your arms about in real life but be careful not to hit anyone or swing and punch a glass table like I did. A few hits to the enemies will reduce their health and turn them back into dough!
You can upgrade your weapons using items you find in chests and pick-ups from enemies you have defeated. Using the blacksmith you can buy, upgrade, or sell your weapons. Elemental items will give you the advantage of giving your sword a real kick such as fire, ice, and more!
Other weapon types can also be unlocked such as different types of slingshots, using different types of ammunition you can stun or attack enemies from afar. As you progress you will unlock different pets that can assist you in battle with their own unique attacks, these pets have no health bar and cannot be defeated, these can be summoned using your wristwatch, something I’ll explain more about in this review.
Your health is more advanced than the evil cookies, so you can take multiple hits before you have to meet your maker. If you are injured to the point that you are starting to lose crumbs, then eat one of the jelly meats, this will help you feel right as rain. You can track your health on your wristwatch, this will also help guide you in the right direction if you happen to get lost.
You can upgrade GingerBrave’s stamina and health bar by completing puzzles and using the Brave Souls you are rewarded with. CookieRun: The Darkest Night uses puzzle elements, such as rotation puzzles and matching the correct symbols which are fairly easy and don’t take a lot of brain power to figure out. You can also find keys that open treasure chests that hold items and goodies.
Items you collect will be stored in your backpack that can be pulled out and interacted with, where you can store weapons etc. The same goes for the journal which will show you the different tasks and quests you need to do. Dialogues in CookieRun: The Darkest Night can be very long, and luckily in the newest update you can skip these if you prefer. Enemies and characters are of a variety with a new design for everyone.
Not The Gumdrop Buttons!
Graphics and Audio
Studio FreshDoh! Has truly put their heart and soul into the Cooke Run games over the years, giving each game a fresh look and style with an absolutely beautiful art style. They did not disappoint with this in CookieRun: The Darkest Night, with a bright and colourful world you can explore!
Name another game where you can stand on a counter and look over a huge kitchen in first-person. With different worlds and designs, it is visually beautiful. Each character and enemy has their unique style and character model like it was made with the perfect ingredients based on different types of cookies and biscuits.
The developers truly know how to make a game look stunning and run just as smoothly! Cutscenes are more like a movie, using a cinematic point of view making you feel more like you’re watching the cutscene from a different angle than being in it.
CookieRun: The Darkest Night uses truly immersive and more dynamic audio. A cookietastic soundtrack that gives you the true meaning of music that really throws you into a well-baked adventure game!
We Got A Big Order To Fill
Comfort
CookieRun: The Darkest Night has multiple options when it comes to comfort. The developers have made it easy for those who suffer from motion sickness, but they do give you the option for those who don’t. Choose between snap turning or smooth turning depending on your preferred play style and teleport or smooth moving.
However, I must admit if you struggle with climbing ladders, you have the option to skip the climb altogether. It depends on exactly how to prefer to play with a pretty average comfortable style in general plus you can play this game both standing and sitting down.
Final Thoughts
CookieRun: The Darkest Night was a truly enjoyable journey and for a chapter it has a fair amount of gameplay present. The game is still going through a lot of changes and updates making the game look, sound, and feel better the more you play.
I cannot wait to experience Chapter 2 when it releases plus with all the new updates and continued work still being done on it, you will have more content to check out real soon including hints at brand-new game modes and more! So, guys if you are a fan of games like Zelda, etc or you happen to be the Cookie Monster then this game is 100% for you making you one smart cookie!
CookieRun: The Darkest Night is AVAILABLE NOW! Only on Meta Quest
GAMERHUB RATING: FIVE (Out of FIVE) JOYSTICKS
(Thank you to Hyunsang, the team at Devsisters Corp and the team at Studio FreshDoh! for providing the code for this review)
