When it comes to using real live events as inspiration for video games, most of the time you see wars being used. You usually don’t see cults and their eventual downfall being used for inspiration. The Church in the Darkness is one of those few games that uses a cult as its inspiration. And not just any cult but the infamous People Temple and the settlement that they are known most for, Jonestown. How can an event like Jonestown be translated into a video game? Let’s find out.
One of us, One of us
Nonlinear narrative- When I first heard about Church in the Darkness, at first I thought, “Oh so the story is going to be straight forward”. Not so much. At first the game starts off straight forward: You are tasked to find your nephew Alex who has gone and joined with a group called the Collective Justice Mission who preach about justice, socialism and sustainable agriculture in a christian society. Led by Isaac and Rebecca Walker, the mission is located in South America due to the Walkers thinking that they are being persecuted and watched by the US government. Once you infiltrate their compound, known as Freedomtown, things are not as straightforward as its up to you to decide how to carry out finding your nephew. Each action you take will effect the actions that the Walkers and other members of the town take. This in turn affect the story various ways, each leading to a different end.
Simple yet satisfying gameplay- Gameplay for Church in the Darkness is stealth based and is pretty simple: don’t get caught and find Alex. Players will sneak around, uses disguises, sabotage alarms and in general run away from guards and townspeople as they search for Alex. So gameplay is pretty simple, yet satisfying when making close calls. For example, as I was traveling from a sparsely populated part of the town to a more populated area, there were times I had to zig-zag and run in circles to avoid guards. And this was all out in the open. Somehow I managed to avoid everyone and it was satisfying. Of course there were times that contact with guards was unavoidable but being able to out run and hide out of sight also felt pretty good.
Inspired by real life events- One of the main things that I noticed about the game is how eerily similar it shares similarities to the Jonestown event during the late 70’s. For those who might not know about Jonestown, here’s a summary of the town, its people and their leader:
The People’s Temple Agriculture Project, better known as its informal name of Jonestown, was a settlement established by the People’s Temple led by a pastor by the name Jim Jones. The church was founded on the ideas of communist and socialist ideals mixed in with Christianity values and racial equality. Now it being the early years of the Cold War it was pretty understandable that Jones would be paranoid about the US government spying and observing them, as the US was keeping tabs on anyone and everyone who had communist and socialist ideals. During the 60’s Jones moved his entire congregation from their original home of Indianapolis, Indiana to California, with the main church setting up shop in San Francisco during the hippie/summer of love movement. During the early 70’s Jones had purchased land in Guyana, South America to build a settlement for his followers. The People’s Temple Agriculture Project, or Jonestown, was to be their haven away from the prying eyes of the US government. However between the move to California and the mass exodus to Jonestown, Jones started to get more aggressive in his message, often to the point of string up his congregation into beating their fellow members who did not align ideology or give into his “advances”. Once he and a majority of his congregation, which numbered about 900 people, arrived in Jonestown, he started to become even more aggressive and delusional as the food supply started to become strained due to the sudden influx of people. He started to severely punish those who question how things were going in Jonestown and often held mock suicides. On November 1978 California Congressman Leo Ryan, a few members of his staff, reporters and other government officials from Guyana flew down to Jonestown in order to investigate allegations of abuse by Jones. With his mental and physical health already deteriorating, Jones allowed them to look around the settlement. Congressman Ryan and the others saw that things seemed normal, but did asked Jones were his followers allowed to leave and he stated yes. Right before he and the other visitors left to the airstrip, Congressman Ryan asked Jones’ followers if there was anyone who wanted to come back to the US, they are welcomed to. A few people decided to leave and this angered Jones, as this was a sign of betrayal and if they left, they would reveal where Jonestown is but most importantly expose the “real” Jim Jones. So he ordered a few of his security detail to kill Congressman Ryan, the other delegates and the followers who decided to go back to the US. As this was going on, Jones decided that the end has come and that the US was coming for them. So he gathered all 900 of his follower, 300 of which were children/teens/babies, and ordered everyone to drink the poison laced Kool-Aid/Flavor-Aid as this was the end of Jonestown. After a couple of hours. the whole settlement was dead, with Jones allegedly shooting himself in the right temple of his head.
Now as for the game itself it mirrors a ton of what Jones and the People’s Temple did. Such as moving from Indiana to California, establishing the town with the ideas of communist and socialist ideals mixed in with Christianity values and racial equality. Even the location of the settlement is similar to where Jonestown was located.
Attitudes of Walkers procedural- As I mentioned before, depending on the player’s actions, the people of Freedomtown will react to those actions. This especially true for the Walkers, as their attitudes are procedural and change with each new session. For example in one session, I manage to sneak in and extract Alex without raising any alarms. The attitudes of the Walkers were calm, as if nothing happened. On my second session, I managed to get caught and imprisoned. Isaac came over to ask what I was up to, accused me of being a spy and to leave or else. My third session I was caught again and Isaac again came to talk to me. However instead of accusing me as a spy this time, he was more concerned of what Rebecca would do if she found out that I was there. This also applies to Rebecca as I’ve been questioned by her as well. To have the AI of the main antagonists change depending on a player’s action and with each new playthrough is pretty clever.
Tons of exposition through letters, etc- While the intro of the game sets up the story of the Walkers and Freedomtown, most of the game’s story is told through exposition. As players sneak around and rummage through crates, desks and talk to friendly NPCs, they will learn more about the town. They will find scraps of newspaper clippings that describe how the public sees the church. They will find letters that describe how things are not as great as they hopped and have been intercepted by the Walkers. They will find notes that show the Walkers are keeping tabs on those who are having a change of heart and things that they are keeping from the rest of the church. Finding these things help to further the story and in some cases help lead down to different endings. Speaking of endings…
Several endings- In conjunction with the Walkers attitudes being procedural with each playthrough and the action the players take, the game has several ending to unlock. This really surprised me as when I though that the game would end just like the events in Jonestown. Turns out you actions do really matter in how the game ends, which is much different from just picking responses from a dialogue tree. Now not to spoil any of the ending, but they range from the peaceful to violent, with one ending that is similar to the Jonestown mass suicide. This encourages replayablity and has players explore different way to get each end.
Don’t drink the kool-aid
Only NPCs are procedural- When I think procedurally generated, I think of a dungeon layout getting shuffled with each new playthrough, ie buildings in different locations along side monsters and traps. The only thing that is procedural in Church in the Darkness is the placement of the NPC that you interact with, guard placement and the infiltration points that players start at. The town’s layout stays the same through each playthrough. It would have been nice to have the town layout to have been procedurally generated as well in order to give players an added challenge.
The Church in the Darkness is a unique game to say the least. Its non-linear narrative combined with procedural AI and exposition through in game items weaves a tale of church that has a similar history of the real life place that it was inspired from. While the game’s town share similarities to Jonestown, death isn’t the only option in the game as there are many ends depending on the actions of the players. The gameplay, while simple, is satisfying and allows players to be able to approach encounters anyway they choose. My only complaint is that only the NPCs are procedural and not the whole town. If the whole town was procedural, it would have made for some very interesting replays. If you are looking for something different and I mean way different from what you normally see on here, and are curious about what was Jonestown was like, I say give the game a shot. Just don’t drink the Kool-Aid.
