Dark Hours Review – Robbers vs. Monsters

Dark Hours is a co-op survival horror game about robbers. It follows a group of professional burglars who rob mansions, museums, and other secure locations. The problem is, each raid seems cursed, as they face forces far more sinister than security systems.

• Developer: Piece of Cake Studios
• Publisher: Piece of Cake studios, Kepler Ghost
• Platforms: PC
• Release date: October 23, 2025

Dark Hours is built on procedural map generation, making each run unique. Room layouts, loot distribution, monster spawn points , and even the order of objectives change from run to run.

At first, this works really well for unpredictability, but over time, you begin to identify patterns, and the game begins to feel repetitive. Nevertheless, the sudden events and various types of threats make exploring the rooms tense. One scare can trigger a misstep, or an accidental encounter—and everything goes awry.

The project is a hybrid of crime simulators and Phasmophobia-style games. It features coordination challenges, resource sharing, and constant unpleasant surprises that are difficult to predict.

Each player has two types of backpacks : personal and team. The shared backpack can be accessed by any team member, which is convenient, but it can also lead to loss of loot if someone decides to play solo. There’s also an element of internal competition for “goodies,” which can make it easy to forget that the main enemy here is the monsters.

There are special hacking tools that open ventilation shafts. There are electronic devices for safes, and kits for solving small puzzles . Some tools are useful against specific types of monsters.

The downside is that each item is single-use per round, and even if the team successfully completes the mission, everything you’ve acquired and brought with you somehow disappears. As a result, players are forced to regularly spend their earned credits on new tools, without knowing in advance what kind of monster they’ll face or whether the investment will be worth it. The reputation system also seems underdeveloped.

The game’s strongest point is its atmosphere. Visually, it strives for hyperrealism. No two locations are alike. The monsters are very diverse both in appearance and behavior. Some attack from afar, others force you to change routes, and still others can even make entire rooms inaccessible. The sound is well-designed; it helps you navigate, including to understand who’s approaching.

The game is designed with a clear emphasis on co-op . While you can complete missions solo, the map structure and the behavior of some enemies make it a significant challenge. Teamwork is much easier. You can revive fallen comrades, complete objectives, and distract enemies. Online support is weak, so it’s best to dive into Dark Hours with friends .

There are several modes available. Basically, you’ll be searching for fuses and trying to open a safe to steal a key item. There’s also a competitive mode, where players score points by collecting loot as fast as they can. And there’s a more dynamic option, where one participant becomes the “target” of the round, and the others have to chase them.

Overall, after playing for a while with randoms, as well as with friends, I’d like to point out the pleasantly chaotic nature of the gameplay. The monsters and the environment are constantly changing, and each player reacts differently. Sometimes it’s quite comical, but more often it’s extremely tense. For example, you can scream loudly across the entire building just because a teammate suddenly peeks out from around the corner. One stranger even mistook me for a monster and ran away. Unfortunately, Dark Hours has its fair share of technical issues. The game often kicked me out of the lobby upon connecting. There are quite a few minor bugs. And the optimization isn’t the best.

Much of Dark Hours is well-executed. The atmosphere is excellent, and the sound is equally excellent. The interactions between players are well thought out, including team objectives. However, the game lacks monsterology, and the money spent on each encounter is excessive, with missions not always successful. The developers are working to address most of these shortcomings, and even the online experience could be improved if the monetization model is reconsidered.