Created by Darkfield

Review by Dominic Corr

Summerhall – The Terrace: Tickets

A row of arcade cabinets within a shipping container. A few word clues litter the area, and the overwhelming audio distorts the senses with flickering neon lights, reflective surfaces, and the sounds of a childhood games arcade set-up. Oh yeah, this is a Darkfield creation.

Originally due for last year’s Festival Fringe, ARCADE makes a distinctive emergence outside Summerhall for the 2024 season. It is an immersive, dark room experience that steps well outside the barriers of Dakrfield’s other pieces.

Each ‘player’ stands in front of a gaming cabinet with one button. Press it for ‘yes’ or ignore it for ‘no’. As the lights cut and the 360 audio design kicks into play, the immersion is instantaneous and gratifying as players enter a world of perpetual war, where endless and numerous routes reveal themselves – all leading to different outcomes. The fate of the war, peace, and the lives of your avatar MILK and others within your button presses. But it’s all just a game, so no harm done. Right?

With an enormous voice cast, it’s clear to see how many avenues haven’t been explored by a single play-through, though the de-facto lead of MILK is performed in a hypnotically talented way which conjures humanity through the tones of an avatar – an auditory uncanny valley. Tapping into an eighties vibe, a mix of point-and-click adventure gaming and a nostalgic aesthetic, ARCADE will spark immediately with fans of gaming or nostalgic culture. But its storytelling, unique design, and binaural sound and sensory effects will hook those willing to give it a go and follow their own narrative path.

Violent choices carry weight, visceral weight. ARCADE pushes a few boundaries for Darkfield to have a tremendous impact without spoiling things, though it may run the risk of alerting those who don’t know entirely what they sign up for. The story about confronting existential dreads and the limitations of free will is a touch convoluted, but it’s inescapable given how narrow a slice of the entire story is given with only the single experience.

Darfield’s newest piece comes with the most lives of all their creations. ARCADE has a re-playability in the way their other, no less impressive, productions have never quite achieved. You’re hooked from the moment you sink your token into the coin slot and kick off another ‘round’ of the game. Game theory in motion, ARCADE is addictive from the off, and a return visit is encouraged again, and again, and again. Just don’t lose your token.

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