The Darkside Detective heading next to the Backside of the Moon

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Acclaimed buddy cop comedy adventure series from Spooky Doorway returning for another six-case installment 

After twenty cases over two games' worth of crime solving, Detective Francis McQueen and Officer Patrick Dooley took a well-deserved break – well, a break, anyway – from investigating paranormal mysteries while their creator Spooky Doorway tried their hand at more serious otherworldly fare (to outstanding results in The Séance of Blake Manor). Soon, however, it'll be time for more supernatural hijinx as the pair are set to return in a whole new adventure, The Darkside Detective: Backside of the Moon.

Crime in Twin Lakes City certainly hasn't been sleeping in our absence, which means McQueen – the sole member of the police force's perpetually underfunded Darkside Division – must team up once again with Dooley to solve "six new mind-melting mysteries." This time around, the pair find themselves squaring off against the likes of "werewolves, cursed items, rituals, treasure hunts, and perhaps the most terrifying monster of all – rich people!" It'll take all of their combined talents and larger-than-life personas to crack these bizarre cases – or perhaps smaller-than-life in this case, when they're inadvertently shrunk down to teensy-weensy size as they set out to "explore, gather, combine, point AND click their way through whatever comes their way."

The series' indie Irish developer knows enough not to fix what ain't broke, so fans can expect more of what we've come to expect from this lovable duo – namely, the unexpected case-wise, but with a few key elements in common with their predecessors. Across six zany standalone "micro-adventure" scenarios, you'll find plenty of locations to explore, each presented in familiar stylishly chunky pixels. There will of course be items to collect and puzzles to solve via intuitive point-and-click interface, as well as a variety of bizarre characters to converse with in hilarious unvoiced banter, plus inevitably a few rash (meaning bad) decisions to keep the protagonists – and players – on their toes.  

No firm target release date has yet been announced, but The Darkside Detective: Backside of the Moon is "coming soon" for Windows PC on Steam, leaving players who may have missed the first two games enough time to catch up on all the previous fun, though no prior familiarity is required.