Last Half of Darkness – Launch Day
🌑 Opening Hook — What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Launch day began with a microphone scramble, easy mode selected, and the words no horror game should ever hear from me: “What could possibly go wrong?”
Quite a lot, apparently.
Last Half of Darkness wasted no time dropping us into a sprawling haunted estate filled with locked doors, restless spirits and puzzles that offered very little guidance. Naturally, instead of following the directions I was given, I headed the wrong way, tested the invisible walls and immediately started looking for somewhere I could escape the map.
🕯️ About the Game
Last Half of Darkness is a 35th-anniversary reimagining of the original 1989 horror adventure. Its story revolves around strange magic, a mysterious family estate and unfinished business that refuses to stay buried.
Your aunt was apparently something of a witch — a good one — who had been working on a potion before her death. The ingredients are now missing, the secrets surrounding the estate are waiting to be uncovered, and somewhere beneath all those puzzles and supernatural encounters lies the truth.
It is deliberately nonlinear, atmospheric and reluctant to hold your hand. In other words, perfect conditions for getting completely lost.
🗝️ Where We Are in the Journey
This was the very beginning of the playthrough: launch day, first proper exploration, and our introduction to just how large and interconnected the estate really is.
A letter warned that darkness had been unleashed, creatures were roaming the grounds and a locked sea cave would eventually need our attention. By the end of the stream we had opened several routes and solved plenty of puzzles, but we had also accumulated enough unfinished mysteries to guarantee a return visit.
⚠️ What Happens in This Episode
The trouble started almost immediately. With game audio disabled to avoid possible copyright problems, I ended up dubbing dialogue myself while chat attempted to follow the increasingly strange story. EntertainJD even pointed out that this was probably useful because some of the zombie dialogue was difficult to hear anyway.
Exploration turned the inventory into a travelling collection of unexplained objects: coins, a cassette, matches, keys, ammunition, a flask and assorted puzzle pieces. Happy_cat_lady decided the cassette merely needed a tape deck to complete the horror, while I discovered a gun and promptly demonstrated flawless survival instincts by forgetting to reload it.
The estate soon became a maze of changing corridors and cryptic puzzles. Some “jigglification” got us through a sliding-piece puzzle and earned an achievement, while another locked door required the classic paper-under-the-door and pencil-through-the-keyhole trick. Hidden letters spelled HIDE, Gary confirmed the obvious, and Sebastian’s computer sent chat into password-guessing mode with suggestions including “admin,” “password” and “1234.”
Then things became properly unsettling.
A music box appeared, followed by a creepy girl and an upstairs encounter with a dancing woman who suggested I shoot her. I tried. What I thought I had drawn as a weapon turned out to be a lighter. Technically, I suppose I did still “open fire.”
The search for a missing doll eventually led back to a room of children straight out of The Shining. Putting the doll to bed was supposed to let them “play.” Their version of playing involved attacking me, adding another entry to the increasingly appropriate #Deathloop.
Chat remained wonderfully helpful in the least helpful possible way. Gary repeatedly wondered whether he had “missed the first half of darkness,” RAF Holiday Cover mocked my continuing obsession with torches, Frodo admitted he also searches for ways out of bounds — although apparently he has the sense to save first — and the agreed signal for spotting the doll somehow became “slap Gary.”
Launch day also brought a special visitor when WRF Studios joined chat to thank us for playing. Gary responded with an improvised W-R-F cheer before immediately returning to shouting “RUN!!!” and reminding me that reloading weapons is apparently considered important.
Beyond the house, the adventure expanded further. We found bolts needed for a gate, special water for the flask and finally the flashlight I had somehow managed to walk past earlier. Notes pointed toward experiments, mutated larvae, a greenhouse needing power, gasoline for a generator and a plant-related password. A kitchen cabinet full of unpleasant biological surprises turned another simple search into a grab-it-and-run expedition.
Eventually we reached the mines, where hostile creatures, unstable tunnels and more ammunition waited below. By then I had somehow amassed more than 140 rounds, so even I had to accept that perhaps some of them could actually be fired.
A blocked passage clearly wanted dynamite, which triggered another lengthy search before we finally found the explosives. Returning through the tunnels promptly woke what felt like every creature in the mine, leading to the usual strategy: shoot when necessary, run whenever possible and politely apologise while squeezing past monsters.
We also found a heart. Obviously, I tried putting it into a motionless man elsewhere in the estate. It did not work.
Some mysteries are apparently being saved for next time.
📺 Watch the Episode
If you want to see the forgotten reloads, creepy children, exploding problems and increasingly questionable decision-making for yourself, you can watch the full Launch Day episode here.
You can also continue through the Last Half of Darkness playlist and visit the Dr Ravenholm YouTube channel.
If you enjoy the adventure, leave a like, tell me in the comments which clue I inevitably walked past, and subscribe so you do not miss the return to the estate.
🔴 Join the Adventure Live
Some mysteries are much more entertaining when there is an entire chat watching you make the wrong decision.
Come join us live on Twitch or YouTube, where clues become debates, sensible plans rarely survive contact with the game, and occasionally even the developers wander in to witness the chaos firsthand.
🕸️ Community & Links
The estate may be full of locked doors, but the wider Ravenholm network is considerably easier to enter.
For live adventures, the doors are always open at Twitch and YouTube.
For community headquarters, join us on Discord and become part of the conversation between streams.
For signals from elsewhere, you can find me on TikTok, Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and X.
For music from the Ravenholm archives, listen on Spotify or Apple Music.
If you want to support the channel, visit the Fourthwall shop, Teespring store or Streamlabs.
And for more from me beyond the streams, explore the Business Centre, download the brochure, learn more about me or visit the blog.
🌘 Until We Return
We escaped launch day with plenty of progress, a collection of unexplained objects and far more questions than answers. The greenhouse still needs attention, doors remain locked, the heart still needs a home and whatever lies beyond those blasted-open passages is waiting.
So we will be returning to Last Half of Darkness.
Assuming, of course, that I can remember where anything is.
— Dr Ravenholm
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