Worker: 5749 is a delightfully dark indie platformer with Limbo vibes

I can’t imagine anything worse than being stuck in a dark place with no idea how I got there or how to get out. The fear of the unknown, and whatever might be hiding in that darkness, is psychologically nightmarish for many people. Somehow, that concept has been turned oddly adorable in Worker: 7549.

Worker: 7549 is a delightfully dark indie platformer currently under development by Mumenta. It’s a game about being trapped in the dark, alone, and constantly moving forward to find a way out. If you’ve ever played Limbo, the art style and gameplay will feel immediately familiar, but Worker: 7549 already shows a lot of promise.

Hope can be found in the dark

In Worker: 5749, you play as a former worker-class servant, built to take orders from humans and work in the mines. However, something happened down there, and you’ve been left alone in the dark. No more human oversight, no more mining, just the seemingly impossible task of finding your way out. 

One thing I will say about the demo is that it very much throws you in at the deep end with no explanation of how this little worker came to be lost down there. According to the Steam page, some kind of war has taken place, and the mines were “transformed from a peaceful workplace into a stronghold of rebellion”.

Fending for yourself

You have no weapons with you in the mine, and your only option for survival is to use the things you find on your journey. A mine cart becomes the key to crossing a gap, and finding old mining machinery becomes vital if the path ahead is blocked. 

I played the demo of Worker: 5749, and despite most of the screen being entirely black, it’s somehow hard not to be charmed by the game’s visual style. For the most part, you can only see a small cone in front of yourself that’s lit by the lights on your head, so shadows become so much more than they really should be.

The foreground is filled with vague shapes that cause your imagination to run wild. You know how you see a shadow on the window at night that’s just a tree branch, but your brain decides it’s definitely something terrifying that’s coming to get you? That feeling follows you throughout the demo of Worker: 5749. 

While the demo of Worker: 5749 doesn’t give much away in terms of story, it is a lovely indicator of the direction Mumenta is heading in. There’s no release date for the full game just yet, but you can play the demo on Steam right now.