Comparison

Dark City vs An Elmwood Trail

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Dark City

Investigate a phantom's attack on a Vienna opera house. Uncover historical secrets and solve puzzles to save lives. Unlock a bonus chapter and collect hidden objects for extra content.

Highlights
  • Hidden object scenes
  • Puzzle mini-games
  • Bonus chapter
  • Strategy guide
  • Collectible objects
  • Concept art and music
Read full description

When a masked assailant wreaks havoc on a theater in Vienna, you rush to investigate. You quickly arrive to find that this is no ordinary criminal. A dangerous phantom has descended on the local opera house, promising swift justice for past wrongs! This theater is filled with history and secrets. With the lives of both patrons and performers at stake, time is of the essence! TRY THE FREE TRIAL VERSION, AND THEN UNLOCK THE COMPLETE ADVENTURE IN THE GAME! Do you have what it takes to uncover the deadly secrets surrounding the opera and unmask the malevolent entity before it’s too late? Find out in this riveting Hidden-Object Puzzle adventure! Dark City: Vienna includes: • Help find a mysterious muse in the Bonus Chapter! • Never get lost with the strategy guide! • Replay your favorite HOPs and mini-games. • Collect special characters and morphing objects throughout the game to earn a special bonus game! • Enjoy concept art, screensavers, and music from the game! Discover more from Friendly Fox Studio: Terms of Use: https://friendlyfox.studio/terms-and-conditions/ Privacy Policy: https://friendlyfox.studio/privacy-policy/ Official website: https://friendlyfox.studio/hubs/hub-ios/ Follow us on: https://www.facebook.com/FriendlyFoxStudio/

About

An Elmwood Trail

Engage in an interactive mystery game to find a missing girl in the town of Riverstone. Investigate clues, interrogate suspects, and make critical decisions to unravel the secrets of Elmwood Forest and bring her home safely.

Highlights
  • Interactive mystery investigation
  • Gather clues and hints
  • Interrogate suspects
  • Access private information
  • Solve puzzles and break codes
  • Unlock diary notes
  • Suspect board for deduction
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Solve the biggest mystery in the town of Riverstone surrounded by the Elmwood Forest. Find the missing girl and prove yourself to everyone. It’s been 3 weeks since a young teen has gone missing and despite the town’s police's best efforts, they hit a dead end and declared the case of 18-year-old Zoey Leonard a runaway. For all the interactive mystery game fanatics. Develop your own trail to unravel the secrets of the town of Riverstone! This is YOUR chance to help a detective regain his legacy, save the life of a missing girl, and uncover the orchestrator behind such a sick crime. Investigate the case of the missing girl. Navigate through the story, interact with people, gather clues and hints, and make sense of the story. You get to decide what happens. Can you bear the responsibility to bring Zoey home? Make tough decisions and choices that will lead you straight to her. Access private information. Get access to all images, chats, albums, social media, voice mails, and calls. Interrogate the suspects. Interact with the characters, make new friends, and find out the truth. But the question is, can you trust them? Are these people really the ones who cared for Zoey or the ones behind her disappearance? Everyone knows there is more to this story than what the news says. The fate of the missing girl lies in YOUR hands. It’s up to you now to find her because there is some truth to what the people around the town say about you. YOU are the best detective Riverstone has ever seen. An unknown person has asked you to take up this case, and this is probably the only way to ignite your long-gone career. FEATURES Puzzle-cracking and code-breaking missions that will challenge your memory and problem-solving skills. Experience the in-game realism through messenger, where you can send and receive messages to help you unfold the story events. Interrogate the ones you suspect and get an upper hand by revealing the hidden clues. Unlock the missing girl’s diary notes to uncover her past. Navigate through your phone and hers. Connect the dots on the suspect board for better visualization and deduction. Stuck on a puzzle? Don’t worry, every objective is equipped with 3 useful hints that will ensure you keep moving even through the toughest tasks. STORY The town of Riverstone was built on the banks of a man-made harbor and is surrounded by the Elmwood Forest. This place is said to hold many mysteries but for the longest time, this town was silent until one day an 18-year-old girl went missing, without a trace, sending a wave of fear throughout. A case of disappearance that was marked a runaway in order to hide the agonizing truth, there is now only one person who can save this town and put it out of its misery, YOU. Now, you must embark on this journey to find out what went wrong the night she went missing. Where did Zoey go? What happened to her? Can you trust the people who claim to be the closest to her? Who can lead us to the final page of this mystery? The answer to these questions depends on your actions. You get to decide your next move. Can you outplay the mastermind behind her disappearance? Download and play it right now! Take part in this thrilling criminal investigation and crack down on clues to reach the truth in this interactive mystery story game! An Elmwood Trail is and will forever remain free, so share it with your friends and join in on all the episodes together! An Elmwood Trail is a free and interactive text-based role-playing game. Such games come under the category of choose-your-own-decision, decision-making, or RPG. SOCIAL MEDIA https://www.instagram.com/techyonic https://twitter.com/techyonic https://discord.gg/EtZEkkWgar

Screenshots

Dark City4 screens
An Elmwood Trail4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: An Elmwood Trail at daily against Dark City's every 3 months. An Elmwood Trail also leads on ratings volume (256K vs 1.1K) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). Dark City's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Dark City sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and An Elmwood Trail sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

An Elmwood Trail holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: An Elmwood Trail has 256K ratings behind it against 1.1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of Dark City's written reviews are positive against 96% of An Elmwood Trail's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dark City ships an update every 3 months, An Elmwood Trail daily. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Dark City versus An Elmwood Trail: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDark CityAn Elmwood Trail
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.1K ratings)4.9 (256K ratings) — better
Positive reviews84.6% of reviews95.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.1K256K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#98 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size800 MB259 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperFriendly Fox Games LimitedSparsh Tyagi

Customer experience

Dark City

All ratings1,130 ratings
Positive94.9%
Neutral3.7%
Negative1.4%
Written reviews39 reviews
Positive84.6%
Neutral10.3%
Negative5.1%

An Elmwood Trail

All ratings255,624 ratings
Positive98.6%
Neutral1.1%
Negative0.3%
Written reviews4,960 reviews
Positive95.8%
Neutral2.2%
Negative2.0%

User reviews

Dark City

From 1.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💎 Gorgeous graphics
  • 👍 Engaging storyline
  • 🎨 Beautiful settings
  • 🕹️ Challenging puzzles
  • 🎭 Phantom of the Opera inspiration

Room to improve

  • 🤑 High price point
  • 🔁 Repetitive music
  • 🤔 Bonus game not as strong as main game

An Elmwood Trail

From 256K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤩 Captivating story and mystery
  • 🧠 Engaging puzzles and challenges
  • 🎨 Unique and polished visual style
  • 🔍 Immersive detective experience
  • 🎉 Addictive and hard to put down

Room to improve

  • 📝 Some grammatical/translation issues
  • 🤔 Dialogue can feel unnatural at times
  • 🤷‍♂️ Limited choices/impact on story
  • 🤯 Cliffhanger ending leaves you wanting more

Bugs and requests

Dark City

Reported bugs

1 issue
  • Certain puzzles not functioning properly

Requested features

2 requests
  • More games in the Dark City series
  • Longer gameplay duration

An Elmwood Trail

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Occasional freezing or crashing
  • Puzzles/mini-games not always intuitive

Requested features

4 requests
  • Allow player to choose their own name/gender
  • More in-depth character development
  • Ability to freely explore environments
  • Expand on the storyline and mysteries

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Dark City

One-time1
  • Full Game & Bonus Unlock$6.99
3 purchases

An Elmwood Trail

One-time3
  • Remove Ads$3.99
  • Sidetrails$6.99
  • Saver Pack$7.99

Questions

Is Dark City free?
Dark City is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is An Elmwood Trail free?
An Elmwood Trail is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Dark City or An Elmwood Trail?
An Elmwood Trail is rated higher. Dark City averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while An Elmwood Trail averages 4.9 from 256K ratings.
Do Dark City or An Elmwood Trail have ads?
Neither Dark City nor An Elmwood Trail shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dark City or An Elmwood Trail?
Dark City ships an update every 3 months, and An Elmwood Trail daily. Most recently, Dark City was updated on September 19, 2026 and An Elmwood Trail on September 24, 2026.

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