If you are more into obscure games from the 90s, you may have heard of this game, if not, then be welcome for the wild narrative which I am about tell, where I neither expect nor ask for belief, except it wouldn't be so mad for me to expect belief, in the case where my own senses agree with the evidence, I am in fact not mad, and certainly not dreaming.
What truly drew me in was the fact that it is based on stories from Edgar Allan Poe, one of the most well regarded authors in horror literature history alongside the likes of H.P. Lovecraft and Junji Ito, and from what I heard of his stories, they are in fact really good, with The Black Cat being my favorite. And combining this with the really cool artstyle and how it is one of the great examples of video games as art despite being so obscure, I decided to give it a shot, despite me generally not liking games that are more so interactive museums. And damn was it worth it.
Let me start with the most obvious thing, and that is... In terms of presentation, this is an absolute marvel of a game, and it becomes clear just looking at the box art, and especially as you start a new game. The puppets for the characters all look cool, having this uncanny feel to them where they look realistically unsettling and terrifyingly stylized at the same time, contrasted with the rather primitive but still great looking tridimensional environments, and that's because I haven't mentioned the astounding slide-show sequences showcasing Annabel Lee and The Masque of Red Death (the latter in particularly singlehandedly made me give a 4 star rating for this game). And if those things weren't enough, the sound department is just as spectacular, with really great music that all really fit the scenes well, elevating many moments from it (honorable mentions to The Tell-Tale Heart and, again, The Masque of Red Death), as well as the voice acting which is very good, with a special praise going to William S. Burroughs, who alongside the visuals and music, make the slideshow sequences hit even harder, but the rest of the cast is just as good, especially when considering the time it was released, as voice acting in video games wasn't really taken seriously to begin with barring a few exceptions.
All of those things bring the stories, in this case The Cask of Amontillado, Berenice and The Tell-Tale Heart, to absolute life and make them a delight to see fully realized in a medium different from either books or movies, but the main story involving the house where the game takes place in is just as compelling and manages to be as good as the stories Poe actually wrote back then, every single one of them is very cool and the story involving Henry and Elise (and Uncle Edwin, the owner of the house) is great and when combined with everything else I mentioned before, make it even better.
Now as far as the gameplay, many people hesitate in calling this a proper game and more so a interactive story, where you have to click on things on a specific order to progress the story, it is even simpler than most point and click adventure games from the time, and here, unlike everything else, is perfectly fine, nothing spectacular and sometimes it can be rather difficult to tell what exactly you have to do to progress the story forward, but for what it is, its far eclipsed by the amazing everything else not related to it.
And that's the thing, The Dark Eye is not really something you play for its gameplay, much like other games like Gadget, you play for the experience, and its really something I actively recommend for someone if they are very into games as a art form and obscure stuff or even Edgar Allan Poe, but if you do, you should absolutely check this out, this game is one of the best examples of combining video games with other artforms outside of gaming in more direct ways, I may not like it as much as Blade Runner and Clive Barker's Undying, but I still really wish more games like this were released today.
What truly drew me in was the fact that it is based on stories from Edgar Allan Poe, one of the most well regarded authors in horror literature history alongside the likes of H.P. Lovecraft and Junji Ito, and from what I heard of his stories, they are in fact really good, with The Black Cat being my favorite. And combining this with the really cool artstyle and how it is one of the great examples of video games as art despite being so obscure, I decided to give it a shot, despite me generally not liking games that are more so interactive museums. And damn was it worth it.
Let me start with the most obvious thing, and that is... In terms of presentation, this is an absolute marvel of a game, and it becomes clear just looking at the box art, and especially as you start a new game. The puppets for the characters all look cool, having this uncanny feel to them where they look realistically unsettling and terrifyingly stylized at the same time, contrasted with the rather primitive but still great looking tridimensional environments, and that's because I haven't mentioned the astounding slide-show sequences showcasing Annabel Lee and The Masque of Red Death (the latter in particularly singlehandedly made me give a 4 star rating for this game). And if those things weren't enough, the sound department is just as spectacular, with really great music that all really fit the scenes well, elevating many moments from it (honorable mentions to The Tell-Tale Heart and, again, The Masque of Red Death), as well as the voice acting which is very good, with a special praise going to William S. Burroughs, who alongside the visuals and music, make the slideshow sequences hit even harder, but the rest of the cast is just as good, especially when considering the time it was released, as voice acting in video games wasn't really taken seriously to begin with barring a few exceptions.
All of those things bring the stories, in this case The Cask of Amontillado, Berenice and The Tell-Tale Heart, to absolute life and make them a delight to see fully realized in a medium different from either books or movies, but the main story involving the house where the game takes place in is just as compelling and manages to be as good as the stories Poe actually wrote back then, every single one of them is very cool and the story involving Henry and Elise (and Uncle Edwin, the owner of the house) is great and when combined with everything else I mentioned before, make it even better.
Now as far as the gameplay, many people hesitate in calling this a proper game and more so a interactive story, where you have to click on things on a specific order to progress the story, it is even simpler than most point and click adventure games from the time, and here, unlike everything else, is perfectly fine, nothing spectacular and sometimes it can be rather difficult to tell what exactly you have to do to progress the story forward, but for what it is, its far eclipsed by the amazing everything else not related to it.
And that's the thing, The Dark Eye is not really something you play for its gameplay, much like other games like Gadget, you play for the experience, and its really something I actively recommend for someone if they are very into games as a art form and obscure stuff or even Edgar Allan Poe, but if you do, you should absolutely check this out, this game is one of the best examples of combining video games with other artforms outside of gaming in more direct ways, I may not like it as much as Blade Runner and Clive Barker's Undying, but I still really wish more games like this were released today.
FranKle
2 months ago