On occasion, you'll run into a puzzle where the solution doesn't really follow any logic, and you end up solving it through chance or a random combination of items. People have complained about this in adventure games for years, even in some older LucasArts titles that are still considered classics. I suppose you could make the argument that the barkeep was simply gossiping and overexaggerating about the store owner's personality as part of his character, but I get the feeling that the inconsistency is completely unintentional.ĭarkness Within 2 finally begins to pick up the pace shortly after your visit at the bookstore, where you encounter your first major puzzle and the beginning of the problems with solving the puzzles. He's also remarkably friendly, even before you engage him in talk about the war. When you finally visit him at his shop, he looks no older than the barkeep that made him out to be a geezer in the first place. The character is described to you as a much older gentleman, who is unfriendly to outsiders but loves to talk about the war with which he was involved in years past. I'm surprised that some of these character designs were given the green light.Īnother standout early example is the bookshop owner in the opening town. Not every game character should be a super model, but the innkeeper reminded me more of the Locust from Gears of War than anything that remotely resembles a human being. They're also really ugly examples of human beings. Watching a character's face move as he speaks to you reminds me of something from the puppet film "Team America," or the old TV show, "Thunderbirds." I'm half expecting Fox McCloud and company to pop out at some point, if you'd prefer a video game reference point. They're all animated poorly, with either quick, jerky movements or little movement at all. You can tell that a great deal of attention was poured into making this lighting effect work, and it's a shame that the same level of care wasn't applied to other areas.įor instance, the character models in the game are absolutely atrocious. It's the only standout element of the graphics when you pick up an artificial light source, like a lantern or flashlight, the source of light bounces off and shines through the objects around it in a realistic manner. It actually leads to the game feeling a little unfocused, and at times, I wondered what I should be doing next.īack to the visuals, the only positive aspect is that the game uses the contrast between light and dark to a somewhat impressive effect. Aside from a few legitimately creepy moments that play tricks on your field of vision, having the freedom to move around the different areas just gives you the opportunity to see that there's nothing worth interacting with. With that said, all the freedom doesn't equate to a whole lot. This time around, you've got a lot more freedom to explore, and from the onset, you can freely walk between its two floors, interact with doors to explore small living spaces, pick up and move items like chairs and crates, and so on. The previous title, Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder, adopted a system found in quite a few other budget adventure titles, where player control is dictated by where you click on the screen, and gameplay consists of finding all the highlighted or interactive items before moving on to the next locale. If you've ever played a first-person PC title of any kind, you'll instinctively know what to do, as the WASD keys control movement, and the mouse is used to look around and click on interactive items. As Henry regains consciousness and the world swims into view, control is relinquished to the player. The only explanation about how he made it here from the asylum to which he'd recently been committed is a letter found on the nightstand by the bed. Darkness Within 2 puts you into the shoes of ex-detective Howard Loreid, the protagonist from the first game, who awakens inside an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods.
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