Dark Fall 2-Lights Out

Rating:
Summary: Lovely -- if only there was more!
Review: A fine atmospheric creepfest without the excessive violence of many games. Like Dark Fall I (which, by the way, you don't need to have played to enjoy Dark Fall II), the emphasis is on spookiness and ambience, rather than on bodies, gore, or things jumping out at you. My only beef is the shortness of it. I surmise, from some of the screenshots on the website, that the intro section (before the ghosts start to show up) was originally much longer; if it was cut to let the scares start sooner, it was a mistake, because the game now starts abruptly and is far too short for my tastes. It would have balanced better with more setup.

Installation is easy, if you heed the warning about apparent shut down. (Still using xcopy, guys?) Graphics are stylish and attractive. Game play is smooth and the interface is intuitive, though I had a little trouble with crashes on my 3-year-old machine. The writing is good, though there are several plot holes if you're picky enough to look for them; overall, though, the story is very fine -- affecting, melancholy, and occasionally mildly threatening. Acting is ... well, good enough, if you can decipher the English accents.

I agree that the estimable Jonathan Boakes, who apparently did everything on this game except lick the glue on the boxes, should have hired a decent proofreader. In addition to some outright mistakes (repeatedly referring to "draws" instead of "drawers"), two of the main characters didn't spell their own names the same way twice. It doesn't really take away from the enjoyment of the game, but it looks a little amateurish.

But those are minor quibbles. A lovely game with my favorite elements: interesting people to learn about, fascinating puzzles that aren't impossible, and a central mystery with a real poignance to it. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Closely observed, but no atmosphere
Review: I loved the original Dark Fall. There is something inherently creepy about an abandoned railway station, and the game exploited this to the full.

There's also something inherently creepy about a lighthouse. Apart from the isolation, the steel and stone contruction leads to 'eldrich' noises as the structure heats and cools. (Experienced keepers often used this to great effect, to put the wind up rookies and the occasional visitor.)

As the game began, I was expecting a ghost story set in 1912, in the lighthouse.

[I don't believe there are any spoilers ahead, but stop now if you are worried]

I was slightly disappointed to find that the story involved time travel, and before I knew where I was, I had been transported to the present day. The present-day section was a closely-observed comment on the way we treat our landmarks - a gift shop full of junk and inaccurate history books, with the working parts of the lighthouse preserved in a museum. Depressing, but accurately observed.

There was also a future section, where corporate paeons had unleashed a problem for previous generations without really caring very much. Again closely observed, but depressing.

The game is utterly non-linear, which is a refreshing change.

Just a minor technical quibble - the game messes with the refresh rate on the monitor. Unfortunately it doesn't restore it at the end of the game. Even more unfortunately, it chooses to set the rate to 60Hz - line frequency in the US -which maximizes screen flicker. I assume this is a side effect of being developed in the UK. Dark Fall did the same. Please don't do it next time, guys.

By the way, I realize that the game was produced by a very small group, but it would really help matters if at least one of you could write correct English; the misplaced apostrophes became really annoying after a while.

To sum up: I quite enjoyed the game but it didn't have the atmosphere of the original.


Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the original
Review: I purchased Dark Fall Lights Out because the first game, Dark Fall, had left me sleeping with the lights on. It was scary, unpredictable and entertaining. Lights Out is similar to Dark Fall in that there is hardly any character interaction, there is only a slight use of the items in your inventory, and you need a pen & paper to take notes throughout your adventure. However, I feel that Lights Out failed to meet my high expectations when comparing it to Dark Fall. Instead of the dark, creepy, mystery of the original, Lights Out was more of a sci-fi adventure. Lights Out shows potential in the beginning, where you arrive in a Cornish coastal town and explore the dark, misty streets by moonlight. But I think it takes a turn for the worse when it incorporates time travel and an extra-terrestrial twist. The puzzles were challenging and there was some scare factor, however upon completion of the game, I was thinking "this is it?" I suppose I am biased towards the original Dark Fall, but this game just couldn't compete.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst games I've ever played!
Review: I really hated this game. I gave it two stars because the graphics are nice so that was the ONLY thing that kept me playing (and the fact that I hate to give up). But the game play was horrible. I hated that you could look at things that had no relation to the story or to help with puzzles. Why on earth would I want to look in an empty cubby or pick up a tea pot that was not used elsewhere?? The story is okay, but the music and the "over here", "this way" voices are annoying because they don't actually mean anything. Not to mention there is no closed caption and you can't figure out what people are saying in the few areas they do talk to you. The only interaction with other characters is contrived and boring. There was a lot of reading of materials that didn't really help move the story forward and could have been better done. The navigation was hopelessly annoying and very easy to get lost.

Don't waste your money on this one. Play Syberia instead.

Rating:
Summary: Spooky Fun with a Twist
Review: In his second installment of the Dark Fall series (and here's to hoping that this series extends beyond Lights Out), Boakes conjures the same level of spooky ambience that sent chills down my spine in The Journal, and is able to sustain the creepiness throughout all the settings in the game - since The Journal was localized to a train station, the environment was fairly similar; however, the unique change in settings in Lights Out show that he and his designers have a talent for making anything feel foreboding.

What I loved about this game compared to the first was that the puzzles and actions were much more complex. There were several parts to them and you have to travel through different locations and timepoints to piece them together.

The story itself is intriguing and I found myself playing initially for several hours straight, as I poked around the town and then the lighthouse in the creepy fog. I really enjoyed the game overall and recommend it to anyone looking for a spooky, twisty, challenging good time.

Rating:
Summary: DISJOINTED, BUT PRETTY GOOD FUN
Review: Like an earlier reviewer noted, Lighthouses seem a natural. This is at least one of 3 I've owned and played. Games starts in 1912, goes to 2004, goes either backwards to 2090 BC or forwards to 2090 AD. Games starts in a highly atmospheric foggy local in Cornwall in 1912, and then we're off and running. Is is a ghost story? Is it science fiction? Kind of like being at a massive all you can eat buffet, only what dishes.

There are certainly elements that ARE different and fun, but in their attempt to be all things to all people, a lot of otherwise "fun" threads get dropped. Personally (which of course this is), there was a valiant attempt to combine 3 separate games into one without much attempt to join them all together.

There are 4 major locales: Cornwall 1912; Cornwall 2004; Cornwall 2090 BC and/or Cornwall 2090 AD, each of might have been better served by developing 2 at a time more thoroughly to be more interesting. I like to become really involved in a game I'm playing, otherwise I wouldn't send the money. This one did come close, but since I'm writing a "review" that's where my position is: too much crammed into too little time. I HAVE noticed that this is a "sequel"; haven't bought #1, this game had not encouraged me to buy it. Still, I do not regret buying this one.

Go ahead and buy it. As a "warning" I have yet to figure out how to make it work w/o deleting the "Quick Play" that my digital camera requires (not to mention Myst III). Bummer as to inconvenience, but not "overcomeable"!

It's fun, although it could be more so. Why I've rated it as I have. Relatively speaking, game IS reasonably priced. I see that those who ordered Syberia II, also ordered this game. If you haven't ordered Syberia II, I'd STRONGLY suggest you do so. There is at least a $10.00 difference in price (Syberia II being the more expensive.) Graphics and story line are still the gold standard. If you're more into spooky, this game is a reasonably good investment.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Game From Jonathan Boakes
Review: The year is 1912. You are Benjamin Parker, a young cartographer. A local doctor has called you down from Scotland to Cornwall, ostensibly to map the coastline. Before much time has passed, however, you find he has something else in mind. There are mysterious doings at the lighthouse at Fetch Rock. Now, on a foggy night, the lamp isn't lit and everyone seems to have vanished. You must go out there, light the lamp and find out what has happened. Or so you think...

Dark Fall 2: Lights Out is a 1st person point and click adventure in the classic mode--meaning there's lots of exploration, lots of puzzling through mysterious clues to progress through the story and lots of freedom to go wherever your fancy takes you without worrying that someone will jump out and shoot you or that you'll trigger some timed activity for which you're totally unprepared. If this takes away the suspense for you, maybe DF2 isn't quite your cup of tea. Me, I was scared the whole way through. As in the first Dark Fall, Jonathan and company have done a huge job creating an eerie and startling atmosphere where menace seems to lurk behind every bend. Whispered voices call out to you in words you can't quite hear; light flicker and shadows pass at the edge of your vision; footsteps seem to follow you and someone breathes in your ear, but when you turn around there's no one there. Graphics were lovely, if a bit dark, and the use of sound was phenomenal overall. My one wish was that there had been subtitles, because some of the ghost voices said things I would have liked to hear better.

Gameplay was simple, smooth and intuitive. DF2 is a slideshow game--no 360 degree panning here, and I didn't miss it. Directional cursors took you where you needed to go and a smart cursor provided both zoom and inventory options. Both worked without a hitch, though in one or two cases hotspots were difficult to locate, resulting in some wandering around. Puzzles were mostly of the uncovering information variety. There is very little character interaction and a limited use of inventory. Several locked door puzzles were a bit irritating because the doors didn't stay unlocked after you solved the puzzle; you had to keep entering the combination over and over again. In general, I found the game on the easy side, although some early clues were quite nebulous and subject to varying interpretations. The one thing that bothered me was that there was an excess of things you could look at, even pick up and interact with, that didn't seem to have any purpose, either to give you information or anything else. Several times I thought, "That's going to be a puzzle later," only to have the whole business come to nothing.

Games are saved as text files in your documents folder and you can save as many as you like. WIth a full install, you don't even need the disc in your drive to play--always a plus in my book.

It's best to play DF2 without any preconceptions about what the answers are going to be. A plot twist about a third of the way through has caused some players to be disappointed. My one disappointment was not in the actual outcome, but in the fact that the ending was very sudden and didn't give much closure. I would have liked a better wrap up or ending sequence.

I took about 20 hours to get through this game and I found it very absorbing, though confusing at times. It didn't wow me quite as much as its predecessor, but it was still the best thing I've played in a long time. As long as Jonathan wants to keep making games, I'll keep playing them!