Have you ever had an epiphany after reading a fortune cookie? An advertising slogan? Any tiny fluff of throwaway media processed and homogenized for the masses? Not likely? No.
Then, imagine my surprise when I felt I needed to re-think Dark.
Dark is a run and jump platform collect-em-up with the spectacular gimmicks of real-time lighting and physics. Welcome to 1995.
I was prepared to give the game a good slating. The player controls a bug-eyed quadrilateral with no animation to speak of. The jumping is floaty. When you are and aren’t allowed to jump feels a bit haphazard. There are no enemies and you can’t die. There’s no timer. The collecting is utterly useless – there is no score and it doesn’t unlock anything. Essentially you just drag a polygon from point A to point B.
So why did I find it enjoyable? I hate that sort of thing. I rail on and ramble on and on about the tendency of modern games to offer nothing more than dragging the protagonist from one scripted set-piece to the next scripted set-piece where you bang the buttons that flash on the screen like a laboratory chimp so you can watch a story written by a computer nerd play out with polygons and atrocious voice acting. Dark doesn’t even have that much reward. It should plain suck.
Subtly, almost behind the scenes, through the use of directed exploration and mild physics puzzles, and likely accidentally, Dark manages to achieve one of the most important characteristics of a good game: making the player feel in control of his destiny. It’s that odd case in gaming where the journey is more fun than the goal.
I think Dark is a gaming experience worth sampling for yourself. Just be aware before you decide to purchase that it’s about a 12 minute experience from end to end, and you’ve seen the most complex part of it in the Trial.
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Wow. 12 minutes is the fastest I’ve heard anyone beating it. Took me over half an hour.
Really? I don’t think it took me more than 20 the first time. The second time I made sure to collect all the light-ball thingies and watched the clock and came out around 12.
Mmm. Having completed the demo, I bought the full version and completed it in less than 15 minutes. I’m assuming I collected all the ball thingies – including the set to the right of the cave entrance and the set hidden under the cogwheels in the third section (aka the demo)…
I’m still impressed by it – despite the control flaws and lack of content, there’s something about the parts of this game which are more than just the simple sum. I’d still welcome an improved and expanded version with open arms though
I loved the look and atmosphere of this, but the poor controls kept spoiling the experience. It’s a game that should flow and it doesn’t because of the suspect jumping and, at times, refusal to jump at all.
I hope there’s a sequel with those issues fixed and a bit more content though.