PC Games

[Faolan Doyle]

DARKFALL II - LIGHTS OUT

The sequel to Darkfall, obviously, which I completed and enjoyed thoroughly throughout. And so far, just as much fun and as atmospheric. And yes, I've been stumbling in the dark with a hurricane lamp solving puzzles, and I couldn't be happier. Even though I just found out my character has been lured to the lighthouse to be handed over to some evil entity, and the possessed servant of that force is on the stairs outside... For a puzzle-solver, another excellent game.

[Faolan Doyle]

THE LOST CROWN

This game was put together by the united creators of Darkfall and Barrow Hill, and you can see both their trademarks - the former's sly spooky asides, the latter's fondness for eerie encounters in dark woods. Both of them are masters of intriguing plots and entertaining puzzles, and Lost Crown is a gem for all of that. I have to say, the voice acting is patchy, the character graphics variable and sometimes clunky, and it is an irritant that certain sequences repeat when an action is repeated, but in spite of that this is a superb game, extremely atmospheric and addictive. I have to admit, I have been feeling the hairs rise on the back of my neck at many points, and been genuinely shocked by some encounters. Highly recommended, especially for fans of M R James.

(By the way, completed Darkfall II - good to the last drop!)

[Canadian Cult]

RED ALERT!

No, not the game, not exactly; just a warning. Three of our group have bought pc games cheaply from Ebay in the last month, all allegedly brand-new and legal, from two different sellers, one in the UK, one here in Canada; out of seven games, six had been hacked and some very nasty stuff popped in. The discs and boxes looked 100% genuine, two of them had holographic widgets on them, and were shrink-wrapped, but when given to an expert (a lecturer from our tech dept), he said they were extremely good pirate copies with extra added trojans and spyware and stuff. So not only are you being ripped off (Bear nearly got shut off the net because he tried to go online with a Guild Wars expansion from them), but you're being hacked too. We contacted Ebay and they said both sellers had already been reported and shut down, but some other guys in the online community said they had bought from completely different sellers and got the exact same stuff - they just change names and pcs and come on as a new seller, run a few fake orders through with their pals and get a good rating, then slip in this bad shit. Ebay can't block them because they don't know till after people have been stung. Heads up, guys!

[Faolan Doyle]

SECRET FILES - TUNGUSKA

Having completed Lost Crown (and had a damnably good time at that), I turned to an adventure with a slightly less spectral theme - investigating the kidnapping of a scientist once involved in research into the Tunguska event. It promises aliens, weird sects and general thrills. But what it delivers is frankly rather lame. The graphics are a bit smoother than Lost Crown, but the voice acting is still patchy (the emphasis put on certain phrases is something that could only be explained by the fact that this is clearly a German game and the actors were not native English speakers), and the music limited and poorly used. The scenery is not up to much, despite glowing reviews on the cover. And the plot is stilted. But the most irritating part of it for me is the utter absurdity of some of the puzzles. I intensely dislike being asked to acquire a collection of garbage and to combine it in random ways in order to achieve tasks I shouldn't have been required to achieve. It was something that occasionally spoiled the Broken Sword series for me, and Tunguska is just a prolonged series of that kind of activity. At one point I had to row over from a castle on an island to the mainland to get a plank of wood, which I couldn't have picked up sooner when I was on the mainland because I needed a collection of spear points and some pliers from the castle to pry free a board and to make a makeshift saw to cut it to size. Then I rowed it back again. I tell you this because the logic of this was so obvious that after hours of total frustration I resorted to the game website to find out why the hell I was stranded at this spot with no apparent way to proceed - something I have very rarely had to do. It isn't even lateral thinking, it's just meaningless twitching. To be honest, if the creators of a game can't come up with anything better than that they should stick to FPS games. Not recommended.

[Faolan Doyle]

SHERLOCK HOLMES - THE AWAKENED

It's always a good sign when I review a game before I've finished it, because I'm having so much fun I want to share it. And this is one of them. For me it was a promise of sheer heaven - Sherlock versus the cult of Cthulhu. But so was Dark Corners of the Earth, and that just got on my nerves - Cthulhu games should never be FPS ones. This, however, delivers. After a rather disconcerting start, in which the graphics provided bizarre distorted monsters which were actually supposed to be newsboys and coach horses, I updated my graphic card driver and got stuck into a very intriguing, atmospheric game. It has the hallmarks of the previous Sherlock adventures - spending time in the lab analysing stuff, hunting clues, taking the piss out of the police force and quizzing Watson on what he has noticed so far - but adds to it a much larger gameworld. You can explore several streets around Baker Street, and the London docklands (where I am currently totally creeped out in a secret tunnel where the walls are marked with Cthulhoid sigils and there is a weird, 'I'd turn back if I were you' door to get opened) are absolutely huge. They've also added some helpful tips - if you try to leave an area or finish an analysis with something left to find, Sherlock comes up with a warning comment such as 'I think I'm missing something'. And not one problem which does not dovetail into the plot (even finding a man's missing wooden hand), or have a solution you cannot reach by thinking it over. Ten out of ten so far.

Having finally completed the quest and defeated the leader of the Cthulhu cult at a lighthouse in Scotland, I can honestly say this has been one of the best value for money games I've played. Just when you think you've finished and are heading for the final showdown, you uncover more clues and are carried on to new locations and encounters, all vivid and atmospheric. Terrific fun.

[Faolan Doyle]

RETURN TO MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

An Adventure Company release, this is based on the works of Jules Verne; the player takes the role of a solo yachtswoman cast away on Nemo's island in the modern era, and has to solve problems from basic survival (finding food, making a fire etc) to battling steampunk robots and solving the code to enter the Nautilus. And it's an absolute charmer. The graphics are superb, the sound excellent (and there's a strange vibration periodically which sends your mouse scuttering and your cursor sliding - not just your character feels it!), the problems sensible and not forced, and the story keeps you moving all the time. No clumsy, travel-sickness inducing motion engine either, (which is why I gave up on Ancient Game of Nations - any game that requires three separate movements to cross to a desk and look at a letter is far too cumbersome for me). Not only is this a good one for adults, I would recommend it for kids of seven and up; they might need a bit of help with some of the more complex problem solving, like making a still for the production of nitroglycerine, but they'll really enjoy it, and the character has infinite lives, so if they die while fighting the killer robots, they can try again right away, no need to even reload. Super steampunk fun. The only complaint is that it's too short, but then there are apparently many different options for action within the program, so you can replay it and have a different experience each time.

[Faolan Doyle]

PLANTS VERSUS ZOMBIES

This is an action/strategy game, and not very complicated, but for once it is as addictive and fun as it claims. Simple idea - you defend your suburban home from zombie hordes with clever planting of mutant vegetation. As you go up levels the zombies increase in variety and toughness, as do your plants. It's great fun for kids and adults, has funky music and even its own music video, and also has unlockable puzzle and mini-game modes which add to the variety and value for money - and I got it in a 3 for a tenner offer, so even better value. It plays without the disc, too, so my kids haven't been able to deprive me of it (though a certain degree of rivalry has manifested over who has killed more and weirder zombies). And there's a website to go with it, where you can make your own zombies. Highly recommended.