Darkmere: The Nightmare’s Begun
| Developer: Zero Hour | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Core | Sound: |
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| Year: 1994 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Role-playing game | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
6/10 | |
I wrote the page on D/Generation the day before, and I was trying to define what made an Amiga game distinct from a PC game. I found it. Darkmere is symptomatic: gorgeous visuals, a fantastic atmosphere, but a handling that’s utterly cumbersome!
Let’s start with the appearance: Darkmere resembles Cadaver, with an isometric 3D perspective and a stylized interface. The story is set up by a long, illustrated introduction. Essentially, you need to find a way to free your village from a curse, a kind of fog that has drawn a bunch of nasty orcs and bandits. The plot may be clichéd but it’s well-constructed and immersive, provided you enjoy The Lord of the Rings, from which it takes heavy inspiration…
The game itself leaves me with mixed feelings due to a few annoying aspects.
First off, I find the combat sluggish and imprecise, and it’s the same in Dragonstone (its sequel?).
Next, the menus drive me mad: every time you want to perform a simple action, your screen fills with windows! The problem is, you spend most of your time doing simple things like searching rooms, talking to people, or using items … it quickly becomes unbearable. I don’t understand—since the game already requires us to map the places we visit, why not let us handle the inventory the same way, with paper and pencil? It would make the game so much more readable and quicker!
Finally, the save system, either through potions to drink or by your dear old dad … original, sure, but limited in number? Is this designed to infuriate the player?
What comes out of all this is a game with atmosphere, enjoyable to watch and read, but not so enjoyable to play. Personally, I tend to prioritize ergonomics over graphics. I would recommend Landstalker (Sega Genesis, 1992) instead.
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