To say that modern horror owes a great deal to H.R. Giger would be an understatement. His ghastly bio-mechanical illustrations as well as his frighteningly beautiful alien/human hybrid airbrushing have inspired artists from literally every walk of life. Music, art, and even fashion have all applied Giger's unique visions to their craft. The results have been terrifying. Of course, the most profound impact was realized in the realm of film. When Dan O'Bannon saw some of Giger's works, he made sure that they were used in the movie he was writing, Alien.
From there, Giger won an Academy award and the rest, as they say, is history.
The game's graphics were, at the time, quite nice. This was at the beginning of really authentic-looking pre-rendered backgrounds. This is before Final Fantasy 7, but the graphics are just as good. The main character Mike as well as everyone else is all real people that have been photographed and digitized into an avatar that you navigate across the screen. While by today's standards the graphics would be not impressive, like I said, at the time they were very good. I just realized that Mike has a mustache for the first time. Duh! Plus there was the addition of CGI cut-scenes were also well done, adding a bit of 3-dimensionality
to the game.
The music in the game is very tasteful as well. Even in the real world, the ambient background music adds a creepiness that is present throughout the game, especially in the Dark World. The sound effects are minimal, but good. Every sound heard is the game sounds like they were real audio samples, which coincides with games of this age. Also, the voice-acting is pretty good as well. Danny De La Paz (VA of Mike Dawson) is particularly funny and witty as a man who's been to hell and back and has a morbid sense of humor. The only glaring exception is Rita Scanlon, Mike's old girlfriend. Her lisp is particularly painful on the ears during Mike's flashbacks.
The control scheme works well. It's very flexible and allows use of the numeric keypad which is great for left-handers like me.
Like its predecessor, the game-play is all about puzzle-solving. Mike must explore different areas, collect items, and use his intuition to unlock the mysteries surrounding his old girlfriend's murder. Yes, the puzzles are linear, and yes Mike cannot pickup every item he encounters immediately. I've heard people complain about this but in all honesty, there isn't an adventure game out there that isn't linear. Even your venerable Monkey Islands and Gabriel Knights are linear. It's just par for the course. Because Adventure games rely on the unfolding mechanism in their telling, linearity ensures that every element of the story will be explored and understood before proceeding
Here is where the game really shines. We are put in a very serious situation: Mike's old girlfriend has been murdered and Mike was the last one seen with her. But Mike doesn't remember what happened that night, and on top of that, the headaches are returning. Well, without spoiling the original, the headaches Mike suffered portended to a major occurrence between the real world and the Dark World. Mike knows that he will have to return to the Dark World, and when he finally does he learns that the inhabitants of the Dark World need his help. Their own nemesis, the beings known as the Ancients, are nurturing the Behemoth until the time is ripe to release it on the real world and sap it of every living being.
Once again, through talking with NPC's and periodically visiting his therapist, Mike is able to understand what happened that night with Rita, as well as how it's connected to the impending arrival of the Behemoth. While the first game was incredibly scary because we were introduced to the Dark World for the first time, this time around we kind of know what to expect and so it's a little less creepy. The settings are also a bit more conventional, being Mike's home town and all, and have less of a creep-out factor. But underneath it all, the fabric of the town is falling apart, and Mike must do all he can to set it straight again.
The original Dark Seed won SPA's (Software Publishers Association) 1993 award for the Best Fantasy Role-playing / Adventure Program. This game undeservedly has been called an inferior sequel. Yes, the game is not as scary as the original, but I argue that due to the nature of the story and settings, this was inevitable. In reality the Dark World is only good for a one-time scare effect, which was put to great use in the original. But this game offers a new perspective and adventure in the Dark World that is every bit as fascinating and rewarding as it was in the first game.
