Forgotten gold: The Dark Eye

In keeping with the current retro theme so far I have decided to delve into a long forgotten title that got far less attention than it deserved. It started last night when I was sitting in the cellar finishing Monkey Island 2 with my bro riding shotgun. After it was done we started talking about old games and started digging around the net for info, back stories and abandonware. Titles such as The 7th Guest, Goblins 3 and the Tex Murphy games came under scrutiny as we reminisced about the games we grew up with and after some time we recalled a game that is truly a special chapter in gaming history, namely The Dark Eye. You have probably never heard of or played it, so allow me to enlighten you.


The game is basicly a first person frame-by-frame adventure or interactive story where you as the protagonist experience several of Edgar Allan Poe´s legendary short stories first-hand. It´s set around the 1800´s and you start in a mansion belonging to an old friend and the core storyline vaguely resembles that of Fall of the House of Usher, but as you explore you find that you can delve into first hand accounts of The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado and Berenice. All of these are experienced both as murderer and victim making for quite the grim experience. Besides these great tales of terror you find non-interactive versions of The Masque of the Red Death and Annabell Lee, both wonderfully rendered using the vocal stylings of William S. Burroughs (who also plays the owner of the house). The game isn´t as interactive as most other examples in it´s genre as you just seek out hotspots to continue through the story but it is hands on enough that you feel a part in it (something the first person perspective enhances).

After doing a little research it became apparent to me that this game got a bit of a bad rep, partly due to people not quite understanding the games premices but also on account of some technical issues. The interface is a simple single-click one that often promotes seemingly aimless searching for the right location and object, something that makes for a slightly weak game mechanic. Once you have entered a tale there is no turning back even if you´ve previously gone through it (albeit you can access them automatically in a phrenology-map style menu as the game starts up, in itself a nice reference to the era the game is set in), and there are no subtitles. However, as far as I can remember these felt like minor problems when I played it, which is atmittedly many years ago. The real strength of the game lies in the story and the design.

Plotwise this is hard to beat, as these are classic horror stories from one of the horror genres masters. Lookwise it was splendid at the time of it´s release, with wonderful computer rendered images blended with the use of bizzare caricatured clay puppets applied for the characters in the game instead of 3-D or 2-D sprites. It has an almost Dave McKean-like tint across the board making for very evocative and effective visuals that stand out even today as quite stunning. The sound is dark and evocative, a nice blanket on the back wall of the atmosphere sealing the deal in terms of mood. All these strengths alone make it worth the play but it is in it´s bolder choices that it stands out amongst it´s peers. Because, let´s face it, messing about too much with a working formula is bad news, and the stories in question work so well that any form of free will hampers the telling of them. Therefore it is decidedly more of an interactive story than a game, but a tremendous one at that. I just wish they had given this sort of treatment to some of Lovecraft´s work.

The fact that you often perform deeds of grim murder also enhances the awareness theme I described in my look at Manhunt (see older post), making sure you come out of the game feeling sullied and weary. I really like the idea of seeing two sides of the story. The only thing worse than the certain feel that you are imprisoning a person untill his inevitable starvation inside a brick wall you lay yourself is being on the other side of it as it happens. Take my advice and seek this game out, it is truly a long forgotten masterpiece deserving much more attention than it has ever gotten.