Pep's Season of Spooks - Game 11
A very obscure point-and-click horror from the mid-90s, I never would have even heard of The Dark Eye were it not for a recent article in PC Gamer. This is available to play in-browser but due to performance issues I decided to download the DOSBox version.
Heavily inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe, the game has you play an unnamed protagonist visiting his uncle's house whilst experiencing vivid nightmares. These nightmares are essentially retellings of some of Poe's most famous works, including The Telltale Heart, which you weave in and out of whilst an equally sinister original narrative unfolds in the waking world.
A "point-and-click" in the truest sense, there are no puzzles or any real choices involved in the gameplay; you essentially have to move around and click the right objects in order to make progress in the stories. While that may turn off a lot of people from the game, I didn't mind it at all since the storytelling on display is so strong.
Where The Dark Eye truly excels is in its visuals and audio. Sparse 3D environments are mixed with physical models using stop-motion animation - with how intentionally creepy the models are the effect is incredibly bleak and unsettling. Without spoiling anything, I will say that the final image of this game will haunt me for quite some time. Combine all this with some truly excellent writing and voice acting and you have one spooky story.
Since The Dark Eye is so difficult to track down legitimately, I feel this would be the perfect game to get a port or even a remaster from a company like Limited Run Games. A hidden gem in the truest sense, I highly recommend you find this creepy curio.
Scary Rating 5/10 - Overall Rating 8/10
A very obscure point-and-click horror from the mid-90s, I never would have even heard of The Dark Eye were it not for a recent article in PC Gamer. This is available to play in-browser but due to performance issues I decided to download the DOSBox version.
Heavily inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe, the game has you play an unnamed protagonist visiting his uncle's house whilst experiencing vivid nightmares. These nightmares are essentially retellings of some of Poe's most famous works, including The Telltale Heart, which you weave in and out of whilst an equally sinister original narrative unfolds in the waking world.
A "point-and-click" in the truest sense, there are no puzzles or any real choices involved in the gameplay; you essentially have to move around and click the right objects in order to make progress in the stories. While that may turn off a lot of people from the game, I didn't mind it at all since the storytelling on display is so strong.
Where The Dark Eye truly excels is in its visuals and audio. Sparse 3D environments are mixed with physical models using stop-motion animation - with how intentionally creepy the models are the effect is incredibly bleak and unsettling. Without spoiling anything, I will say that the final image of this game will haunt me for quite some time. Combine all this with some truly excellent writing and voice acting and you have one spooky story.
Since The Dark Eye is so difficult to track down legitimately, I feel this would be the perfect game to get a port or even a remaster from a company like Limited Run Games. A hidden gem in the truest sense, I highly recommend you find this creepy curio.
Scary Rating 5/10 - Overall Rating 8/10
jbcrowe
7 months ago