Review
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There was a period in time when the side-scrolling
action-adventure was a dominant computer game genre. Computer
side-scrollers were differentiated from their console
counterparts by relying more upon puzzle solving than button
pushing, with two games - Out of this World and Flashback - being
prime examples of the genre (a complete list would also have to
include the Prince of Persia games, the Dark Castle games, and
even early efforts like Karateka, Conan, and Bruce Lee). The
genre returns to its roots with Amazing Studios' Heart of
Darkness, a simple and frustrating little chunk of a side
scroller.
The only recent game to which Heart of Darkness can be compared
is Abe's Oddysee, but even that comparison comes up a little
short. Abe's was pure puzzle solving; Heart of Darkness is a
mixture of action-oriented puzzles and puzzle-oriented action. As
such, it can really only be compared to Flashback and Out of this
World, a not-so-surprising fact considering that Amazing Studios
is made up of numerous people who worked on both of those games.
Like its predecessors, Heart of Darkness is made up of a series
of static screens. In each screen there is a small puzzle, or
piece of a larger puzzle that will encompass several screens. The
puzzle can be as simple as jumping over a crawling beast or as
complex as figuring out how to activate some mechanism that will
open a door several screens away while keeping an ever-increasing
number of enemies at bay.
As I said, it's frustrating. Many will find it far too
frustrating, but Out of this World and Flashback (both generally
acknowledged as great games) were equally as hard. Heart of
Darkness will test your reflexive ability, your timing, and your
eye-hand coordination. But more than anything, it will test your
patience. You'll repeat segments over and over and over again
until perfecting them, and then you'll die on the next segment
and have to do them over.
What's most impressive about Heart of Darkness is its
environment. Story-wise, it's not much different from one of
those movies about kids and their associated monsters that became
a dime a dozen in the wake of ET. You play Andy, a little boy who
has lost his dog during an eclipse. More directly, the dog was
lost to the eclipse, snatched away to some nether realm of
darkness and shadow. Andy, though, has a hat made out of a
colander and some lights, a toy that shoots lightning, and,
best of all, an airplane - so everything should work out fine.
OK, so the story isn't that great. But once Andy gets to the
nether realm, the art and enemy design is fantastic. The enemies
are mostly shadowy, simian-like creatures, which are entirely
black except for their glowing green eyes. Other enemies aren't
just shadowy, but actual shadows - and you'll have to knock out
the object creating them to get past. It creates a truly hostile,
frightening world, and more importantly, the designers are able
to reuse the same enemies in many different ways to keep the
progression challenging.
The graphics themselves are almost the game's best point. At a
higher resolution, they would be beautiful - the incredibly
lifelike animations and detailed backdrops are pretty marvelous.
Unfortunately, the low resolution keeps things a little blocky,
which puts a damper on the obvious care put into the art. Said
low resolution is the only clue that the game has been in
development as long as it has (anywhere from five to seven years
according to various sources); the game itself is quite short.
The sound is always appropriate, and the music, sparse as it may
be, is a dramatic score performed by the London Philharmonic
Symphony.
Apart from the difficulty, there was only one other frustrating
factor to Heart of Darkness: the end. It simply didn't feel like
an ending. The game (or at least the story) sort of just stops.
Sure, there's a big cinematic at the conclusion (and it's
important to note that the cinematics are quite impressive), but
it doesn't feel like a satisfying conclusion. There is, however,
a great little surprise after the credits if you manage to sit
through them.
Heart of Darkness isn't a bad game. It's a bit short and a bit
frustrating, but it's always moderately fun and occasionally very
fun. Those who played Out of this World and Flashback will
probably be more forgiving of its shortcomings and will
undoubtedly feel some sense of nostalgia as they work their way
through Heart of Darkness. Others will probably see a game that
could have been incredible had it come out four or five years ago
but now is just a somewhat nice-looking fairy tale with a vague
story and the strange effect of causing people to tear their hair
out, clump by clump.--Ron Dulin
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot
