The Dark Side

Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage (*** out of four) is a mystery adventure game loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft’s fictional horror stories, written in the early 1900s and involving the occult. This first person point-and-click version is a follow-up to the first Darkness Within, where you continue to play the part of a British policeman, now investigating his mysterious past, and the strange family secrets hidden therein.

Your role is to find clues and useful items, all of which can be used to help uncover the secrets and unravel the mystery. Some of the clues come from items in the environment, such as a key, a wallet in a drawer or a book about cannibalism. But more clues seem to come from your having to read various books, texts or manuscripts underlying key statements that in themselves become clues. The clues are placed in inventory and can be "thought about" by your detective by using a clever "brain" interface. Thinking can foster additional clues or, when combined with other clues or inventory items, create more clues. Eventually you need to glue all the clues together to solve the mystery.

As the story progresses our policeman begins having strange dreams and nightmares and suffering unusual, even supernatural, events; then he begins having problems sorting the real from the unreal. This makes it difficult to continue the quest but on you must go.

The pace of the investigation (read the game) is slow, requiring patience on your part and a willingness to suppress frustration that comes when you have to backtrack often to find a clue or needed item (such as a key to open a door) or info (such as a number sequence) to unlock a chest. You need to do all this and more to be able to continue. The game plays at three levels of difficulty, with the difference being in the help and hints you are (or not) given. Occasionally, if you are stuck for a long period of time, the game (at the easiest level of difficulty) pops up with a "Hint is available" message. A few puzzles are included as a change of pace.

The graphics are good and, as you might guess, many scenes are dark--so dark in fact it’s hard to find needed items, necessitating using a flashlight or lantern. Navigation through the various scenes is smooth using keyboard and mouse. Music and sound effects are spooky, as befits the overall tone. Voice acting is good, although your policeman seems pretty unruffled at times at the goings on.

If you have tons of patience, enjoy murder/mystery/occult/horror storylines and sorting through clues to find answers in the process, you’ll like this game. Rated 12 (suitable for age 12 and above because of violence and bad language) by PEGI (Pan European Game Information).