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‘High atop the crag the castle sits, bearing silent witness to the evil that has overcome the land. Beneath it, the village, bathed in darkness save for the faint glow of the flickering torches as they struggle to stay alight. In it’s deep shadows creeps evil in all its forms. Whilst overlooking it looms the castle. It’s towers seem to reach up, struggling to escape the darkness that is all around. Amongst them screams the wind, lashing its way from spire to spire, seemingly trying to draw the castles very walls crashing down. In a tower, which the wind seems even more intent on destroying, a window is illuminated by a strange light. Within its walls he sits, alone, dying. His hand rests on a glowing orb, its eerie light throws his drawn features into high relief. His eyes focus and the interminable blackness as his mind escapes to happier times...’
‘Darkmere’ represents Core Design’s (‘Wolfchild’, ‘Rick Dangerous’, ‘Tomb Raider’) first attempt to create an action-adventure (‘Heimdall’ was rather a role-playing game) – strictly speaking it wasn’t programmed by themselves, but by the development team Zero Hour. Already in autumn 1992, some game magazines report of ‘Darkmere’. But it should take solid one and a half years, until the game was finally released under its full name ‘Darkmere – The Nigtmare’s Begun’...
Prelude...
‘The Darkmere had turned the village into a foul echo of itself. As you begin to materialise you hear the screech of dragons and the muffled screams of their prey. The village is now coming into focus. Through the magical haze of your father’s spell you catch glimpses of eerie, shadowy creatures flitting amongst the buildings. As you finally reform you once again hear and feel the stinging wind. You are here, the village awaits and with it, the Darkmere...’
After you’ve started the program you’ll be witness of a nice intro, which is told via picture story. By pressing the fire button, a menu window appears: here you’ve the chance to begin a new game or to restore a saved one. If you choose the first option, the computer requests the second disk – altogether the data of the action-adventure is spread on four disks. The first of them represents the boot disk, whereas the remaining three disks contain the several settings (village, wilderness, orc mines)...
The big downside of the game is the nonexistence of a hard drive installation – because the computer loads the complete data of one disk into the memory (at least 1 MB), it takes two to three minutes until the player can make use of the joystick/joypad. By the way, last one is preferable to a stick – controlling the main character with the control pad is far easier than with a stick...
Similar to ‘Shadow of the Beast’ now a nice loading screen appears – via scroll text, which is shown at the bottom of the screen, the player gets a report of the miserable conditions inside the village. After that the real game starts...
Doppelganger...
‘The land is in dire need my son. I fear I have neglected my duties for far too long. Now I am too old and frail. Find a cure for this accursed malady, this Darkmere, that lays over our land. Find my old friend Malthar the mage. If anyone can help he will be the one...’
You play the part of Ebryn, son of the wasting Elven King Gildorn. Since a curse, named ‘Darkmere’, had covered the home village in eternal darkness, orcs, cutthroats, brigands and other creatures of evil roam through the streets of the once placid place. It’s up to Ebryn to find the cause which had provoked the ‘Darkmere’ – furthermore he has to break the curse to restore peace. His first task is to find the mighty mage Malthar...
The mission begins in front of the village gates – but to fulfil it, it’s necessary to leave that location. To do so, the player needs a password, which he doesn’t know yet – willy-nilly he has to find someone who’s determined to tell it to him. That represents the first subtask and it will take hours, until you’ll set the first steps into the wilderness...
When you play ‘Darkmere’ for the very first time, you’ll realize that it bears a striking resemblance to ‘Cadaver’, the famous classic by the Bitmap Brothers, which was released in 1990. The program uses the same isometric 3D perspective like the obvious archetype, although here the graphics aren’t so colourful. Apart from that the two games have nothing in common – ‘Darkmere’ is much more than just a rip-off of the legendary hit...
It already begins with the user guidance – that is completely menu-driven. For example, to examine the several items, which are located in the close proximity, all you’ve to do is pressing the fire button briefly: hereupon a submenu opens. The commands ‘inventory’, ‘search’, ‘help’ and ‘exit’ are listed here. If you choose the option ‘search’ another window with more commands appears. This time select ‘examine’ – now Ebryn’s able to interact with those objects...
Conversations with other characters happen in the same manner: after you’ve chosen ‘question’ a window opens again and you can select one of the several topics. If the player is in possession of an important item, which he can use (e.g. a key), the commands ‘use’ and ‘give’ appear, additionally...
By using these commands, you’re able to cope with the different tasks. In plain language this means, that you can interact with objects without moving to them. On one hand that user guidance is very obliging and you won’t miss essential items – on the other hand, there’s no real freedom of action like in ‘Cadaver’. But finally it's purely a matter of taste...
‘Offence is the Best Defence...’
‘Take this blade my son. With it I slew the mighty dragon. It is an Elven blade and will glow whenever an enemy is near. It has served me well but I have no use for it now. But be careful, my son. The blade draws its power from the evil it destroys. Destroy good and its power will be drawn from you...’
Because ‘Darkmere’ is an action-adventure you’ve to fight monsters, too. A big disadvantage of ‘Cadaver’ was the absence of weapons like swords or axes – here the main character uses a magic blade. That has a special feature: when orcs are nearby, it begins to glow – similar to Bilbo Baggins’ sword ‘Sting’ of ‘The Hobbit’. Just like this famous weapon, that effect takes place only on orcs – other species remain unaffected...
Unlike to the Bitmap Brothers classic, here the several fights are far easier to handle. By holding the fire button and moving the stick/control pad into one of four possible directions, you brandish the sword horizontally and vertically respectively – furthermore you’re able to block with the weapon. With each successful attack, Ebryn recovers a little bit of his life energy. But be careful - attacking innocent people will cause the contrary effect...
By collecting foods and drinks the player can increase his energy, too. Besides there are sundry, variously coloured potions, whose effect you only can find out by practical application. Via the so-called ‘time reverse potion’ you’re able to save your current progress. If it’s not in Ebryn’s inventory, you can’t save the game...
Well-intentioned Advices...
‘On your journey I can help you five times. Call on me only in your greatest need for I am weak and the crystal draws the life force from its user. I fear any more will take what life I have left...’
Up to five times you can call your father for help: if you’re in a tricky situation, he gives you a useful tip, what to do next. Also you can save your progress without using a ‘time reverse potion’...
In contrast to the Bitmap Brothers product, this program offers no ‘automapping’ function – so, drawing a map is necessary because of the spaciously areas – after all you don’t want to get lost! In the village the player’s able to orientate himself by the different street names – certainly that isn’t possible in the wilderness and inside the gloomy orc mines...
All in all Core Design’s – and Zero Hour’s respectively – first attempt to create a pure action-adventure was quite successful. The user guidance is a mixed blessing for sure - what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Nevertheless the grim atmosphere of ‘Darkmere’ should cast a spell over everybody – particularly the sound of the wind, which sweeps through the alleys, will scare the player. Also the flickering of the torches and the swinging signs of the several establishments (like e.g. the inn or the blacksmith) will give you the creeps...
However, the game can't hold a candle to the great ‘Cadaver’ (and its add-on ‘The Payoff’) at no time. But finally ‘Darkmere’ has its own tempting charm...
In 1994/95 a kind of sequel was released: ‘Dragonstone’. This time the event was shown from a bird's eye view, but the graphical style remained the same - also the plot had nothing to do with the story of the prequel. Moreover the gameplay was far more action-oriented than in the first game...
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The graphics of the program are very atmospheric and produce a great atmosphere. The animations of Ebryn are neat, too. However, there’s no scrolling because the several areas fit completely on the screen...
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The title tune sounds very good, but particularly the sound-fxs (e.g. the howling of the wind, the creaking of doors, the crackle of fire) create the extremely deep atmosphere of this adventure...
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Controlling the character is easy to handle. As mentioned before, you’re able to interact with objects and talk to people via several menus – some players won’t like that! Also the nonexistent ‘automapping’ isn’t everyone's cup of tea for sure. Apart from that trifles, ‘Darkmere’ has an exemplary user interface – but that needs getting used to...
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| ‘Darkmere’ is a game which you can enjoy for weeks – and not only because of its complexity! Also the funny details are remarkable – for example, you’ll find the ‘Bag of infinite capacity’ and the local inn called ‘The Tolk Inn’. Unfortunately the developers of the game hadn’t released an add-on with a new setting (in style of ‘The Payoff’) for this action-adventure – that was a real missing opportunity... |
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