Dark Castle

Moby ID: 110

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Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 57% (based on 2 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 4 ratings with 2 reviews)

Infuriating! And yet I keep coming back for more.

The Good
Dark Castle is a platform game that relies more on timing and careful planning than quick reflexes and shooting things. It's clever--a thinking man's platformer.

One thing that contributes to this is a completely 360 degree firing direction. When you throw a rock, you can rotate your arm to any angle. This takes time to learn effectively, but after about half an hour, it really helps knock out some enemies threatening to get you.

I don't usually talk about ports, since games should really be evaluated amongst their peers on the same platform, but I feel I really must talk about it: It must have been a herculean effort to port this game to the PC. The entire game was first created on the classic Macintosh, which is a 512x384 1-bit (black and white) screen, while the PC at that time used a 320x200 2-bit (4 colors) screen. All of the playfields and sprites needed to be redrawn and the game logic rewritten to fit the smaller resolution of CGA. But even with those obstacles, the PC port really shines. The game physics feel identical to the Mac, and the solutions to each screen remain the same. In fact, some screens are improved, as they use some color which the Mac didn't have at that time. They even managed to include the same digitized sound.

The Bad
The digitized speech went the opposite direction from the graphics, from 8-bit sound to 1-bit sound through the PC speaker. It is very distorted, but audible.

Some of the areas you need to get through are extremely difficult and frustrating. For example, you can spend 5 minutes getting to a jump that must be timed properly, then missing the jump, then having to do it all over again.

The Bottom Line
Dark Castle is clever and funny. You owe it to yourself to try it out.

DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 1999

A classic medieval 3rd person action game, equally addictive and as well as irritating

The Good
I do not recall when or where I played this game, but I do recall I have played the game and that I was still in elementary school when I did. Regardless, I do recall that this was probably one of the "real games" that later defined what PC games came to be...although it seems it was a port.

One distinctive aspect about certain games in this era of gaming was that it was a combination or compilation if you will, of many action games packaged into one neat game. Unlike most platform games where basically most of the gameplay is practically similar from beginning to end, Black Castle introduced different types a little more different style of gameplay for each "level" or in this case "room", with different monsters, different puzzles, different action strategies. This "many action games into one" concept evolved into a similar game called Hillsfar.

The non-linear action game (during that time anyway) made the game quite addictive as you keep trying to find new ways "not to die" and the process of figuring out new areas and the process of interacting via trial and error (e.g. can I climb those ropes) certainly intrigues your curiosity to a certain extent.

The Bad
Although the game provided a major upgrade in gameplay as well as new features, the is not without many irritating features...repeat irritating.

Movement controls were upmost horrible. Walking, especially jumping and walking down the stairs require precise timing but the controls were kind of slow and grogy, often resulting in certain death.

Monsters keep regenerating endlessly, some bigger monsters only pass-out for a short period of time, in addition to your limited number of rocks you can throw makes it a little frustrating, not to mention trying to aim to the direction you want is worse than climbing and jumping combined sometimes.

I don't think I've actually passed any one room in the game, as it was very difficult to complete the level without being knocked by some flying bat or scurry rat. Regardless, it was fun for a while.

The Bottom Line
Nice ol' little classic...with a lot of great new features back then.

DOS · by Indra was here (20752) · 2004

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Patrick Bregger, Tim Janssen.