Dark Seed

Dark Seed is one of the adventure games that I look forward to taking time over and enjoying in full - I cannot do it justice in these two pages. Check it out for yourself!

Cyberdreams have come up with an absolute masterpiece of a game that is going to be hailed as a classic within a very short time. I could really find not anything that could be faulted. The gameplay, graphics, sound and game concept mould together in a great fusion of Gothic elegance.

Dark Seed is a fab arcade adventure that succeeds in being both atmospheric and scary at the same time.

If you don't already own Darkseed and you have a CD-ROM drive, buy it now and lose yourself in a world you thought only existed in your worst nightmares.

Tense, atmospheric and oozing style from every pore, Darkseed marks a new use of the graphic adventure genre. With the quips and humour of Monkey Island clones replaced with brooding gloom, Darkseed is a truly adult affair, bringing computer games in line with modern horror fiction. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Despite its original atmosphere, Darkseed follows a typical adventure game style. You have to examine the environment, acquire objects and find clues to the whole puzzle. One of the problems with Darkseed is that some of the clues only appear in parts of the house at certain times.

It's ground breaking stuff, but that's more to the inclusion of speech than anything else. Still, as Howard Jones said, things can only get better...

Wer kein ausgesprochener Flacker-Allergiker ist, darf sich auf feinen Digi-Horror freuen!

It's not the best adventure I've played, but then it's certainly not the worst either. Disk access might be slow, especially on a bog-standard A500/600, but there is a lot to do in the game. The Twilight Zone-type music that runs throughout is suitably eerie, if a bit grating after a while, and the use of samples is limited but well placed. That, coupled with the easy-to-use point 'n' click interface, neat scenario and visual effects make for an enjoyable if slightly flawed game.

There are some nice visuals and the odd horrific bit, but it's all rather unexceptional. Still, those with a feel for wandering-around-looking-for-things adventure games should enjoy Darkseed.

The controls are perfect and the graphics superb. There is even an attempt to make it more like an interactive movie; the characters you meet talk in sampled speech, as well as in displayed text, a technique which, although not perfect, still works pretty well.

Dark Seed did keep me plugging away for some time because it has an intriguing idea behind it. Unfortunately, while I was persevering the game was moving too slowly and unsatisfyingly to make my progress as enjoyable as it could have been.

Eine recht gute Idee, die aber vom Film her bereits bekannt ist und nicht sonderlich gut umgesetzt wurde.

On the whole, Dark Seed just doesn't make it as a true classic. The game part is simply too weak for that. The horror atmosphere balances some of it out, but again, it's not enough for being really very good for the logical holes mentioned above. Remaining is a decent Adventure with some nice scenes.

Der Einkauf von Giger hat sich für Cyberdreams gelohnt: Was uns hier an Ekelgrafiken in die Augen schleimt, wird selbst hartgesottene "Gore"-Fans befriedigen. Zusammen mit der schrägen, abgedrehten Schizo-Musik wird's so richtig schön ungemütlich vor dem Monitor. Unser Männchen zoomt brav auf und ab, wenn er im Hintergrund des Bildes verschwindet, die Sprachausgabe ist sogar mit einer AdLib-Karte erstaunlich verständlich und den Grafiken sieht man die begrenzten 16 Farben nicht an. Keine Frage: Technisch ist Dark Seed eine runde Sache. In Sachen Rätsellogik sieht die Lage schon anders aus: Die etwas abgestandenen Geheimnisse sind vom Schlage: Suche Schlüssel in Raum A und benutze ihn in Raum B, - ein bisserl mehr Fantasie erwarten wir in Zukunft schon. Auch ein zugkräftiger Handlungsfaden kann nicht schaden, so läuft man etwas ratlos durch die Gegend. Für Einsteiger und Giger-Freaks ist Dark Seed durchaus empfehlenswert, Adventure-Puristen und Profis sollten Abstand nehmen.

It is a bravura attempt at something different, and genuinely unsettling in its depiction of a small town harbouring a Sinister Secret, but the game is deeply unsatisfying. Wait for the promised sequel.

Somehow I never got fully involved in playing Darkseed. Once the splendor of the graphics paled, the actual gameplay couldn't quite hook me. Alone in the Dark is much more fun.

Darkseed är medelsvårt och det gäller att tänka rätt för att komma vidare. Ljudet är godkänt men grafiken, som ligger till grund för allt, känns inte riktigt bra. Den är lite blaskig och borde kunna ha gjorts bättre. Synd, för här finns många timmars spelande för den intresserade och H.R. Gigers originalmålningar är verkligen spektakulära.

If you're a fan of (horror-)adventure games or of Giger's work, this is definitely something you should check out. For those of you who are looking for a fun and easy adventure to solve in an evening or two: this is not your best choice.

H R Giger is well known for his surrealistic and macabre art that combines the essence of flesh and machine. His masterpiece, Necronomicon, has inspired the creatures featured in the Alien movies. Now, the brilliance of Giger has been translated onto the computer screen by Cyberdreams in Dark Seed. Based on a parallel universe called the Dark World, Giger’s art gives a distinctive biomechanical look to an alien race with an agenda to destroy the Normal World.

Perhaps its unfair to judge games anachronistically, but Darkseed hasn't weathered the passage of time all that well, while other point-and-click adventures still thrive in our memories. In one scene, Mike sees a tombstone that reads the name "G. Threepwood," the hero of LucasArt's Monkey Island series. Ironically, Threepwood's legacy is alive and well today, while Mike Dawson's is fading in annals of now-defunct games. Hopefully, some developer will resurrect this franchise, give it a haircut, and make it viable for modern audiences.

Sadly, some pretty big design flaws rain on the parade. Many critical objects, like a hair pin or glass shard are really hard to see. You sometimes need to examine an object multiple times to expose a critical clue. There are actions you need to take early in the game (like hide items) which make no sense (until later). Even when using a walk-through, Dark Seed is difficult to finish, so I can only recommend it to determined gamers with a lot of patience.

Con frecuencia (quizá demasiada) nos encontramos aventuras sobrevaloradas por el gentío que se deja llevar por las opiniones de cierto sector de la crítica cuyo juicio no goza de un cáracter especialemente lícito o veraz. Este es, en mi humilde opinión el caso de Darkseed.