Heart of Darkness

Moby ID: 262
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Andy is a child who likes playing with his dog Whiskey, doesn't particularly enjoy going to school, and has a knack for inventing complicated gadgets. One day Andy and Whiskey are strolling through the park, when suddenly a solar eclipse darkens the sky, and after a moment Andy realizes that his dog has been taken away. But science can solve everything, and Andy heads to his treehouse, which is home to his outstanding inventions, including a spaceship! If you thought it was just a toy, you thought wrong, because Andy boards the ship and pilots it into the heart of the Darklands, a world controlled by the evil Master of Darkness. Andy takes out his gun (another splendid invention of his) and prepares to fight the evil sorcerer's minions. Nothing will stop the boy from rescuing his beloved dog!

Heart of Darkness is a cinematic 2D platformer designed by Eric Chahi, the creator of one of the genre's progenitors, Another World. Though the game has many fast and furious action sequences, including shooting hordes of dark creatures, it is built like a series of tasks, each requiring different approaches, from arcade-style shooting or jumping to interacting with the environment and solving puzzles. Like its spiritual predecessor, the game is linear; completing a section usually takes Andy to a different location, where another task awaits him.

Andy has several guns at his disposal, though in certain locations he will lose his weapons and will rely on the player's wit or quick reaction to survive. Andy will also gain magical energy, which can be used to grow or destroy trees. Similarly to Another World, many hazards are placed on the hero's path; despite the child-oriented premise, the game contains graphically explicit death scenes, which occur if the player is not careful or quick enough to save Andy from a gruesome demise.

Heart of Darkness features orchestral music and pre-rendered animated cutscenes. It comes with a pair of 3D glasses, which allow the player to view certain scenes in the game in 3D.

Spellings

  • ハート・オブ・ダークネス - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

188 People (163 developers, 25 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 38 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 90 ratings with 8 reviews)

A great game cast from a mold long long lost.

The Good
Okay, okay the opening story isn't that belevable, but one thing you better believe is that this game is great. A classic in my book and surely my favorate game of 1998. On the surface, Heart of Darkness may appear as a simple platform game, but don't be fooled because it is much much more. This game has character and is fun to play -- from the silly shadows creeping around to the flame-throwing skeletons burning you to your bones. Once you start, you won't put it down until you are finished, and once you are finished you will curse that people have to sleep because you will want to play it again.

The different levels, each with their own strengths and required skills to complete will make sure you don't get bored from repetitive uninteresting gameplay. The balance between action and puzzle solving is nearly perfect. In addition to the changing gameplay, the atmosphere changes from level to level in a fluid way that complements the story (and games as a whole) rather nicely.

Andy, the boy you control, has many movements, all of which get used throughout the game. Even though this is a platform game, he is often required to do things in places you just don't expect in a genre like this. Additionally, small in-game movies are well-placed to help give the illusion that Heart of Darkness isn't a dated platform game. All of these things have convinced me that there is much more life left in this genre. I just hope other developers follow suit.

The Bad
The main complaint I have with this game has nothing to do with gameplay, graphics or any of the other important characters of the game. My beef is that there appears to be NO way to skip past a cutscene the first time it is played. Some of the cutscenes are quite long and I'm sick of seeing them. Every time I start Heart of Darkness from a clean install, I have to sit through the cuttscenes over and over again. To add salt to an open wound, the end credits are almost 10 minutes -- let me skip them so I can start the game again! I've pounded on the keyboard, kicked the machine and cursed something horrible. If anyone knows the magic touch please let me know and I'll eat my words.

Apart from that tirade, I only have two minor gripes:

First off, the graphics or pretty low resolution and the palette rarely uses over 200 colors. Considering that this game came out in 1998 and still runs on a 486/66 I'm not going to gripe too much. But the fact that this game does run so well on low end hardware pisses me off because I could have been playing this games for the last six years with no problem -- geeze.

Secondly, the final sequence in the game is brutally hard. I think I'm pretty good at these types of games and I was pounding my head quite a bit. Every time I finish the last scene, I get the feeling that I won it by chance, not skill.

The Bottom Line
If you are an oldskool gamer and you haven't got this game run... don't walk to you nearest dealer. Get your fix while you still can becaue this is the good stuff.

Windows · by Brian Hirt (10409) · 1999

One of the most underrated, best Adventure/Side Scrolling games of all time. Period.

The Good
(Note: I am talking about the PS version when I played it, but the PC version is still identical to its PS counterpart, so what I say about it is true to both versions of the game. So please forgive the console sounding overtone.) One day, I was looking for a good Playstation game to rent, like any other Friday. Unfortunately for me, Final Fantasy VII was out, the one game I had bought a PS to play. Then I spotted a copy of Heart of Darkness. Whats this I thought, another cheap animated Disney-type kid's game? A closer examination revealed that this was that game more delayed than Daikatana, in development for four years. Without wanting to go home open handed, I picked up this game and never knew about the awesome ten hours that would follow. HoD is very much like underrated and unknown SNES and PC classic, 'Out of this World'. It's a 2D, side scrolling adventure through a land of shadows about a kid named Andy and his dog that stumble into a fatasy world that could make a better movie than Jedi Knight or the console game Metal Gear Solid. It's THAT good. Cinemas are of course 3D CG, and some of the best acting and overall time Amazing Studios took to make this game. Cinemas are so good, and fit perfectly into the story; you won't know what the heck is going on without these cinemas; you'll WANT to know what happens next in the seamless Gameplay to Cinema transfer. Of course gameplay is the meat of any game and HoD has got it in spades. It's 2D side-scrolling, one-way-to-get-passed-obstacle gameplay with puzzle elements that are excellently put in the game at the right time. Some people will call it very hard (which it is sometimes, but you keep playing to advance the storyline) and demanding in making you do exactly what the designers want you to do may sway some players from it, which is unfortunate, because the game is so good, its one of the finest games ever. I would say more about it but it would ruin it. So good, Steven Speilberg wanted to make a movie based on it. Anyway, if you like Out of this World, or like good games, buy this, even though its too short, you WILL want to play it again, because the characters and storyline are very memorable. For the sake of all things good, buy it! It even revives and pays tribute to the long dead side scroller genre, and does the genre justice. Possibly the last great side scroller.

The Bad
Hmmmmm.......too short, although I'll go backto it again, I smell a sequel. Also, sometimes you will hate the do-what-the-developers-wanted-you-to-do gameplay, but aren't other greats like Half-Life the same way?

The Bottom Line
2D/3D side scrolling goodness with an EXCELLENT storyline and cinemas.

Windows · by Dragoon (106) · 2000

Is one of the best games we ever played!

The Good
Everything! You have pure action. The grafic is high, full of details and surprises!!! The best is, everytime they "kill" you (believe me, there are lots of;) If you fall to your death or get eaten (which is always a particularly gory event, especially in contrast to the saccharine trappings of the story), you end up at the beginning of your current puzzle area, which is never too far back. Keep getting killed and a tip will appear to help move you along, though knowing what to do doesn't always make the going easy. We have a lot of PS/PC-Games in our collection, but believe me, nothing comperes to "Heart of darkness"!

The Bad
We played more than a week, never the less it was too short, because is so damn good!!!



The Bottom Line
The game is something for advanced players!

Hidden away in the Heart of Darkness lies a terrifying world. A world ruled by the Master of Darkness whose cruel and absolute power leads an army of emaciated devils. The fiendish force scours the land in search of Andy a young boy on a quest to rescue his dog Whisky. Trapped in a terrifying nightmare only you can take Andy through hundreds of epic encounters to overcome a whole host of wonderfully weird characters and emerge triumphant from the Heart of Darkness.

PlayStation · by Dani Mittler-Coe (2) · 2003

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
european publisher pierre martin (5) Feb 19, 2021
Willy Beamish? John Peterson Oct 1, 2009

Trivia

Aliens

The friendly aliens Andy runs into in his adventure are called "Amigos", this is Spanish for "friends". In fact they all speak in Spanish in the English version, although they do so in loose, unconnected words.

Copy protection

This game is one of the early users of CD-based copy protection.

Development

Eric Chahi (main creator of Heart of Darkness) worked on the game from September 1992 to June 1998 (5 and 3/4 years). The game is based very loosely on the Joseph Conrad novel of the same name.

DirectX

Although the installation program insists that you need DirectX 6.0, the manual says HOD will run on NT 4.0 with SP3.

Extras

  • The game comes with a small pair of 3D-glasses with which you can check the after-final animation which is black and white until you put those glasses and see the depth and get a feeling of what you see as real 3D picture.
  • Some releases of this game on CD-ROM contained a Making of Heart of Darkness video documentary, which had interviews with the development team.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for this game is performed by The London Symphony, and composed by Bruce Broughton. Release date is 1999. The CD also contains a Demo of the game.

Tracklist: 1. Main Title 2. Andy's Mission 3. Big Mistake 4. Andy's Friend 5. Space Island 6. Vicious Servant 7. Back to the Lair 8. Meteor Destroyed 9. The Plot 10. Andy's Victory 11. End Credits

This soundtrack was available on the Intrada label (www.intrada.com).

Story

Though the game is not a sequel, add-on pack, nor spin-off, the game has a striking similarity of story to 1990-1992's Commander Keen series.

Information also contributed by B.L. Stryker, Garcia, MAT, Narushima, Swordmaster, Yeah No and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brian Hirt.

PlayStation added by Grant McLellan.

Additional contributors: MAT, DreinIX, Zeikman, Patrick Bregger, Bart Smith, finsterhund.

Game added September 5, 1999. Last modified February 24, 2024.