Veil of Darkness
Description
The vampire lord Kairn has murdered his father and brothers so he could inherit control of the valley. Ever since he's used his powers to cut off contact with the outside world, Kairn has been living it up, torturing the villagers with madness and death, feeding off of them like livestock and turning the village women into his personal vampiress servants. Meanwhile, the villagers are miserable, as every day they face the possibility of either being devoured by werewolves, gnawed on by zombies, driven into stark raving lunatics, or turned into vampires by Kairn and his posse.
A cargo pilot's plane is shot down by a mysterious force while flying over a remote valley in Romania. A helpful village girl named Deirdre rescues him from the crash and takes him to her father Kiril, who informs the pilot that his arrival via plane crash marks him as the chosen one who is prophesied to destroy Kairn. Since Kairn has cut off all ways out of the valley, the only way he is going to leave is, as the old saying goes, over his dead body. That's not going to be very easy, however. Wild animals and unnatural creatures roam the countryside. While some villagers will help the hero to rid them of Kairn, others have been driven mad with despair and by the valley's oppressive aura, causing them to commit unspeakable acts or otherwise act in an unhelpful manner. Even the most trusted allies may turn out to have a few skeletons in the closet...
Veil of Darkness is an isometric role-playing game with action-based combat and adventure elements. Most of the game is dedicated to exploring the game world in a fairly open-ended fashion, gathering information and items. Puzzle-solving is conversation- and inventory-based; many battles are also designed in a puzzle-like manner, with the hero being able to defeat certain enemies only with specific weapons. Heavy inventory management and status ailments contribute to the game's RPG mechanics.
Spellings
- ヴェイル オブ ダークネス ~呪われた予言~ - Japanese spelling
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Credits (DOS version)
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Producer (Event Horizon) | |
IBM Lead Programmer | |
Additional Programming | |
Designers | |
Art & Graphics | |
Music | |
Story Author | |
Rule Book Editors | |
Editing Support | |
Producer (SSI) | |
Associate Producers | |
Playtesters | |
Test Support | |
Graphic Design/DTP | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 74% (based on 9 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 24 ratings with 6 reviews)
this is as close to a vampire movie as possible
The Good
I liked the atmosphere surrounding the different locations (i have to admit this game spooked me a couple of times). The way it draws you in, you don't just stare at the action, you get involved with your character and the NPCs (each of them has a story of their own)
The Bad
The combats seem a little arbitrary for me (even though i had the right weapon it was really hard to kill the enemies) and too difficult at some points
The Bottom Line
This game reminds me of the old Bela Lugosi Dracula film, it has a little bit of everything: mystery, horror (lots of it), blood, action, romance and lots of interesting dialogues.
DOS · by n-n (50) · 2000
The Good
Well, to begin with, I'm a fan of horror games, especially adventures. There are not much of them, so I was very glad to get this one. And I must say, it is a very good attempt, though not the best one.
The story is quite standart at first, but it becomes more complicated as the game progresses. As you solve different quests, you find out that everything you meet is a part of the story, it is somehow tied to the characters you already met and to the prophecy you have to complete. Really, the story is very strong and thought-over, lke in a true adventure. The atmoshere is also very nice - dark, scary, you feel somehow lonely in this world, everyone you meet has his own problems and are seemed to be very scared too. As for the other characters - they are very well done. There are quite a lot of them, everyone has his own appearance, manners and has enough topics to talk about. Speaking with them is also well done - while the characte talks, some of the words in his speech are underlined, so you can talk about them later. But sometimes you have to tell the character about another topics, so you have to write the words from keyboard like in old good IF games, and this is very good indeed.
The puzzles are also very good, especcially the final one, where you have to collect several different things to kill the Kairn. In the beginning you got a Prophecy, which consists of all the main quests you have to solve in order to win (though not a solutions to them), so you don't have to think "what shall I do next?" walking aimlessly around. It was said in the other review that the game is very linear. It is not true. Most of the quests you can solve in any order, only a few requires the right order (and they are only in the beginning).
The Bad
Well, the game is still far from ideal. Not everyone will enjoy the RPG elemnts in adventure, fighting with monsters. Though, it is seemed more like action elements to me - the monsters you kill don't ressurrect and their bodies even don't disappear, and that's a nice touch. Also, in order to kill all monsters, tou have to take evrywhere with you a number of different weapons, as usually there is only one type of weapon for one type of monster. But, from the other hand, firstly, you can choose your skill level in the beginning (and on easy level the combat is quite easy), and secondly, you can just run away from monsters - there is really nothing you need from them.
The graphics is not very good, though the isometric view is quite nice.
There are several mazes in the game that can become frustrating, but, again, there is one good feature to help in navigating - a map that is drawn automaticly while you are wondering in the labirinth, which you can look at any time you want - isn't this wonderfull!
The Bottom Line
This is one good horror adventure game with interesting story, nice atmosphere, good puzzles and some nicely implemented RPG elements. For all horror fans.
DOS · by Afex Tween (129) · 2003
A rare and original Horror RPG from SSI...
The Good
Well this would be my first horror theme game and luckly it was made by my favorite company (then) as well as my favorite genre. You didn't get much RPG's with a true horror theme then...you still don't me thinks (I don't consider Diablo a horror theme).
Well, this game was more an Adventure puzzle-solving game that it was an RPG. It's it's almost like Gabriel Knight that fights with a sword. Basically the game to me is beautiful. Unlike most games, this game comes with a 'hint' storyline, which helps you show what to do next rather than think yourself to death like most puzzle-solving adventure games.
The game has a rather peculiar storyline actually, if not the same as Arcanum in the beginning. You have a crash landing in some Rumanian town and the local's think you're part of some prophecy which will help end the regime of a local Vampire Lord.
This would also be the one of few adventure-type games I've noticed that has fighting. The graphics is very familiar to Monkey Island, Gabriel Knight, etc. The only other game I recall with a similar concept was Hero's Quest. Anyways this game kinda looks like the grandfather of Diablo one way or the other...
The Bad
Hmm...the story line was kinda lame. Well it's not bad, it just uh...kinda dry. Guess what you have to do in the end? Yup, kill the Vampire lord. Not much mystery there, although the in-between quests are kinda neat. Especially one where you have to transform a tree into a guy by burning him or something like that.
Other than that, I recall having no regrets in playing it as it was kinda fun. I do remember feeling a sense of triumph after finishing the game...so it was worth the buy.
The Bottom Line
A rare classic game for both horror and RPG lovers.
DOS · by Indra was here (20756) · 2003
Trivia
The opening sequence says you fly your plane over a region of Romania: a valley in the middle of the Carpathians. Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Vlad "the impaler" Dracul; count Dracula) lived and ruled in a region named Transylvania (as I'm sure many of you know) which is located in none other than...Romania.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Alan Chan.
Windows added by Plok. PC-98, FM Towns added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: n-n, Rik Hideto.
Game added April 3, 2000. Last modified February 5, 2024.