Heart of Darkness

They say everything old becomes new again, and the gaming industry seems intent on proving the adage true at every possible turn. In the case of Heart of Darkness, the venerable saying is appropriate simply due to the length of time this game was in development. Not to put too fine a point on it, kids who were newborns when HOD began development are now starting school.

They say everything old becomes new again, and the gaming industry seems intent on proving the adage true at every possible turn. In the case of Heart of Darkness, the venerable saying is appropriate simply due to the length of time this game was in development. Not to put too fine a point on it, kids who were newborns when HOD began development are now starting school.

This isn't exactly a slam, since what HOD sets out to do, it does remarkably well. While the most recent game you could compare it to would be Oddworld, to really get a perspective on it, you have to reach back to Amazing Games' previous creations-Out of this World and Flashback, two of my all-time favorite games. Heart of Darkness is essentially a 2D, side-scrolling action-puzzle game, and at times it seems to have been designed by absolute sadists. It's a rare combination-frustrating yet endearing. Bizarre, dark, and violent, yet cute, childish, and saccharine, it has a sort of Fraggle Rock-in-Hell quality to it.

You play Andy, a frolicking, frivolous youngster prone to falling asleep to the monotonous droning of his evil science teacher. Upon escaping her villainous wrath one day, Andy witnesses a solar eclipse, at which point his faithful best friend, his dog Whiskey, gets spirited away to a dark land of shadows. Andy, just as any other boy would, immediately tears off to his tree house, jump-starts his dimension-crossing spaceship, and sets off to bring Whiskey back alive.

The opening setup and conclusion are two of the game's biggest flaws: With five years' development time, a more insightful story would've been nice. Regardless, it's told in a beautifully cinematic way, with a wonderful score by composer Bruce Broughton. And the combination of childish whimsy and dark nightmares makes for a compelling brew.

The game itself is even more engaging, provided it isn't driving you to distraction due to the sheer difficulty of some of the scenes. Its gameplay feels exactly like Flashback's, and many of the scenes actually seem ripped from the aging classic.

The screen is oddly and annoyingly window-boxed (the screenshots shown here are cropped), and while the graphics are generally lush and attractive, they seem a bit muddy-especially the characters. Animation is superb and pinpoint-precise. When Andy is climbing a wall, his every step is perfectly choreographed; nothing is left out of place. Unfortunately, control seems so tied to the exacting animation that it often feels delayed and imprecise. Also, the game autosaves only at certain (albeit frequent) checkpoints, so you'll end up replaying parts.

These frustrations aside, it's obvious that a lot of work went into HOD, and there's much to like here. The game isn't very long (less than 10 hours of play time), but the cinematic qualities and graphical detail make it worth coming back to from time to time. And its design is far less obtuse than Oddworld's: the path is laid out for you here, even if the solutions aren't, so you're not always wondering whether you missed something important.

It's not for everyone, and its age is beginning to show, but Heart of Darkness still offers superb animation, music, graphics, and atmosphere.

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