Heart of Darkness  

by Interplay  Reviewed by: Mark Skorupa  

Overview

Are you scared of the dark? Well, Andy sure is. There is nothing in the world that could get him to travel into the terrifying world of darkness. Actually, there is one thing. It turns out that the Master of Darkness has kidnapped Andy's dog, Whiskey, and he is forced to face his every fear in the Land of Darkness. Things may even turn out to be scarier than Andy could have ever imagined.

Heart of Darkness is a fairly original game that has you leading Andy through the World of Darkness, trying to rescue his dog Whiskey. You will run, jump, climb, swing and blast your way through eight different worlds. Solving puzzles and avoiding traps will also keep your brain working while the incredible graphics will keep your eyes satisfied. Throw in some of the most breathtaking music in any video game ever, and what you have is a game that will be fun for the whole family.

Gameplay

Heart of Darkness has been in the works for quite some time now. I remember hearing bits and pieces of information on this game as far as two years back. Sometimes long development times are a good thing, and other times they are not such a good thing. As soon as you pop in the CD and watch the intro, it will become abundantly clear why it took this game two years to make and two CDs to fit.

I normally don't give game intros much space unless they really grab my attention. Let's face it, most PSX intros are pretty awesome. It seemed like the different developers have a little contest going to see who can come up with the best looking intro, which makes the whole thing convoluted. I will usually watch the first part of the intro, and if it looks like the same old stuff I will skip past it. The first thing I noticed about the intro of this game was that it was almost like the beginning of a movie. The credits were coming up and the music was awesome. Then the intro actually started. Wow! This was one of the best intros I have ever watched. The best way I can describe it is to compare it to the movie Toy Story. If you have ever seen that movie, you will know what I am talking about. Just take my word for it; the intro is well worth watching.

The intro does a good job of setting up the scene and situation. I will not go through all of this, but I will pick up where you actually take control of the character. You play as a little boy named Andy. You crash-land your ship somewhere in the World of Darkness. You are armed with your ray gun and a desire to find your dog. You jump out of your crash-landed ship and venture out into a vast world of beasts and scary things.

The gameplay is best classified as a platform game, yet it is not really a platform game, due to the way the game screens are presented. Platform games usually scroll the screens in real time. This game uses a fixed screen and when you move to the next screen, it redraws the whole screen. The best comparison would be Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. Basically, what it amounts to is that you have some very lush and beautifully created backgrounds because they load all at once instead of streaming off the CD during the gameplay. This worked out pretty well, and the load time between screens was tolerable. There was a definite load time when you switched screens, but it was worth the wait thanks to the graphics.

The game does not keep score and you do not collect things throughout your adventure. You basically have one goal, rescuing your dog, and you don't have time for any of the other platform game-type crap to slow you down. You also have infinite lives, so you can die over and over again and not have to worry about running out of lives. This was good, because I did have a few problems with the overall fairness of this game (see paragraph near end addressing complaints).

One thing that is really different about this game is that you spend a majority of your time climbing up, down and across walls. Andy is quite proficient in climbing, and you will go through a few of the worlds that will have you doing practically nothing but climbing walls. I thought this was a great way to help distinguish Heart of Darkness from just another platform-type game and it really helped give the game a more 3D-type feel. You will also go through a world that has you swimming the majority of the time. You will have to maneuver around in the water, avoiding a ton of undersea monsters as well. I think that they did a great job of mixing things up and adding plenty of new and exciting environments for you to try and conquer.

This game is one of the best at using in-game FMV sequences as well. As you progress through the levels, you will hit certain ending points that will activate a 15-60 second FMV sequence. Some (most) games that use FMV in the past have not really done the best job in doing so. The FMV sequences in Heart of Darkness are so well-done and really add to the story, to the point that I actually looked forward to seeing the next one. They are all done in the same fashion as the intro, so that should give you a good idea of the quality of these sequences. The other thing about them is that they do not interrupt the gameplay at all. Usually FMV sequences are an annoyance that I skip as quickly as I can by pressing the buttons. There were times that I actually wished I could watch the sequences again.

I did have a few complaints with this game. Actually, my first complaint is not really a personal complaint, but I think that it may bother some people. The game is really short. Even though it spans two CDs, almost anyone will finish it in a weekend. I don't mind because I actually enjoy games that have an obtainable end. I mean, how many games have you played for weeks and finally just given up because either something new comes out or you just burn out on the game? I would have liked to see it go on a little further, but if you are one of those people who want to get months out of your gaming dollar, then you might be a little disappointed.

What I did have a complaint about was the controls. Like I mentioned above, you have unlimited lives. This is almost mandatory, due to the cheap deaths caused by the unresponsive controls. I can't count the number of times that I hit the jump button only to have little Andy hesitate before he would perform the move. This was really frustrating because I would have bad guys shooting at me up high and down low, so I would have to jump and them immediately duck or vice versa. With the lag time from when the jump button was pressed to when he actually jumped, it made this way more difficult than it should have been. Also, the game does not support analog control. Analog control is almost a given on any new game, and it was really missed in this game. I really would have enjoyed the game more using the smooth and precise control of analog.

Graphics

If I told you that this looked more like a computer animated movie than a video game, would you believe me? Well, you should, because that sums it up. I already said how good the intro and the in-game videos looked, but I have not really mentioned the in-game graphics. They were actually quite good. Since the backgrounds were all individual screens, they definitely put in a lot of effort making these look beautiful. This game uses two CDs, and it has to be because of all of the amazing graphics work. This is the reason it took over two years to make this game.

Bottom Line

If you are looking for something a little different and you want a game that you should be able to finish, Heart of Darkness is a good choice. The graphics alone make this game worthy of purchase. The gameplay is fun but frustrating at times, due to the lag time in the controls and lack of analog support. Overall, this is a game that the whole family will enjoy and it is almost better to grab a bowl of popcorn, sit back and watch the show as someone plays the game.