Darkseed

(Cyberdreams, 1992/93)

It's been said many times that an entertainment product can be disturbing, yet still be a work of art. That said, perhaps, Darkseed is as artistic as a disturbing game ever was! This adventure game was based on artwork by H.R. Giger (whose macabre art inspired the creatures of the movies Alien and Species). Challenges the game designers faced included using the high-resolutions Giger insisted upon, at a time when most games were merely in 320x200 mode at best (to better allow for 256 colors, on pre-Pentium computers). The resulting game was indeed with finely tuned graphics, yet had to settle for merely 16 colors; an approach to game graphics unheard of in years. This created a unique paradox of a graphics resolution years ahead of its time, yet a color palette many years behind. As for the adventure game itself, it was only mildly acceptable, given its gratingly inappropriate "time limit" puzzle; you must solve the game in X number of turns, before the evil is unleashed. This gave a feeling of "being rushed" that hindered any major entertainment in the experience. Music, voice acting, and H.R. Giger's artwork, place this game into the mildly-acceptable range. However, it wasn't very fun to play...

Rating : Small Crater.

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