Dark Fall II: Lights Out Review

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Dark Fall II: Lights Out

Review by TogerOctober 2004

By all accounts, 2002’s Dark Fall was a rip-roaring success. (Oh, all right, I may as well confess—I’ve not played the game yet. I know, I know, thirty lashes with a wet noodle. I’d planned to play it, but I was distracted by something bright and shiny.) Can Jonathan Boakes’s sophomore effort, Dark Fall II: Lights Out, match his previous success?

In April 1912, young cartographer Benjamin Parker is sent to the southern coast of Cornwall in order to map the always-shifting Whipside Sands off the shores of Fetch Rock. After arriving in the village of Trewarthan and meeting his host, Demarion, Parker gets the distinct impression that all is not right in this tiny hamlet.

Sure enough—late one night, Demarion wakes Parker to tell him that a passing ship has reported that the lighthouse on Fetch Rock is dark. Not only is the lighthouse not casting its helpful light seaward, the entire island shows no signs of life. Demarion tells Parker that he’s suspected something was amiss on the island for quite some time but doesn’t want to get the rest of the villagers involved. He insists that the three keepers would never have left the lighthouse unmanned; therefore, Parker must make all haste and get to the lighthouse to investigate.

Aside from the above, I won’t say too much more about Lights Out’s story—after all, it is a mystery—but suffice it to say that Parker (and you) will get to know the lighthouse well in several time periods, including the distant future. (That’s not a spoiler, that piece of information is right on the box!)

I can tell you that Lights Out’s story is … well … creepy. Wandering through a dark and theoretically deserted lighthouse is bad enough, but hearing someone cough, glass break, doors close or a disembodied voice say, “over here” is enough to make me check the house to be sure I’m really alone!  Two of the time periods were especially dark and sinister; however, there were a couple that were presented in the bright glare of daylight, which broke the game’s mood.

Gameplay for Lights Out is presented in time-honored, mouse-driven point-and-click. Without exception, players will always view the world in the first person, through Parker’s eyes.  All actions are accomplished by left-clicking on an object to pick it up or clicking on the directional arrows in order to travel through each node-based scene. The interactive cursor will change to a magnifying glass for close-up views, a hand to manipulate items or a wrench to use an item from your inventory.

As is standard for adventure games, you’ll spend most of the game reading other people’s mail, searching through drawers and cabinets, picking up stray objects and negotiating the odd puzzle or two. Strangely enough, there aren’t a lot of puzzles in Lights Out, but the puzzles that exist are reasonable, fair and not too difficult. I do want to mention that the game suffers from “sweep the screen looking for the ever-elusive hotspot” syndrome, so bring lots of patience. Also bring pencil and paper as you’ll need to take quite a few notes, given that you’re never really sure what could be a clue to the mystery at hand.

There were some really clever touches in Lights Out that shows the affection that Boakes has for his craft: as you riffle through the belongings of a missing scientist, you’ll find an MP3 player with three musical tracks. The tracks are named Hal 2000, Shodan and Mother. (I see that quizzical look on your face … all-knowing computers in either a movie or game.) In another room, fortune cookies make reference to an adventure game site.

Visually, Lights Out is quite a treat. Backgrounds are all prerendered yet reasonably lifelike. Colors in a couple of areas aren’t especially vibrant, consisting mainly of blacks and greys, but you are wandering around in the dark. There were a couple of oddities—like the aforementioned fortune cookies, which looked more like lumps of clay than actual cookies; while water effects were similar to cold gelatin.

I should mention that as you play, you may want to have a magnifying glass handy in order to read some of the letters and journals in the game. No, it wasn’t that the print was too small, it was too fancy! In attempting to read the journals, I had to go for “gist” because I couldn’t decipher the actual words.

The sound effects for Lights Out are the best I’ve heard in a game, and they really contribute to the eerie nature of the game. I’ve already mentioned the disembodied voices and mysteriously breaking glass. There were also lots of squeaky doors, rustling paper, water lapping at the shore, birds and, of course, the requisite foghorn. There’s even a pull chain that activates the foghorn for those of us who can’t get enough of that melancholy sound.

Lights Out’s voice work is pretty good considering the voices are provided by friends and family. I do have to take issue with some of the ghostly dialogue. More often than not, it was quite difficult to hear what was being said due to the liberal use of overdubbing or the lowered overall sound level. I realize that ghostly voices should be just outside the range of hearing to make you question whether or not you heard the sound, but when it’s fundamental to the story, players need to hear it! Wearing headphones and turning up the sound helped, but then ambient noises were too loud.

To be honest, I didn’t really notice the background music that much, but when I did the music was appropriately dark and forbidding.

As I drifted from place to place looking at the pretty pictures and listening to the dark, I found myself asking, “Where’s the game?” For the majority of Lights Out, I felt that I was simply wandering through a museum—lots of things to look at or read, but not much else. I liked the nonlinearity of the game, but it would have been nice to have a better idea of how Parker fit into the scheme of things. For me, I think the game would have played better if it had started in one of the latter time periods and then worked its way from there. Also, I wasn’t particularly enamored of having to reexamine everything once I’d acquired the ability to time travel, and I felt cheated when the game abruptly ended, leaving me with more questions.

In the end, Lights Out wasn’t a bad game; it just wasn’t enough game. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: XXV Productions Publisher: Dreamcatcher Release Date: September 2004

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP Pentium III 450 MHz 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended) 24X CD-ROM drive (or PC DVD drive) SVGA graphics card or better with 32-bit color (32-bit color at 800×600) DirectX9 compatible sound card Mouse, keyboard, speakers

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      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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