Dark Seed Review...ish

In the gaming world there is a movement towards preserving older games for the next generation. Despite having more ges than I could play in two lifetimes, I always seek out oddities. However, this game remains out of my reach. There are ways to download and play Dark Seed on the internet but I'm not tech savvy enough to figure out how. In these cases, I watch videos of these games and make my own decision after watching a few opinions.

Dark Seed is a point and click adventure game about a man haunted by dreams of another world of aliens called the Dark World. As Mike Dawson, you must stop the alien Ancients from crossing into our world. A task that is made difficult after they impregnate your brain with an alien embryo. The rock is ticking both figuratively and literally. One of the first obscure items you can find is a watch which is critical to the game. Any player would hope such a crucial item would be easy to find but this one is stored away in the attack of Mike's house. This leads to the major flaw of the game: time. If you miss something or are unable to get to a certain place on time, you will softlock yourself into a fail. In other words, one mistake leads to a game over. Timers have been a part of games but the point of point and click games like Dark Seed is to explore without a strict clock. Something you can't do with that proverbial boot on your neck. With such a poor mechanic, what makes this game famous? The art.

H.R. Giger of Alien fame was convinced to let his art serve as the style for the game as long as his work was kept up to the upmost level of quality. Perhaps if the designers had more workers or time they could have crafted a better game. Despite the gameplay flaws, Dark Seed is considered a terrific game.

Mike is able to travel to this Dark World through a mirror in his house. The Dark World mirrors our own in strange and hideous ways. A Severed head named The Keeper of the Scrolls guides Mike through the Dark World to stop the Ancients from birthing the embryo inside his head. Once Mike solves the puzzles and sends the Ancients ship away from Earth, he smashes the mirror and is given pills to kill the embryo inside his head. 

The gameplay is confusing. Older adventure games make players bang their head on the wall to solve puzzles. This is an old and often abandoned technique to get players to play longer. Gamers didn't have access to a guide to help them through, forcing them to try everything to make progress. Easy puzzles cause the player dash through the game and come out of it feeling ripped off for a short .experience. Games like this are like oysters, it's a preferred taste. 

Despite the flaws, the art and story are fantastic. It feels like a narrative was spun around the non-Alien artworks of Giger. Dead alien cities, strange mechanisms, all part of the horrific world of the game. The game also hints that the Dark World is a mirror to ours with people and places occupying similar aspects. I don't know if this is the theme behind Giger's work. From what I know of the man, he was fascinated by Hell, which explains his Dark art. His trouble with women has also been a theme but one that was ignored in the game to dismiss the graphic sexual images.

The sequel takes a different tone with silly voice actors and Mike at the center of a murder mystery. The Ancients return and wish to awaken the Behemoth to destroy all of humanity. Mike must find the Keepers of the Scrolls, Sword and Light to defeat the Ancients. Alongside Mike is his fifth business friend Jack who pops in to lend a hand. As the investigation culminates with Mike becoming a murder suspect, Mike discovers that Jack is his twin from the Dark World. Mike dies and, like in all good stories, it's left unclear of Jack was a delusion or really a resident of the Dark World.

A third game was planned but the ge never saw the light of day leaving the story ambiguous. Its a shame because theres a good story here. The only way for a completion is for the series to have a remake. No gamer today would buy such an infuriating game with obscure puzzels and harsh time limit. As for my thoughts, I love the world and art but the gameplay is a turnoff. It's definitely become an inspiration to me and is so.ething I hope to incorporate in my stories.