Samantha Lienhard

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark

Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games 3 Responses » Tagged with: adventure game, darkside detective, darkside detective 2

Oct 182021

A years ago, we discussed The Darkside Detective, a humorous point-and-click adventure game about a detective who investigates supernatural incidents.

I enjoyed it enough that when the developers began a Kickstarter campaign for a sequel, The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark, I backed it and got a Switch copy. (It’s available on all major platforms.)

The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark begins with Detective McQueen searching for his partner Dooley, who has gone missing, and once again features six lighthearted supernatural investigations.

Oddly enough, I found the first case to be more frustrating than the rest of the game, with puzzle solutions that felt illogical and sections that seemed to be unnecessarily drawn out. This might be because the first case has you visiting several different locations and traveling between them, while the others are more contained.

Anyway, most of the game was quite entertaining, and while I’m not sure it’s as funny as the original, it still had a lot of funny lines.

Bizarre situations, a bit of fourth-wall-breaking, and in general the cast of characters being a group of weirdos is where most of the humor comes from. While the cases have an occasional serious moment or two, this is a game that focuses much more on its humor than on its plot.

And of course, it’s perfect for the Halloween season, with ghosts, vampires, and other supernatural entities at the heart of every case.

Six cases are available now, but three free bonus cases are on the way. I’ll be sure to return to The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark when that time comes.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Echo Night

Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games 2 Responses » Tagged with: adventure game, echo night, survival horror

Oct 152021

I guess this is ghost week for Celebrating All Things Spooky, because today’s review will once again see us quelling restless spirits as we discuss Echo Night.

I picked up Echo Night from the PlayStation Store during the shutdown concerns since it sounded like the sort of game I’d enjoy.

You play a man named Richard Osmond, who goes to his father’s house in response to a police report and from there is transported to a train, where he witnesses a strange encounter, and then to a ship haunted by ghosts of the people who died on board when the ship disappeared.

It plays a lot like a survival horror game or an adventure game, as a good portion of your time will be spent exploring, searching for items, and solving puzzles to access new areas.

There is no combat, but dangerous ghosts can appear in the dark and hurt you. This means the first thing you’ll want to do in any room is find the light switch and turn on the lights. Of course, sometimes you’ll find yourself in a place where the lights can’t be turned on, putting you in danger until you can find a way to get them working.

A major focus of the game is helping out the spirits you meet so that they can finally rest, which frequently involves being transported to a different time and place, while learning more about the mystery of the Red Stone that has caused so much trouble.

I enjoyed it, aside from the blackjack mini-game I spent too much time on in order to get the best ending.

Now, Echo Night is the first game in a trilogy. Echo Night 2 was only released in Japan, but Echo Night: Beyond for the PlayStation 2 was localized. Unfortunately, it was never ported to anything and is hard to find nowadays. If only the developer of these games was still around and a big deal nowadays, oh wait.

I’d be thrilled to see an Echo Night collection or ports, just saying. Until then, at least the first Echo Night is available on PSN if you want to resolve the mysteries of the vanished ghost ship.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Sound of Drop – fall into poison –

Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video games 2 Responses » Tagged with: sound of drop fall into poison, visual novel

Oct 132021

The oddly-named Sound of Drop – fall into poison – is a visual novel I picked up in a bundle quite some time ago and finally checked out this year.

It follows a girl named Mayu who goes with her friend to the local aquarium, where rumors and urban legends claim strange things happen on the night of the full moon. However, the aquarium holds special significance to Mayu – it’s the place where her sister disappeared five years ago.

When Mayu sees her sister in the aquarium, she chases after her and finds herself trapped in a twisted nightmare version of the aquarium, haunted by restless spirits.

Sound of Drop is a ghost story, and the early parts are especially dark. The horror becomes a lesser focus later on, but it still involve dealing with spirits and learning the truth about what happened in the aquarium.

You have many choices to make in this visual novel, and a good number of them lead to bad endings. There are over 25 bad endings, although unfortunately some of them are simply variations of one another that are counted as separate endings nevertheless. In addition to these abrupt death scenarios, there are also multiple main endings, including a path that can only be accessed after your first playthrough.

While the numerous bad endings can be slightly tiring, being able to quick-save ahead of any choice means it’s not so bad.

The story is interesting, if a bit confusing at times, and I liked the cast of characters. Sound of Drop – fall into poison – is a nice choice for a creepy visual novel, and learning the same developers made Fatal Twelve left me even more interested in trying that one.

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