Genre: Adventure
Perspective: 1st-person
Narrative: Horror
Published by: Expert Software
Developed by: Inscape
Released: 1995
Platform: Windows 3.1
And much of Madness, and more of Sin,
And Horror the soul of the plot...
In the world in which the Dark Eye plunges us, the characters of the dark stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life. If in childhood you read his works, if in your thoughts you wandered along the damp and dark basement with Fortunato, if in impenetrable darkness you crept to the old man’s room, if your fingers feverishly squeezed a small casket from which thirty-two small white knuckles scattered on the floor, – this game will surely please you. Three stories, three stories about pain and suffering, about revenge and obsession: "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Cask of Amontillado" and "Berenice". The player will have to take on the role of both the victim and the killer. He will jingle bells and chains, groaning "For God's sake, Montresor!", and lay out the brickwork himself. Wakes up at night, seized with boundless horror, and quietly opens the latch on the lantern. He will feel despair in connection with the inevitability of an epileptic seizure and will raise a spade over the lid of the coffin. But in order to immerse yourself in the experiences of the characters, the player will first have to get comfortable in the bowels of an old mansion, where a completely different story unfolds...
Mere puppets they who come and go...
All the heroes of this grotesque world are just puppets. The Storyteller rules here. The player is a puppet in the hands of this all-encompassing spirit. Someone will call it the linearity of the plot, but the inevitability of all the events that take place makes us understand and accept the fact that the viewer has no power to change the course of the performance. The game is controlled with the mouse; The interface is simple and intuitive, like a sign language. The house the player enters is alive. He tosses and whispers in the night, his icy breath chills the blood. An ordinary evening turns into a nightmare. And then the player can visit other worlds, having met with his own reflection - this is how sinister stories come to life, the curtain rises. Each must be experienced twice, but here the game provides an interesting possibility: when the next character's eyes flicker, with the touch of a button, the player is able to transfer into his body and reverse the situation. However, this has little effect on events. The wheel of fortune is turning around. And there is no oblivion to the whimsical play.
Mimes, in the form of God on high,
Mutter and mumble low...
The dolls speak with human voices. William Burroughs himself will read Annabel Lee and The Masque of the Red Death to you, if, of course, you can get to the hidden corners of the old house. All characters are professionally voiced, which adds a lot of atmosphere to the game. Reading by Edgar Allan Poe, a person could only imagine the sad voice of Berenice, and here you can hear it, as well as how the vile heart of the old man beats under the floor. And see a lot with my own eyes. And feel. In the stuffy blackness of a cramped coffin, overcome by despair and fear of death, the player will fight. Do you want to relive the events of three stories of an unsurpassed master, looking at the world through the eyes of his heroes? It's possible - in Dark Eye.