Game #1093: Heart of Darkness

  A story about a boy and his dog... and murderous black shadows that will eat him alive. E for Everyone.

 How Heart of Darkness managed to score an E rating is one of history's most mysterious mysteries, as this is a 2-D sidescroller in which a very young kid gets murdered over and over and over again by gruesome monsters. Most of the time, the only things that will be left of him will be his shoe or his cap. This is a children's game.

 This is one of those cinematic 2-D platformers like Prince of Persia or Out of this World, which place emphasis on methodical platforming, taking your time to proceed... when allowed, while solving trial-and-error puzzles to proceed. There's a difficulty selection in the options menu, I suggest you dial it down to easy, because the game can be frustrating. At least you get infinite lives. And the game is super short, say, 2 hours give or take.

 There are two things that Andy is able to do at all times: Jump and Run, and depending on when you are in the game, you'll either be able to defend yourself with an electric gun or energy balls. As you go through the game, you'll be presented with multiple puzzles and obstacles that you must clear in the right order and quick reflexes unless you want to be burned to death, fall to your death, get eaten alive or the such. It's incredibly trial and error, you will die, a lot, each time, hopefully, learning a little bit more about the puzzle and inching closer to the solution. The checkpoint system is not very consistent, sometimes it's very generous, other times you'll have to go through rather long stretches of obstacles before the game decides you deserve one, and... it can be very annoying when you retry the same section over 10 times trying to get every detail right.

 And the fact that controls are stiff and a bit unresponsive doesn't help. For example, the Energy blasts have an alternate, life-giving property, with the Triangle button. Sometimes the triangle button will shoot your basic green pellet instead just because. Sometimes when jumping out of a walk or a run, it may not come out when you want it to, if the jump comes up at all, and you may have a bit of trouble convincing Andy to go down the ladder instead of crouching. It's not too awful, and most cinematic platformers like this one carry the same baggage. 

 Yeah, the game hasn't aged very well... but it's one of the games I used to play on PC back when I was younger, so I have some nostalgia for it. I think its world and presentation are fantastic, mind you, the game looks very rough by today's standards, but I feel like the cutscenes have a lot of heart, as they wanted to make it very cinematic, and I think they succeeded. The plot is quite interesting too, and it has a few fun twists here and there.

 It's a bit clunky, and it's definitely not for everyone, but I feel like Heart of Darkness is a game that everyone should experience at least once. It has a few interesting ideas that I feel are worth putting up with its shortcomings. 

 6.0