Realm of Darkness - Review

I came to Jack Lockerby's (and Roger Betts's) games at a fairly recent date and have admired the deviousness and craftsmanship of their creations. This one is larger and tougher than the few I have tried up until now, with soft and hard locks aplenty. It is more slippery than a bowl of live eels, although I made it more difficult for myself by not realising a certain object could be used as a secure hold all for your inventory. Any items dropped are immediately snaffled by the kleptomaniacal thief - even from the most unlikely locations and although there is a way to get them back it is not easy. The thief only takes objects you have dropped and not others in plain sight - whether this is an attempt to portray the thief as more interested in schadenfreude than purely financial gain is unclear. The fact that the inventory limit is set at a miserly four items and there are over forty portable objects in the game tends to exacerbate this particular problem if you don't stumble upon the container early in the game and it is easy to miss.

The well worn backstory has you on vacation when the king of your chosen hot spot has five treasures stolen; you are quickly enlisted to reclaim them and as a touch of inducement (or Pavlovian bell ringing) you are told of a number of gems that you may find on your quest that you can keep.

The Atari ST version that I played appears different to the Spectrum one that Richard Bos and Terri solved; I checked my finished game with their versions and there are some differences in objects but they appear to all be superficial.

I would definitely not suggest this as a game for beginners as it is large and full of devious puzzles. There is a wafting aroma of seventies mainframe masochism here.

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Parser/Vocabulary (Rating: 6/10)

I had some problems with the parser here. STAC is a lot more powerful than GAC but it is handled somewhat inconsistently. LOOK UNDER for example parses empty carriage returns in nearly every location bar one and as a result I missed a vital object for quite a lengthy period of time thinking this table has been left blank. Similarly EXAMINE (X) and SEARCH seem interchangeable in revealing hidden depths to an item or object; as a result I found myself trying all of these commands as I was unsure which one was required in a specific instance. There is no "go back one space" monopoly style command although this interpretation of STAC does allow multiple verb/noun inputs and conjunctions.

The location descriptions are of medium length and often carry clues in them.

Atmosphere (Rating: 5/10)

The atmosphere isn't exactly cloying but then eighties treasure hunts (with a few notable exceptions) pretty much never are. The varying landscapes are at least logical and believable and some effort has gone into creating a valid environment for the game's setting but this really wouldn't benefit from the Tennessee Williams treatment: "Mutant Mole On A Hot Tin Roof" just doesn't sound right. There isn't a lot of humour here aside from a Bugs Bunny reference and KISS BEAR is worth a shot.

Cruelty (Rating: Nasty)

I think Nasty rather than Cruel as the game sometimes gives you hints as to an object's use when you examine it. Apart from that slight arm around the shoulder this is a real teeth gritting slog. One of the toughest problems here is finding a particular magical container which you will need; the necessary procedure for finding it is rather unmotivated to start with and it is never explained why it suddenly appears when it does. You can find it very early in the game but you may well miss it as I did for some considerable time. A larger inventory limit would have made the game more user friendly and as previously observed SEARCH, EXAMINE, LOOK IN and LOOK UNDER seem to take turns in being the correct forensic method. Try them all everywhere they are needed or you are guaranteed to miss a secreted item somewhere along the line. Some items have multiple uses as intimated so hold on to your halfpenny.

Puzzles (Rating: 8/10)

As those of you who have played Jack's/Roger's games before will know the puzzles are their strong suit. This isn't the kind of game where you find a juicy bone and use it to placate the savage dog (this is an actual puzzle you will come across). Some of the puzzles require out of the box thinking and choreographing their solution in the correct order is just as important as working them out. I had to restart several times as I realised an item I had previously used was needed again and I could no longer get at it because I had solved problems in the wrong order.

There are no lamp timers, thirst/hunger daemons or one visit only areas.

Overall (Rating: 7/10)

In summary this is a pretty good and rather large treasure hunt created by two experienced and talented text adventure authors. There is nothing ground breaking here but if you have old school sensibilities and relish a challenge it is worth a punt.