Darkfall 1: Retrospective

No, I'm not going to play Darkfall: The Journal again, at least not for another few years yet. I must have played this little game through three or four times. However, as I'm filling in the blanks on my game series, I thought this wonderful little ghost game deserved a post.

This was Jonathan Boake's first hit. He made it all himself on virtually no budget and sent some copies out to gamers. It took off and won awards, and still finds plenty of new players. Shoot, the game appears to play on virtually any Windows operating system, from 98SE up to at least Vista, if not beyond (I haven't tried it on Win 7 and 8).

So Darkfall: The Journal is still out there! And deservedly so. The imagination and skill that went into making this game shows up on every screen, decisively demonstrating that budgets don't matter when you've got real creativity working. 

(I have no clue why the game was given the subtitle, "The Journal." It was the distributor's decision, apparently. The game has nothing whatever to do with a journal. I suppose it needed a subtitle to distinguish it from the second Darkfall game. That's what happens when executives insist on getting involved in projects. At least they didn't change the game.)

I remember when I first played this game. The whole atmosphere didn't scare me exactly, it just kept me . . . uneasy . . . all the while I was wandering the hotel hallways. Once I got into a room with a nice puzzle to solve I felt safer. But you're never--actually--safe, are you? 

It isn't the ghosts that keep you on edge. The ghosts are mostly rather nice. It's the dark force that has imprisoned them, and that is coming for you, too, now that you're here . . .

The creepy atmosphere starts immediately:

Inviting, yes?
(Click to embiggen)

You have to solve some easy puzzles in the train station first (or you should):

Can you find coins to make a phone call?

The basic idea is that your brother has been working on a remodel of the old Dowerton Station Hotel, which closed under mysterious circumstances in 1946. Also currently in residence at the hotel are a couple of ghosthunters: Nigel Danvers and Polly White--the first time we see them in a game. (Nigel indeed is still Jonathan's avatar. We see him in a photograph. It's a bit like Hitchcock appearing in his own movies.) 

Your brother calls you and tells you to come. He needs your help, he says. As soon as you arrive--somehow waking up in the abandoned train tunnel--you start hearing the voice of what obviously is the ghost of a little boy, Timmy. Timmy doesn't sound too threatening and promises to help you.

So you go in:

Looking down on the reception area

But can you get out?

Notice the camera angle of that shot of the reception area above. That's one of the things that puts Boakes' games a cut above. He's a real photographer and knows about such things as camera angles. See how it makes the game seem involving and dynamic, even though the whole thing is just a slideshow presentation?

Mostly this is a puzzle game and the puzzles really are pretty darned good. Added to it all is serious suspense that comes in the form of little sounds that surprise you wherever you go: one note on a violin, a kind of light zipping sound, a ghostly voice that says, "here." 

That audio is another thing that make Boakes' games better than the average. Really and truly, nobody does that kind of creepy, scary audio better. He never slugs you in the face with it. It's just there, kind of under the surface, all the way through, and you never know when it will reappear.

At any rate, as you solve the puzzles, get into new areas and learn more about what's going on, and get more and more scared in this simple little game, you'll find out why this original Darkfall game has lasted so long.

Play it! Shoot, it only costs $4.99 on Steam! (It costs the same on Amazon, but comments complain that the link is bad, so beware.) Best value in gaming.