Thanks Ana!

Hopefully another player will be along to help you out.

Thank you so much for the first look, flotsam. This is indeed an interesting game and it's great that it is being resurrected.

And thank you too, Drac.

Good afternoon everyone; well we went from a blizzard to freezing temps. it's -13 but with the wind chill it is -33. It's just horrible out there. This is one gal that can't wait for summer. Anyway, have a great day everyone.

Silent Hill 1 to 3 are actually set in Silent Hill. But Silent Hill 4 isn't, and is the first one that isn't; but it is in the same "universe" as the other games. They wanted to expand the universe, so that's probably why several games aren't set in Silent Hill. The bigger the universe, the more games and products they can make. Most IP owners want to do that to grow the business. The Marvel universe (or multiverse) includes stories as diverse as Howard the Duck and Black Panther.

Is your email/password problem now resolved?

Looks good to me, Mad

Good morning manXman.

great finish!

One of my all time favorite movie quotes OldBroad :yes:

Thanks, BET 🙂

Previously released as The Dark Eye in 1996, this is a self described piece of "narrative driven exploration," involving stop-motion puppetry and video collage that will take you literally inside three Poe tales.

In each of the tales you get to play both the protagonist and the victim, either sequentially or by jumping from one character to the other at certain moments. Flickering eyes are the giveaway, and whilst I have yet to take up that opportunity in this first 60 minutes, I remember it as an intriguing aspect when I played the original. I intend to give it a go once I proceed further.

You inhabit each of two characters in the particular tale, and progress by finding and engaging with the relevant hotspots. There is no puzzling as such, the challenge being to do what is required to progress the proceedings. You might engage with other characters, pick up an item here or there, but it's fundamentally about the storytelling.

Whilst it's all point and click, the nuances of how the experience works is a little opaque, but you can consider that part of the puzzling. Or you can get the 'survival guide' from your original boxed version (a very good box it is too) and review how things work. It relevantly explains the Soul Jump (the flickering eyes), the various versions of the Hand of Fate cursor (including the little side to side caress that is essential at times) and how the phrenology map works. It doesn't tell you everything though, not least of all that when the 'waking world' goes blue, you are looking for a reflection to trigger the alternative Poe reality.

As I said, you can consider how the worlds work to be part of the challenge, but I do think the availability of the manual somewhere would be helpful.

It looks surrealistically interesting, even given its age, and the sounds and the voice acting are rather good (did I mention narration is by Wiliam S Burroughs?). Animations can take a little while to trigger so be patient. The game autosaves exclusively, and I have yet to fathom its intricacies.

That is largely because of a number of lock-ups that required me to control-alt-delete to overcome, which tended to happen when I wanted to save and exit (double click Esc). Half the time I ended up with a black screen of death. More frustratingly, the load screen on activating the second character in the first tale refuses to move on, in effect preventing further progress. I might be able to work around it by replaying the previous character and 'soul jumping' into this one, but having gained early access I am hopeful that this will be sorted by the makers somehow. Having bricked up Fortunato, I am keen to get his perspective.

Thanks Marian!

I think they will be right up your street, hagatha!😊