Hi,
ok, first i should warn you, i love the series, so i might be a little biased ;)
While the first one, The Journal, focus mainly around an abandoned hotel on a train station, the hotel is pretty big and there are a couple of areas to explore on and around the station, so, no, it's not half a dozen screens. The second one, Lights Out, it's not centered around just one area, and some of the areas are quite extensive too, so again, no, it's not just a few screens.
I find the locations of both games interesting and very detailed, great atmoshphere.
The premise for both games is pretty much the same you mentioned, (mostly) lonely exploration and solving puzzles to uncover the mistery. Also, both games have quite a bit of reading material (journals, notes, newspaper clips, etc), some of it containing relevant information to advance in the game, some of it giving you lots of background info on the location and/or on the (mostly absent) people, which is something i really like because it allows you to put togheter a backstory that provides a better insight of what's going on and why.
Pixel hunting is not an issue, or at least i don't remember it as one. Maybe on a couple of instances, but definitely not a 'feature' ;)
If i had to choose one of them, well, i guess the first one is my favourite, but i enjoyed them both immensly.
I already mentioned i might be a bit biased rigth ? Ok, keeping that in mind, i would recommend the DF games to any adventure fans, even more so to horror adventure fans.

I've only played Dark Fall 1, but I'll tell you what I know.
As far as the how scary the game is, that's mostly up to you. Personally, there was only one occasion in the game where I really felt frightened, and that was when I encountered the titular Dark Fall itself. However, besides that, once I wised up to the fact that the game cannot actually kill you by any means, the ambient noises weren't so much scary as they were annoying.
In theory, the game does everything right. The ambient noises, the shadows, the rats scuttling about, the unexpected phone rings, the ghosts talking to you, the creepy writing on the wall that can only be seen with special goggles, and the ouiji board that tells you you're going to die are all unnerving, but there isn't really a strong sense of danger except for that one time...
As far as puzzles go, the game is not exceptionally complicated, but it does require you to be very, very observant, and to write down as much as you can discover about the game world. The storyline is semi-linear, in that your objective in the game is basically to find a number of objects and use them in the appropriate place, but you can gather these objects in any order. Generally, there's no pixel hunting, but sometimes the logical connections you must make are unclear.
The area you can explore is pretty large, for a point-and-click game, and the many rooms you can look into are deliberately arranged in contrast to each other to psyche you out, I believe.
I'd recommend it if you can spare the cash, but it's not joining my top ten list of adventure games anytime soon. I suggest that you go and play Sanitarium instead.

Haha . . . you may be biased, but you've given me lots of good information. I'm glad to hear that there's plenty of exploration, good backstory, no pixel hunting, etc.
These games are pretty cheap--I mean, they were made in the 2000s and cost only six dollars. So if they're half as good as you say they are, that's a good deal.
The sale on Sanitarium a few weeks ago was actually what brought me to this website. Once I finish Sanitarium--and the other three games I also ended up buying--I'll probably buy Gabriel Knight. But Dark Fall is definitely going on my wish list, hopefully to be purchased sooner rather than later.

eh, eh, yes, the price tag is definitely inviting.
You mentioned you love horror games, so i'm fairly confident you'll enjoy them.
If/when you get around playing them let us know what you think.

I think I may have said this before, but... These games really need to be on GOG!

I know! But hardly anyone has voted for them on the wishlist, so I doubt they're a top priority for GOG . . . even with their great Activision agreement.
Luckily, there *are* a lot of votes for some great horror games--Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill, Grim Fandango--so perhaps those will fare better eventually.

I don't think I ever heard of Shivers before you mentioned it, so maybe obscurity is the problem. Also, I don't think Grim Fandango qualifies as a "horror" game. The paper-mache skeletons aren't really meant to scare anyone.

I actually haven't had the chance to play it yet, so I defer to your definition.
Yeah, I think that's the issue. Shivers and its sequel weren't groundbreaking--the premise and gameplay were modelled on existing games like The Seventh Guest and Myst. So I don't think they got too much attention when they first came out, and they get even less attention today since they haven't been enshrined as classics . . . although they do have a few devoted fans, like this person:
[url=]http://www.redbeansoup.net/shivers/shiversfan.html#1[/url]

Dark Fall 1 is good, normal scary fun. it's my least favorite of the two.
I love Dark Fall 2. It's less scary and more eerie, but I think it's a much tenser and interesting game. it's grounded in some realistic thingsd and also some real ghost myths so it works very well. Light's Out is definately recommended.

JUST FINISHED DARK FALL - LOST SOULS, play this with the lights on

***SPOILERS BELOW***
5
4
3
2
1
...
I only played through it once so far, have to replay it to get a better feel of some of the story's details
The game is very good and the enhancements made on the Wintermute engine make the game look and feel very polished, but in terms of story i really didn't liked the way some of the...uh...'characters' from The Journal were thrown into this story.
Weren't they all supposed to have been set free at the end of The Journal ? It doesn't make any sense to me to have them still trapped at the hotel, it kinda feels like a cheesy way to artificially stretch the lenght of the game.
Besides, the Inspector-Mr. Bones-Amy triangle was working fine, so the only reason i can think for those other 'characters' to have been brought back is that the focus on that triangle was lost somewhere along the way.
The Amy-Dark Fall relation also isn't clear and it doesn't make any sense to me.
Overall Lost Souls is the best in the series in many ways, but strictly in terms of story and narrative The Journal still wins hands down.
Nevertheless, congrats to Jonathan Boakes for yet another great game and for managing a new level of eerieness and creepiness. In terms of atmosphere this one is certainly remarkable and personnaly i welcome the darker tone in terms of settings and 'decor' and the less vague subject of the main story.
But like i said, this is my impression after just one playthrough. I have to replay it to see if i missed anything that could make some sense of the story related aspects i mentioned above.

I think the best of jonathan's games would have be the lost crown, you have people that you talk to throughout the game , a brilliant story also.

I tend to prefer 1st person and lonely exploration, The Lost Crown is 3rd person and relies on NPC interaction and dialogues so the exact opposite of what i like in horror/spooky adventure games.
Setting personnal preferences aside, i've enjoyed The Lost Crown and it's definitely a good game, even if i think the story was a bit too ambitious and as a result some elements feel out of place.
Still, i really hope it comes to gog at some point. Same for Lost Souls.

well lost souls is a fairly new game so I should imagine it won't be on gog for a while. I actually downloaded it for $5.00 from directdrive2