Just finished Darkfall 2 immediately after completing 1 and I have to say the graphics and sound ambiance was so poor in comparison. In DF 1 you are treated to a fully fleshed environment, lovingly drawn with plenty to explore, all art work pretty accurate for the time periods. The biggest draw was the outstanding sound track. Almost the full game played without background music, just chilling ambiance of creaks, groans, sounds and moans. It was an outstanding game experience.

DF 2 was totally different. The graphics are pretty bad, with featureless swaths of bland basic texture wrapped environments. There are plenty of zoom in hotspots that yield absolutely nothing, indeed even worse basic texture mapping. At least in DF1 a zoom gave an even clearer view of an item or area or gave info. Nothing like the first one where everything is fully fleshed out in decent resolution. The quality picks up later on as the story unfolds but still what could have been lush adventuring in gorgeous environments ends up being pretty lame.

The sound was also lacking, you could pick up on the patterns of 'random' creaks and groans and once that happened all suspense was out the door. They also didnt have much sense to them, and seemed to be just randomly generated, rather than being based on what you were doing and where like in DF 1.

I stuck with the game after its poor intro due to being an immense fan of jonathan Boakes story telling, and I am glad I did. No one can spin a story with such eerie love and care. And in DF 2 that story does enfold in depth despite the low budget effects, or rather... in spite of them.

I just cant help wondering what the game would have been like with decent graphics and sound. I look forward to seeing what DF 3 has in store, at the same time dreading what budget cuts might cause

Personally, I love Dark Fall: Lost Souls. I understand many of Boakes' fans dismiss it as the worst of the Dark Fall games so far (4 is in the works, as you might have known), but I really like it. The story may not be as good as the one in Dark Fall: The Journal, and I understand why so many fans don't like Dark Souls all that much, as it might seem like little more of a poor man's remake of The Journal, revisiting the same location with upgraded graphics and not much more. I won't spoil the game for you, but let's just say that the Dark Fall doesn't have as great an importance as it did in the first game, so there's that.

In all honesty, I like 3 better than 1. I know I'm in the minority, here, but I really think the graphics overhaul brought better ambiance to the game. It looks great, in my opinion, and even if the story wasn't good (which it is), or if the puzzles were way too easy (which they aren't), the looks of the game itself would have made for a very eery ambiance that makes the game feel really special. Sound design is amazing, too, way better than in Lights Out (which I consider to be the worst of them, so far... that sci-fi part at the end really made me cringe, and I only finished it because I really enjoy Boakes' work, out of respect for the man).

I really hope you enjoy it, but take what I said with a pinch of salt, bearing in mind most fans think it is the worst game out of the three.

N.B.: a word of advice: the camera slowly turning takes some getting used to, but as soon as you've been playing the game for a few minutes you'll probably feel like it's a nice addition to the game play. I did, for one.

I'm really struggling with their choice to use 3d viewing. It really makes the game tiresome, nausea inducing and clunky.

Shame really as the ambiance and gorgeous graphics are back in full force. (the sound of the lurker in the bathroom made me yelp lol)

right now I have spent long amounts of time struggling to get the mouse icon to even move the basic items in game ( the box with the doll inside, and currently going on 15min trying to get the winch to lift the brick box. its just not working, even after reading walkthroughs and watching lets play vids where even they struggled thru this gimmick). its frustrating and leeching any enjoyment of the game.


Add in black screens during transitions and those ridiculous long pauses between each normal turn, with your view swirling making me sick to my stomach..........


blah, going to take a break from it and see if i can stomach it tomorrow. but so far super disappointing. did they even beta test this with normal players?

cheers mate! dont mean to sound so grumpy, even the worst day in gaming is still a good day eh