Darkemere: Orcs, Magic swords and Power rings - Amiga

Darkmere is an adventure game set in a fantasy universe, with much reference to Tolkien's. You play Ebryn, son of Gildorn. Your father, too old himself to go on such an adventure, sends you to investigate the evil curse that is plaguing your land. The game introduction starts as Ebryn gets teleported in town, and while he slowly materializes, a mighty creepy description sets the atmosphere. Creatures are roaming the abandoned streets, and as the chilly wind bites at you, you can hear the screams of their victims in the distance.

Your journey starts at the city front gate and your first goal will be to find a way out, hoping to reach a wizard who will shed light on the evil mystery, the Darkmere curse.

This beefy old guy brought a pipe to a swordfight.

For quite some time now, I've been wondering why your father, in his mighty wrinkled wisdom, teleports you right at the city gate, but on the wrong side, just a few feet away from where you should be. And let me tell you, this has pretty heavy consequences. To gain your way out, you'll have to find the password so that the gatekeeper will let you out, which will imply you going on a looting frenzy, exploring all the houses you can possibly enter to trade stuff for an info on who might know this bloody secret word.

This being said, and even though you'll probably curse this gatekeeper for being so dense, the whole process is quite amusing. You'll get to fight orcs, dragons and mice with your Bilboish glowing magic sword, collect tons of loot in a bottomless bag, and draw maps of the game to avoid wandering around aimlessly like a decapitated chicken, as I did way too often playing this game. Not the game's fault, just me being lazy.

Don't get me wrong, it's overall a cool game and it has a great atmosphere supported by nice sound and lighting effects. The gameplay is pretty smooth, you can swing your sword right, left and upwards or guard yourself with it. The sword also has an interesting mechanism, it gives you life back from wounding enemies, and hurts you for hitting innocents. All the other actions you'll have to perform happen in a contextual menu with options to examine, take, question, etc. All in all it certainly demands dedication, you'll see what I mean if you happen to actually draw maps of the different places you'll visit, but it's well worth it if like me, you appreciate this type of game.

Rating for Darkmere: 7 out of 9 Rings of power.


Darkmere, The Nightmare's Begun
Developed by Zero Hour for Core Design; released in 1993
Platform: Amiga (ECS, OCS)