Darkmere

STORY / GAMEPLAY
You play the part of prince Ebryn on a quest to discover the dark secrets of the Curse of Darkmere put upon your fathers Kingdom, trying to uncover the mysterious curse of the Darkmere and avenge the people of the village. You will have a real world to explore with many characters to interact with. These you must question to find out information to complete your quest. Some will stand in your way whilst others will help you. But most will want something in return. You dying father has given you the powerful sword with which he destroyed the mighty Dragon, but its powers can and must be increased. Your blade will glow when evil is near and thus be used as an early warning of danger. If you kill an evil character (such as Orcs) with the sword then your energy will be increased as the blade draws power from its victim. If however a good character is killed then your energy will be decreased as the sword will draw its power for you.
During your quest, you will have a real world to explore with many characters to interact with. These you must question to find out information to complete your quest. Some will stand in your way whilst others will help you. But most will want something in return. Character interaction is extremely simple to grasp, and the menu system which helps you negotiate your character though a seemingly endless environment, is the essence of simplicity to use. To access the Menu\Inventory press the Enter key or hold down the fire button for a short period of time.
In general, Darkmere is a pretty classy adventure-RPG titles, contained in a huge playing area, has interesting and very moody graphics, and contains objectives and puzzles that will hold your attention for a good while. Unfortunately, a map feature is missing, so be prepared to draw one yourself...

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics are extremely well suited and are cleverly crafted to give a very atmospheric feel. Even on the A500 they're drawn in 32-color mode and the detail and animation is just superb! Each level is brimming with detail (e.g. lights that illuminate the paths flicker in the half-light as a breeze passes), and landscapes are nicely detailed with massed of graphical objects to examine, search and interact with. The animation of all the characters within the game is extremely well executed too. Each character is fairly large and move and fight smoothly. As you journey around the many varied locations you'll encounter many little extra animations that, although unrelated to the plot, add that extra dimension of realism (e.g. rats and rabbits hop by).
Sound is atmospheric too. It offers a nicely-composed medieval-style introductory theme, while there are lots of sampled sound effects along with several ambient sounds at the back, which work nicely to the game's atmosphere.