Dark Fall: The Journal

The most recent bundle of PC games I grabbed was an all-adventure game bundle; the games are usually kinda short, focus on solving puzzles, and aren't too rough on my the non-gaming laptop I play them on. Knowing nothing about any of the games I started in with Deponia which was mostly good aside from it's terrible plot and cast of characters; I followed that up here with Dark Fall: The Journal, which is a very, very different style of game. For one this is more of a horror-style puzzle game that manages to creep me out the way Myst did years ago- you're completely secluded for the entire game, searching for symbols whose relevence won't be apparent until the final puzzle. You're exploring an abandoned train station/hotel for signs of your lost brother, and slowly unraveling the mystery of why people keep disappearing from the place. Also unlike Deponia you're not watching cartoonish characters in third-person, but exploring in first-person in that style of 3-D graphics from the early 2000s that immediately dated themselves. The game was a struggle; within a few hours I assumed I had exhausted all exploration and had no idea where the hell any of this was supposed to lead. Upon checking a walk-through however I realized I missed almost everything, including that game-length hunt for symbols and got to work just plowing through it, because hey, who cares? I'd be surprised if anyone I knew could get through this game without a walk-through, not because the puzzles are particularly tough or require a lot of thought, but because you hardly even realize when they're there in front of you. There are dozens of red herrings strewn about the hotel that seem to only be there for frustration's sake; at one point you pick up some kind of electrometer which goes off when you're near the scene of some ghostly activity- important clue? Hell no! It's just some diversion from the puzzle at hand that provides no hints whatsoever. A good adventure game rewards you upon solving one puzzle with a hint or tool used for the next; Dark Fall: The Journal makes no attempt to do this. I think the developers spent a little too much time trying to fill the game with spooky atmosphere and backstory rather than make it an enjoyable gaming experience. Oh well! At least it was short!