SamNMax
09-25-2004, 12:51 PM
Boy. It's been a while.
A lot of people have never heard of The Dark Crystal. Yeah, yeah. It's a really nerdy movie, but I'm talking about the game. The Dark Crystal was a text adventure for the Apple 2 made by Sierra in 1984. Even then, this game was unnoticed. It came out just before the realease of King's Quest, so why would anyone bother with a text adventure when they could have the incredible world of Daventry to explore? Well, they might have missed out on a lot... or not.
You won't know until you read my review of The Dark Crystal.
Story: I was never too fond of the movie's story, so needless to say I wasn't very interested in what was going on in the game. And if you've never seen the movie, you won't know what's going on due to it's abrupt ending and beggining.
You play as Jen, a... well, I don't know what he is. He kind of looks like a mole, or a moncheechee. Anyway, he's just minding his own bussiness until this bird/wise old man tells Jen to meet in his cave. The bird guy tells Jen of the evil lurking in their homeland and the source of it's power: The Dark Crystal. It isn't long before Jen meets the love of his life; an identicle mole-thing named Kira... and her Furby. Now they must team up to destroy the crystal and rid the land of evil forever.
DC does little to draw you in. I know it's an Apple 2 game, but there is little to no inroduction or any backstory whatsoever. And talking to people does no help. If you want to know about the story, you either have to watch the movie or read the manual.
Story get's a 5/10
Graphics: TDC is one of those text adventures that have motionless pictures to draw you in. Sure, the artwork is above average and there is some good color here. But I wish they showed the important stuff, like objects that you have to pick up. Sometimes these visuals don't make much sence and are a tad confusing. Ofen making the player think to do something completely irrelevent from the actuall solution to a puzzle.
Graphics get a 6/10
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/tomatoes/168/darkcrys/intoDC/game/title.gif http://lavender.fortunecity.com/tomatoes/168/darkcrys/intoDC/game/game1.gif http://lavender.fortunecity.com/tomatoes/168/darkcrys/intoDC/game/game2.gif http://spacemul.emu-france.com/images/Apple%20II/3/12393.png
Sound/Music: This is an easy one. There is no sound or music. It's a text adventure. Well, except for the annoying flute sound.
Sound/Music gets an inneffective 1/10
Gameplay: I really don't like text adventure gameplay. And playing The Dark Crystal, I can remember why.
I remember spending way too much time trying to input the correct commands and have stupid "I don't know how to xxxx something" messages.
The descriptions of the location in DC tell you nothing and a lot of the puzzles are just too obscure. The incredibly frequent amount of death doesn't do much good either. The descriptions of locations don't tell you if there is items for taking, making dead ends appear way too much and having gamers resort to a walkthrough. Puzzles are no different. You'll spend hours trying to figure out what the hell to do only to relize that you need an object you didn't pick up at the very beggining of the game, or relizing you need an object that you didn't know you had.
This gameplay was pretty good for the time. But damn. It's aged terribly.
Gameplay gets a 7/10
I don't think anyone missed out on much. But The Dark Crystal is a pretty fun little game that has it's charms. Still, gamers are much better of with KQ.
I give The Dark Crystal a 6.8/10.
A lot of people have never heard of The Dark Crystal. Yeah, yeah. It's a really nerdy movie, but I'm talking about the game. The Dark Crystal was a text adventure for the Apple 2 made by Sierra in 1984. Even then, this game was unnoticed. It came out just before the realease of King's Quest, so why would anyone bother with a text adventure when they could have the incredible world of Daventry to explore? Well, they might have missed out on a lot... or not.
You won't know until you read my review of The Dark Crystal.
Story: I was never too fond of the movie's story, so needless to say I wasn't very interested in what was going on in the game. And if you've never seen the movie, you won't know what's going on due to it's abrupt ending and beggining.
You play as Jen, a... well, I don't know what he is. He kind of looks like a mole, or a moncheechee. Anyway, he's just minding his own bussiness until this bird/wise old man tells Jen to meet in his cave. The bird guy tells Jen of the evil lurking in their homeland and the source of it's power: The Dark Crystal. It isn't long before Jen meets the love of his life; an identicle mole-thing named Kira... and her Furby. Now they must team up to destroy the crystal and rid the land of evil forever.
DC does little to draw you in. I know it's an Apple 2 game, but there is little to no inroduction or any backstory whatsoever. And talking to people does no help. If you want to know about the story, you either have to watch the movie or read the manual.
Story get's a 5/10
Graphics: TDC is one of those text adventures that have motionless pictures to draw you in. Sure, the artwork is above average and there is some good color here. But I wish they showed the important stuff, like objects that you have to pick up. Sometimes these visuals don't make much sence and are a tad confusing. Ofen making the player think to do something completely irrelevent from the actuall solution to a puzzle.
Graphics get a 6/10
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/tomatoes/168/darkcrys/intoDC/game/title.gif http://lavender.fortunecity.com/tomatoes/168/darkcrys/intoDC/game/game1.gif http://lavender.fortunecity.com/tomatoes/168/darkcrys/intoDC/game/game2.gif http://spacemul.emu-france.com/images/Apple%20II/3/12393.png
Sound/Music: This is an easy one. There is no sound or music. It's a text adventure. Well, except for the annoying flute sound.
Sound/Music gets an inneffective 1/10
Gameplay: I really don't like text adventure gameplay. And playing The Dark Crystal, I can remember why.
I remember spending way too much time trying to input the correct commands and have stupid "I don't know how to xxxx something" messages.
The descriptions of the location in DC tell you nothing and a lot of the puzzles are just too obscure. The incredibly frequent amount of death doesn't do much good either. The descriptions of locations don't tell you if there is items for taking, making dead ends appear way too much and having gamers resort to a walkthrough. Puzzles are no different. You'll spend hours trying to figure out what the hell to do only to relize that you need an object you didn't pick up at the very beggining of the game, or relizing you need an object that you didn't know you had.
This gameplay was pretty good for the time. But damn. It's aged terribly.
Gameplay gets a 7/10
I don't think anyone missed out on much. But The Dark Crystal is a pretty fun little game that has it's charms. Still, gamers are much better of with KQ.
I give The Dark Crystal a 6.8/10.