League of Light 1: Dark Omens

League of Light: Dark Omens
by Mariaglorum - July, 2013

Series links:  League of Light 1: Dark Omens, League of Light 2: Wicked Harvest, League of Light 3: Silent Mountain, League of Light 4: The Gatherer, League of Light 5: Edge of Justice

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition



The year is 1866. You've travelled for days to reach a castle hidden deep in the Carpathian Mountains only to discover you've been asked to join the mysterious League of Light, a secret group dedicated to fighting dark forces. You've barely said yes before you're sent on your first mission, to investigate a beast that is terrorizing the mountain village of Sorrow's Well. Is this beast real? Who's behind it? What's really going on in the Dark Lord's castle on the hill? No one ever said being in the League would be easy! Face supernatural beasts in the League of Light: Dark Omens, a dark Hidden-Object Puzzle Adventure game.

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Bonus chapter featuring the kingdom of the dwarves
  
• Downloadable Soundtrack
  
• Concept Art Gallery
  
• Downloadable Wallpapers
  

For the Standard Edition

• Walkthrough
  
• Strategy Guide (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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Solid Entertainment
  

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The intro is interesting, if not devastating. We find out much about the story in sepia animations with an excellent voiceover. Throughout the game, we continue to find scrolls which will tell us more about the characters and history of our world. The animations are well done, the voice acting very good, and I love the view over our horse’s neck.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The graphics are very good, not astonishingly beautiful or artistically inspired, but easy on the eyes, very clear and bright, and with some great animations, like the banshee. Character animation and lip sync is also very good. There are a lot of cut scenes early on, they are active and exciting, speed up the story rather than slow us down, and display the impressive talents of the animation team.

WHAT’S HAPPENING
As a newly inducted member of the League of Light we set forth to eradicate an evil presence in a village in the mountains. Things get exciting the minute we arrive, and we are soon attempting to save a damsel in distress, fight demonic beasts, and overcome the dark lord. In other words, the usual heroics. Looks like fun ;)

MAKING PROGRESS
HO scenes come in two forms. We have “find & use” (progressive) grey shaded pictures. We also have interactive lists which include small puzzles as part of the interaction. The puzzles and mini-games are not as frequent, but they are well conceived and fun. None of them really struck me as being too hard. Getting around is fairly straightforward, I used the interactive jump map a fair bit, but didn’t miss the hint (it’s a “nothing to do here” one). There’s also a journal, but I didn’t make much use of that either. It is not a long game (9 chapters, timer said 3.5hr for me), but is enough so that you don’t feel you’ve missed out. The ending is very abrupt, but is not setting you up for the CE.

BLING!
The CE has some top quality extras. The stock standards are there, bonus chapter (nothing special), SG and gallery, as well as achievements that are brilliant and diverse and include one for a simple trivia test about the game, different collectibles, and a jigsaw game that you can only play if you get the other awards. The concept art is marvellous and seems to be scenes cut from the game. They are so good I was really disappointed that they had been cut, and that they could not be saved to my pc. I would have loved them as wallpapers.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS
Is the CE worth the additional cost? I just don’t know, but it’s a good solid game in either edition. Interesting and pleasant to play, not going to give you brain strain, but I doubt it will bore you either.

I Recommend This Game!