Gothic Fiction: Dark Saga (Adventure-lite)

Gothic Fiction: Dark Saga
by ERS Game Studio - August, 2012

Available at:
Big Fish for PC as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
Big Fish for Mac as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
iWin as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition



Rescue your daughter and escape a cursed school in Gothic Fiction: Dark Saga! After moving to a small town in rural England, you and your daughter, Hannah, head out to visit a local school. But the brochure didn’t mention anything about the ancient evil lurking there, waiting for one last soul to complete her insidious plan. Can you rescue Hannah before she becomes part of the school’s terrible legacy? Find out in this spine-tingling new Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game!

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Bonus gameplay
  
• Integrated strategy guide
  
• Wallpapers and screensavers
  
• Concept art
  
• Musical soundtrack
  

Blog Walkthrough at Big Fish

Click images to enlarge

I bought this during the Labor Day sale. It's a pretty good, creepy adventure. I am still playing it. Nice graphics, good but confusing gameplay. I am not very good at remembering where places are these days so I have to check the Map often to figure out where I am and where I need to go. if you like dark, creepy games, this is a pretty good one.

I've been told that there's not a single hidden object scene in the game, and I can't wait to try it!

I can't recall a HOS but there may be one. It should be called an Interactive Adventure. You do have to find things to complete actions such as find the tape to fix the broken pipe. I have played so many games that I have a hard time remembering details of any particular one and I am still playing this one! At the same time I am also playing the latest Awakening which is a little easier to remember because I haven't played many like it.

Good Puzzle Only Adventure

  

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

This is NOT a Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure, although there are LOTS OF PUZZLES, there are NO HO SCENES.

The first thing I noticed about this game was the colours. Eerie iridescent green and black, highlighted occasionally with gold. VERY creepy and atmospheric. Also, of course, very dark, and that is one of the downsides of this game. Although the GRAPHICS are GOOD, they are NOT UP TO this developers usual STANDARD, and as a rule are too dark.

Also on the downside, the STORY is not carried through the game play. You lose all sense of purpose as you simply struggle to find your way around and collect the items you need to solve each of the PUZZLES, which range from SIMPLE to IMPOSSIBLE. In the beginning you get a good briefing of the circumstances and what is happening, but then little is said after that about WHY you’re doing all you’re doing.

Don’t get me wrong: this is a decent game, but there is a third complaint I have. The MAP, which is NOT A JUMP MAP, and is very complex, consisting of 6 smaller maps, is confusing as all heck. There is a circular symbol which is supposed to represent “location”, but what that means I could never work out. It was not where action was required, or had active tasks or anything else I could understand, so for all intents it was also NON-INTERACTIVE. HINT is of the ‘there is nothing in this area’ type. That is, ALMOST USELESS.

On the plus side we have some ENTERTAINING & UNUSUAL PUZZLES, many ORIGINAL, some of which I simply had to SKIP, because they were too difficult.

Also, the monsters you must face and defeat were very IMAGINATIVE & suitably CREEPY; depicted well, and defeated satisfactorily.

In all, NOT A BAD game, but not as good as some of the PUZZLE ADVENTURES we have seen lately.

I Recommend This Game!

P.S. I remember one of the best things about this game is that eerie (The Matrix) florescent green that looks so creepy.

I bought this game when it first came out. Loved it, all those eyeballs.

Eyeballs in this one, too?  Or are you thinking of Dreamscapes?  (Haven't played this one yet)

If I remember right, there were eyeballs in the big green um.....plant limbs?  

I'm just playing this game now.  Yes, there's eyeballs in the plants     I'm struggling though to keep playing this game.  Maybe because I'm playing it when it's so out of date, or maybe it's because it's from a certain developer.  I can't wait to get the kid out of there and finish     That really sounded heartless.  It's just one of those games that's a chore to play.   The only good thing I can find about it.... NO HOS.  Not one.  And of course, the eyeballs.  

I only ever played the demo and that felt like a chore to me. I really disliked the graphics, and the poison green colors? Yechh. Come to think of it I didn't last too long playing the demo. I certainly never made it to eyeballs or anything fun like that, lol.

I'm glad it wasn't just me who found this one a chore. It was a good enough game, but I found myself just wanting to get it finished too, and I couldn't figure out why. Normally, I don't like puzzle-only games, but I'm not entirely averse to them and I LOVED the creepy green stuff. Just didn't seem to be anything really involving about it.

So I guess you're not heartless after tesamoine - unless of course, the whole creepy bunch of us are!!  

The whole game just isn't making sense to me.  I love the fact that there's no HOS.  The puzzles, however, are ridiculously well ridiculous LOL.  They make little or no sense.  And the mother keeps finding paintings where the dialogue reads "this painting was touched by magic"  I'm just like,     I think I must be close to the end.  I've come across the "heart" of the plant.  And thank you.... now I don't feel so heartless.