Who doesn’t like llamas? Especially epic ones??
But I digress.
Meet Cid, a demon spawn that fell to earth and now spends his nights
playing “evil” (read annoying) pranks on the good citizens of
Darkestville. Except tonight he can’t leave the castle, as his nemesis
Dan Teacup has barricaded the door. A short prelude later, and Dan has
been neutralised, but it was all but a ruse. The Romero Brothers, famed
demon hunters, have been hired by Dan to rid the town of Cid. They
arrive, and a case of mistaken identity involving a pet fish later, they
depart, and the game proper gets going.
Three chapters and about 5 hours later, Cid isn’t perhaps as evil
as he might like to think. In between, he will have done all manner of
inventory things to achieve a plethora of objectives. Some are
straightforward, others not so, several absurd and a few arguably
obtuse. I confess to not having a clue at times, and to resorting to the
tried and true just do things to see what might work. There are lots of
clues though, with a bit of lateral thinking, and so it pays to talk to
everyone about everything.
I reckon about half my playtime was wondering what to do next,
searching and trying and clicking and head scratching. I did have to
look at a walkthrough more than once, or I would likely still be
wondering (and wandering). If you like inventory conundrums, and don’t
mind a MacGyver moment or three, there will be plenty here for you.
Chapters 1 and 2 both take place in town, but once Cid opens the
demon trunk (a la Pandora’s chest) instead of town filled with local
folk, we now have a town filled with demons, enabling the questing to
essentially start afresh. Chapter 3 takes place in the Underworld, once
you solve one of the more complicated conversation puzzles and can
access the gate, and again the conundrums “reset”. There are about
half a dozen fetching and gathering “recipe” quests, finding the
right items to create potions, summon ghosts, and even make coffee.
It’s a colourful 2D animated world, populated by all manner of
interestingly drawn characters. Cid is tall and angular, a touch of the
Jack Skellington about him, others anything but. Large and brawny or
small and rather disgusting, they all suit the world in which they are
drawn. Only Roxy (the female Romero Brother) left something to be
desired, less bounce definitely being called for.
Many like to banter, with many an interesting yarn to spin. The
unionist pig, the lycanthrope campaigning for equal rights, the
vegetable demon seeking freedom from carnivores, and the entrepreneurial
hotdog vender are but a few. There is a chuckle or three to be had, or
even more depending upon your sense of humour. There is humour to in
other things (sight gags, poking fun at the genre), and I confess to the
cliff-hanger bringing more than a wry smile to my face.
The musical score suits events, the voice acting is good, and the
ambient sound rounds things out.
Darkestville plays in the third person and is totally point and
click. The treasure chest bottom left contains your inventory, in which
you can examine items, a sometimes useful task. Click to use in the game
world, right click to put away. Top right is a “!” which highlights
the hotspots, top left of the menu. Click a hotspot and you have the
choice to talk, look, or a variant of take. The game saves when you
exit, and picks up when you restart. It’s all simple and very
straightforward.
All up, while I would have preferred a little less MacGyvering and a
little more direction at times, I had a pretty good time with Cid and
co. If these sorts of games are your thing, I expect you will too.
I played on:
OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-6700 4GHz
