Darkestville Castle is amusing, cleverly written, and for the most part pleasantly unpretentious. While all the characters are wacky, two of them are suspiciously stereotypical, in one case to lampoon political correctness in the face of genetic determinism and in another either as the result of a lack of authorial imagination or as a reflection of the developers' views of western society.
That said, the minimal politics aren't putting me off the game, and I have progressed in fits and starts, the fits occurring only when it fail to pay attention to conversational hints. I exited the game to write this because I am about two thirds of the way through a conversation based puzzle with tech support from hell to change a password for an inter-dimensional elevator. It has taken me more time to figure out several solutions that are obvious in retrospect than it may for other players. I laughed out loud when I realized what to do about the talking dice.
I was not immediately enthralled with Darkestville Castle because the opening is sparse. Engagement took around 30 minutes, and then the careful and artful attention to narrative structure sucked me right in.
Big upside: no extraneous collectibles. Darkestville Castle won an award at Casual Connect but this not a casual game.
Darkestville Castle, characterization warts and all, is--as was said elsewhere--a true gift to adventure gamers.
EDITED TO ADD: I'm almost finished. I am delighted with the game, which leans heavily to try everything with everything if I haven't been paying attention to cues and clues. I usually haven't.
Last edited by 8dognight; 10/29/17 09:38 AM.
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