The Unwanted Experiment
Dark Dome Studios
The second in the Dark Dome series, I have had it loaded on my pc since
I finished the earlier one. It is tailor made to dip in and out of when
the mood takes me, and I have just now come to the end.
A scientist has moved into a house on the edge of Hidden Town, setting
up a laboratory in the basement. Strange shapes were then seen moving
near the house, and Erik decides to investigate. Discovering the
entrance to the basement he breaks in, only to be surprised by the
scientist. He awakes to find himself tied to a chair and the game
begins.
As with the previous game, four rooms await, and you point-and-click
your way through them. In each room, what you see on screen is what
there is, the scene not sliding or moving around. You might though move
closer in to better investigate the bits and pieces in each room.
Cupboards, tables and chests for instance, or the items within or upon
them. Many will be locked or need solving in some other way (e.g.,
rewire that electrical panel) in order to move on.
All four rooms are available from the start, but the things you do and
learn across them all will be applied back and forth across the game’s
conundrums. There are quite a few, and all of them are explicable given
the clues involved. Assuming of course you can put them together. A hint
button can help if you need it.
But wait! At a certain point in the game four further rooms become
available, as does a playable companion. Working together is the key to
getting out, and you can flip between each character at will.
Conveniently they share the inventory, so what one has will be available
to the other.
Speaking of which, the items you gather will be displayed in a ribbon
bottom of screen. Click to try and deploy them in the game world or on
each other. You might also find books which can be rifled through for
clues and turning things on and off can be useful.
I thought this game was somewhat harder than the first, but the hint
button will prevent you being stuck for any longer than you want to be.
A few solves were a tad fanciful, but it’s a fanciful story so that was
more than ok. Some solves were rather appealing, a product of how the
puzzle was constructed, and there is a puzzle with the option to skip if
sliders aren’t to your liking. The extra rooms and playable character
were both surprising and a satisfying addition.
There are no hotspots, so just click on things to see if anything might
happen. The simple visual style helps in that there aren’t huge amounts
of detail to have to click on. I liked how it looked, and the sounds are
provided by effects and a soundtrack. There is no spoken word, the
minimal amount of dialogue being read.
You can save at will, but only to a single save point, and you can turn
on autosave as well (a little message will appear top left when it
occurs). There are two endings, and if you get the wrong one the game
just lets you try again.
The occasional cutscene added to the mix, and a few hours should see you
through.
As with the earlier game, once I finished some Premium Content was
available. It involved a new room, additional puzzles and a cutscene
that is clearly an intro to the next game. It involves a witch, and is
being downloaded as we speak.
I played on:
OS: Windows 11, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB
Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB
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