Dark Fall

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Dark Fall

Developer(s)	XXv Productions
Publisher(s)	XXv Productions (UK) The Adventure Company (world-wide)
Designer(s)	Jonathan Boakes
Engine	Made with Macromedia
Release date(s)	June 2002 (UK) July 23, 2003 (world-wide)
Genre(s)	First-person adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (13+) PEGI: 12+ PEGI: 11+ (FI)
Platform(s)	Windows
Media	CD (1)
System requirements	Pentium 233 MHz CPU, 32 MB RAM, 24x CD-ROM drive, 640x480 with 32-bit colour capable graphics card, Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, DirectX 8

Dark Fall is a British first-person horror-adventure game which was independently released in 2002 by XXv Productions. It was released world-wide (and re-released in the UK) by The Adventure Company in 2003 with Dark Fall: The Journal as the box title. Dark Fall was designed by Jonathan Boakes who based it on his own short story of the same name. The story was influenced heavily by the Sapphire & Steel episode The Railway Station and Boakes' own exploration of an isolated, abandoned train station. The game has developed a small cult following. A sequel titled Dark Fall II: Lights Out was released in 2004.

1 Plot
2 Gameplay
3 Characters
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot

The game opens with the player listening to the messages on their answering machine. One of the messages is from the player's brother, who's currently working on a redevelopment portfolio for his company. He pleads for the player to come to the old Dowerton train station in Dorset because something is very wrong. The player travels by train to Dowerton to help their brother, only to find out that he, as well as two other people, have disappeared in the past few hours. The player then discovers that the station has had a dark history, and that this isn't the first time people have vanished.

[edit] Gameplay

Dark Fall uses a simple point-and-click interface to move the player around and manipulate the environment. The player has a basic inventory which — due to the game's puzzle-based nature — only ever holds a few items. The player spends most of the game solving the numerous puzzles (such as translating an encrypted message, or opening a puzzle box) to find a myriad of symbols, the use for which eventually becomes apparent.

Contrary to a lot of modern adventure games, Dark Fall does not keep note of any information or clues to puzzles that the player comes across during the game, effectively forcing the player to keep track of every puzzle or detail themselves.

[edit] Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

These are the main characters and their backgrounds, in order of disappearance:

Tom Oliver: A soldier from the 1600s during the English Civil War, who was betrayed by his friend Will and taken by the dark fall while he was in the cellar of the Dowerton Inn. He was — according to game texts — a devout Protestant.

Tim Pike: An 11-year old boy who was captured by the dark fall while playing in the train tunnels, being the second mentioned disappearance. He leads you to the station, explains the set-up, and later helps you during the game.

The simultaneous disappearance of the next six are the cause of the closing of the hotel and station.

George Crabtree: Mysterious owner of the hotel. Upon his disappearcance, he was suspected of having murdered the others and then fled the scene. Oldest sibling of his family (he was in his sixties), and a gifted photographer.

Edith Penfold: Hostess of the station hotel, who enjoys music.

Betty Penfold: Daughter of Edith Penfold, who played the piano and trumpet. Hates "common" music, and played for the guests at the inn the night of their disappearance. Had a liking for Thomas Callum, a local boy.

Matilda Fly: An actress who was laughed out of the Empire Theatre. Spent her final days at the Dowerton train station.

Gloria Grable: A mysterious character who spent some time at the station hotel and supposedly drove a sports car, which can be found in the nearby barn.

Andrew Verney: An amateur astronomer, with a gentle, inquisitive nature, despite his penchant for red wine. He had apparently been a guest at the inn regularly for some years.

Thomas Callum: Not one of the vocal spirits, but he can be spoken to through the Ouija board. A local farm boy who loved Betty Penfold, the daughter of the hostess of Dowerton Inn, he also was one of the people who was consumed by the dark fall. But to the outside world, his was just a mysterious disappearance, for he was not known to be in the hotel — and certainly not as a paying guest.

Arther: George Crabtree's closest friend. Unlike the others, he died a natural death, killed in World War II; a romantic sort. He had a bad relationship with his father, and so took refuge at the Dowerton Inn.

Polly White: A university student who had been working on a project for school studying hauntings. She enjoys working with the computers.

Nigel Danvers: Also a university student, and a classmate of Polly's. He is familiar with photography, and enjoys Chinese food.

Pete Crowhurst: "Your" (the player-character's) older brother who has made a name for himself in the architecture field. He seems to eschew the idea of hauntings or spirits until the events of the game.

The Player: The player's character. Your last name would also be Crowhurst (assuming you share a name with your brother). You tend to leave your morning coffee lying about. You have an aloof relationship with your brother, but still care for his well-being.

Several other characters are mentioned, but do not have much gameplay connections. Constable Harold Perch was on the scene near the time of the disappearances incognito, but he couldn't have been Andrew Verney. There is a journal kept by a previous researcher in the 1980s mentioned, and he is also said to have disappeared.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

This game contains a plot and situations similar to a 1996 computer game titled AMBER: Journeys Beyond which was also made with Macromedia. It is not known whether the references are intentional or not.^[1]

It may not be noted in the instruction manual in the Adventure Company release but, there is a subtitle option which may be turned on or off by pressing the F1 key during gameplay.

There's an expensive American sports car in the story. But it is drawn to look like the Plymouth retro roadster of the 1990s. This is doubly anachronistic, for during the time period of the story, it was Britain who built sports cars and exported them to America.

In a 2007 interview, Boakes said that Dark Fall originally began as a short story and later as a small game that was only meant to be distributed to his friends and family. It was much later when he began to build props for the game (one of the first props he built was the haunted train station & hotel in Dowerton) that he decided to turn it into a full fledged commercial game.^[2]