Dark Fall II: Lights Out

Dark Fall II: Lights Out
Developer(s)	XXv Productions
Publisher(s)	The Adventure Company Darkling Room (2009 "Pins & Needles" edition) Iceberg Interactive (2009 British Horror Pack edition & Director's Cut)
Designer(s)	Jonathan Boakes
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	NA August 31, 2004[1] EU October 8, 2004[1] Director's Cut WW December 11, 2009[2]
Genre(s)	First-person adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	CD-ROM (1)

Dark Fall II: Lights Out (also known simply as Lights Out or Dark Fall 2) is a 2004 first-person horror/adventure game developed by XXv Productions and published by The Adventure Company for Microsoft Windows. It is an indirect sequel to the 2002 game Dark Fall. A third Dark Fall game, Dark Fall: Lost Souls, was released in November, 2009.

In 2009, Iceberg Interactive published a Director's Cut version of the game, which included new scenes, ghosts and puzzles.^[3]

Gameplay

Lights Out follows the same point-and-click style as the previous game. The player has a basic inventory which — due to game's puzzle-based nature — only ever holds a few items. The player spends most of the game solving the numerous puzzles.

Unlike most modern adventure games, Lights Out does not keep note of any information or clues which the player comes across during the game, effectively forcing the player to keep track of every puzzle or detail themselves.

Plot

The game begins in 1912, where the shores of Trewarthan, England are considered extremely dangerous, having cost many ships and lives to the shifting Whipside Sands beneath the water. Benjamin Parker, a cartographer has been commissioned by a local, Robert Demarion, to map the area in order to allow safer passage. Upon arriving, however, Parker notices that there is a lighthouse on an island out at sea that is not marked on any map – why would the area need to be mapped if there is a functioning lighthouse in the vicinity? Also upon arriving, he begins to have dreams of a metal container flying through space.

He goes to Demarion's to have breakfast, and whilst looking around, he finds several mentions of the lighthouse, and, hidden in Demarion's journal, a floppy disk, an item which Demarion found on the shores of the island and is unable to understand. He also reads that Demarion has discovered a tunnel under the lighthouse, and when he entered it, he heard singing and saw lights appear on the walls. Demarion later tells him the lighthouse is on an island called Fetch Rock, where it was built in 1890 to prevent accidents caused by the Whipside Sands. Demarion says that lighthouse has the reputation of being haunted and people in the village are afraid of it. He also says that several hours previously, a ship passed by the lighthouse and found it in darkness. As there is a heavy fog that night, this seems impossible, and Demarion is afraid that something has happened to the three lighthouse keepers; Oliver Drake, Robert Shaw and James Woolfe. Demarion asks Parker to go to the lighthouse to find out what has happened.

Parker arrives on Fetch Rock and soon encounters the voice of Robert Shaw, who tells him the Oliver Drake has turned into a demon and taken his soul. He then finds an unsent letter written by James Woolfe the previous day to his fiancé in which he tells her that he thinks Drake is possessed, as he has seen him turn into a blinding light and whisper the name "Malakai". Woolfe and Shaw plan to leave the next day (the day Parker has arrived), but the letter ends with Woolfe seeing a light underneath their door. Parker then finds a letter from Demarion to Drake written several weeks previously. In the letter, Demarion tells Drake that he has hired Parker and plans on sending him to the lighthouse. He says the local people are worried, and refers to past incidents on the island and talk of demons, which he wants to keep from Parker lest he refuse to go.

In Drake's journal, Parker finds that Drake had also been dreaming of the metal object flying through space. He also speaks of his "master", and how Parker is part of his master's plans. Drake says that when Parker arrives on the island, it will be "time for the final Dark Fall." He claims that his master owns the island but desperately wishes to leave. The last journal entry reads "I see you Parker." Parker is soon able to find the cave mentioned by Demarion, but when he enters, he sees a strange light and his surroundings change.

He finds himself on Fetch Island in 2004. He uses the floppy disk on a computer to find it contains an audio recording of a strange voice. The lighthouse itself is now a tourist visitor centre, although it has recently been closed because of several "incidents". Inside, Parker finds a book which explains that in 1912, the three lighthouse keepers disappeared, and Parker was blamed for their murder. It was believed he killed them and then committed suicide. The chief witness was Robert Demarion, who claimed to have seen Parker heading to the lighthouse in a boat the night the keepers disappeared. The author of the book however, finds it hard to believe that Parker murdered the three men. Parker also finds correspondence between Polly White (one of the ghost hunters from the original Dark Fall game) and the owner of the gift shop. White is convinced she is the reincarnation of James Woolfe, and wants to come to the island to conduct a ghost hunt. As the facility has recently lost its funding, the owner is more than happy for White to come. During regression hypnosis therapy, Polly claims that there were four "presences" in the lighthouse, but the fourth presence "doesn't exist in our time." She also claims Drake has "lost his soul." She says that Drake made a mistake in the basement by "releasing the darkness." She also says that "he" has been there forever. Parker then meets Polly in the lighthouse, and to help him, she gives him a map of the area. Parker then encounters the spirit of Woolfe, who tells him he tricked Polly into coming because he thought she could help him and Shaw escape from their entrapment. He now realises he was wrong and he advises Parker to save himself and Polly.

Parker returns to 1912 through a photograph. He encounters Shaw's spirit, who tells him that "it" knows Parker is there and has a task for him. He tells him that "Malakai is all around us." Parker is then transported to 2090 B.C. where he encounters the voice of Malakai, who tells him that many have tried to understand him, including "the Drake creature" and "the Magnus creature," but none have succeeded. Parker then finds the metal object both himself and Drake have dreamt about. The words "#4 D.E.O.S. Malakai" are written on it, and a computer terminal is accessible on its side.

Parker encounters Malakai in 2090 BC.

Parker then jumps to 2090 A.D. where Fetch Rock has become the home of D.E.O.S., a scientific research group working in the area of deep space exploration. Parker finds the plant deserted, and discovers that a worker named Magnus found the ruins of the old lighthouse at the bottom of an elevator shaft whilst performing maintenance and subsequently began to act strange. Parker discovers that the metal object in the cave is a deep space probe which worked on the principal of dark matter manipulation to jump across vast distances in milliseconds. Malakai was the fourth such probe, but unlike the others, he was equipped with a highly sophisticated AI system which effectively allowed him to control himself, choosing when and how to manipulate dark matter independently of his human creators. Parker discovers the Project Manager's notes, and learns that shortly after beginning his mission, Malakai encountered an "unknown event" which damaged his on-board systems. In a panic, Malakai tried to jump back to D.E.O.S. headquarters, but instead he disappeared from their scanners, materialising on Fetch Rock in 2090 B.C.

Parker travels back to the time of Malakai's arrival, and using clues he has picked up over the course of the game, he reprograms Malakai, who thanks him, and returns to his own time. The game then cuts to 1912, on the same foggy night that Parker went to the island. As the fog rolls across the sky, the lighthouse reignites.

Development and release

The game was heavily influenced by the still-unexplained real life disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in December 1900, and by "The Ballad of Flannan Isle" by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, which was also inspired by the incident, and which features in the game itself.^[4] Other influences include the Doctor Who television serial Horror of Fang Rock, and the ghost stories "Moon Dial" by Helen Cresswell and "A Warning to the Curious" by M. R. James.^[5]

In March 2009, Darkling Room began publishing a special Limited "Pins & Needles" Edition, containing Dark Fall: The Journal and Dark Fall: Lights Out, hint and solution guides for each game, a collection of ghost stories and a Dark Fall soundtrack CD. Each copy of the "Pins and Needles" edition is individually numbered, and signed by Jonathan Boakes.^[5] In November 2009, to coincide with the release of Dark Fall: Lost Souls, Iceberg Interactive published Adventures in Terror: British Horror Pack, containing Dark Fall: The Journal, Dark Fall: Lights Out and Shadow Tor Studios' Barrow Hill.^[4]

In December 2009, a Director's Cut of Lights Out was released.^[2] The new game included enhanced graphics, effects, music, and sound, although the interface remained largely unchanged. Several puzzles were also made a little easier, and the story was enhanced, with the addition of some new characters and ghosts.^[4][6]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 69.94%[7] Metacritic 66/100[8] Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com B+[9] Adventure Gamers [10] GameSpot 6.3/10[11] GameSpy 2/5[12] GameZone 7/10[12] PC Format 58/100[12] PC Gamer (UK) 41/100[12] PC Gamer (US) 58/100[12] Game Industry News [13] Game Over Online 68/100[14]

The game received mixed reviews. It holds an aggregate score of 66 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on twenty reviews,^[8] and 69.94% on GameRankings, based on twenty-seven reviews.^[7]

1UP.com rated the game B+, writing "Despite a lack of high-budget flash, game developer Jonathan Boakes lights up his Dark Fall adventure game series with ingenious ghost stories, organic puzzles, and a deluge of details that reflect unique time periods. If you're not averse to a Macromedia slide-show interface and low-res graphics, then Dark Fall 2: Lights Out is an eerie trip to a Cornish harbor that's well worth taking."^[9]

Adventure Gamers' Dan Ravipinto scored the game 3.5 out of 5. He praised Boakes for trying new things, and was especially impressed with the time travel elements, but criticised the science fiction turn the story takes towards the end. He concluded that "Lights Out is very much a sophomore work, an artist's attempt to expand his repertoire while still trying to hold on to the magic that made his first effort so great. Some of Boakes' experiments work wonderfully [...] but ultimately, the new directions the game goes in dilute the qualities that made the first Dark Fall so great, and it ends up being much less immediate, real and frightening than its predecessor."^[10]

GameSpot's Scott Osborne scored it 6.3 out of 10, criticizing the game for being too similar to the original Dark Fall; "If you played last year's Dark Fall - The Journal, then you've virtually played its follow-up, Dark Fall: Lights Out. Both games share almost identical weaknesses and strengths." Osborne was especially critical of the atmosphere; "the story and setting are never more than interesting--and then only intermittently. The game is supposed to be a ghostly mystery, but it's not even remotely frightening. A few incomprehensible voice-overs, low-budget sound effects, and sparse music just don't create chills and thrills--nor does seeing an occasional blurry green aura around objects, courtesy of a "ghost hunter's" high-tech goggles. There's just no emotional pull to this game."^[11]

References

External links

• Official Site
  • Fetch Rock Island & Lighthouse official website
  • Matt Clark - Artist official website
  • Hadden Industries official website
• Dark Fall II: Lights Out at MobyGames