Last Half of Darkness

Last Half of Darkness
Genres	Adventure, horror
Year of inception	1989
First release	Last Half of Darkness 1989
Latest release	Last Half of Darkness: Society of the Serpent Moon 2011

Last Half of Darkness is a point and click adventure horror video game franchise that began in 1989 with the DOS "early horror adventure"^[1] video game Last Half of Darkness developed by SoftLab Laboratories.^[2]

Other games in the series include: Last Half of Darkness II (1992), Last Half of Darkness III (1993), Last Half of Darkness (2000), Last Half of Darkness: Shadows of the Servants (2005), Last Half of Darkness: Beyond the Spirit's Eye (2007), Tomb of Zojir: Last Half of Darkness (2009), and Last Half of Darkness: Society of the Serpent Moon (2011). The final game was published by Iceberg Interactive^[3]

Gaming Lives said of the franchise: "[it] has many fans and offers traditional horror adventure gaming with some innovative ‘hands-on’ puzzle features".^[4]

Production

The 2000 game Last Half of Darkness was a remake that combined the first three games in the franchise.^[5]

Gameplay

The franchise is based around adventure game mechanics, for example the first entry allowed the player to manipulate items using four verbs: Move, Examine, Take and Operate. It is very rare in the franchise for the player to interact with other human characters.^[6]

Plot

Consisting of an investigative^[7] and horror-themed series of plots, the games are based inside locations such as a haunted mansion where cases must be solved.

Critical reception

• Last Half of Darkness received a 3/5 from Abandonia.^[8] MyAbandonWare deemed it "One of the most obscure horror games ever made".^[9] According to DocCollection, the game acquired a cult following.^[10]
• Last Half of Darkness II received a 2/5 from Abandonia.^[8]
• Last Half of Darkness: Shadows of the Servants received a B+ from GameBomers,^[11] and 4/5 stars from Metzomagic.^[12]
• Last Half of Darkness: Beyond the Spirit's Eye received 90/100 from AdventureLantern ^[13] and 4/5 stars from Metzomagic.^[14]
• Last Half of Darkness: Tomb of Zojir received a 6/10 from Gamer.nl.^[15] DiehardGamerfan wrote " The atmosphere is spectacular, the music is chilling, the game is creepy as hell and it features some really innovative puzzles ".^[16] AdventureLanterm gave it 4.5/5 stars^[17] while AdventureGamers gave it 3.5/5 stars.^[18]
• Last Half of Darkness: Society of the Serpent Moon received 3.5 stars from AdventureGamers,^[19] and a B from GameBoomers.^[20] Adventure Classic Gaming called it " absorbing, thrilling, and enjoyable".^[21] Diehard Gamefan deemed it "solid, [and] mostly stable".^[22] It received 5.5/10 from CapsuleComputers.^[23]

References