Dark Seed is an adventure game which capitalizes on the drawings of famous horror designer H. R. Giger as a source of background artwork and inspiration.
You play Mike Dawson, an ad company manager who, in pursuit of his goal in life to become a writer, purchases a solitary mansion in a small town called Woodland Hills. Although the low cost and hush-hush transactions when purchasing the house do raise your suspicion, the solitary environment and sheer beauty of the house crush common sense and you decide to buy the house. That's when trouble begin. Upon reaching the house, you suddenly feel tired. You find a bed and fall asleep...
... and wake up from a terrible dream, only to find out that your life has just become a worse nightmare: an unknown source has implanted a seed of darkness in your mind, and you only have three days to find a way to stop it.
The concept of combining art and computer games is an interesting one. Especially if the game is a sci-fi/horror adventure and the artist none less than H. R. Giger, best known for his design of the non-terrestrials in the Alien movies. His creepy, dark art has made people shiver all over the world, so this could be an excellent beginning for an atmospheric game. Darkseed will certainly get you in a certain dark and foreboding mood while playing.
In Darkseed you find yourself in the role of writer Mike (actually you play the game's creator) who just bought himself a swell old mansion in a quiet town. However, the first night you sleep there, you're troubled by nasty nightmares about aliens placing a probe of some kind into your head. When you wake up, it turns out you have a hell of a headache ... That's surely no coincidence? When exploring your house and walking around town, there are clues that there's more to your new accommodation than meets the eye. And what about that strange mirror in your living room?
This makes a good enough story for a fine adventure, so let's get started, shall we? Ah, but you see, the trouble is, you've only got three days to find out about the aliens - that probably plan to take over the world - and time's ticking. Time does play a large part in this game, as the shops and the library close at six p.m., the postman always rings twice at ten a.m., and if you show up late for any appointments you've made, your contact may be gone and you miss vital clues and items. Although the puzzles aren't extremely hard, time can be against you in this way, so prepare to save a lot to avoid frustration.
During the game you find out there's actually an alien version of the real world, to which you alone have access. This world is a reflection of the actual one and sometimes things you do in the 'real world' have an influence on the 'dark world', which is actually quite a nice twist. The alien world is filled with bizarre alien architecture and here H. R. Giger's contributions really add to the atmosphere.
The controls in Darkseed are pretty standard for an adventure game and all done with your mouse (although you can choose to use a joystick or the keyboard), so no learning curve there. Just make sure you move along every pixel on the screen when entering a room, because sometimes there are small items that can only be found in this way. Your inventory is displayed at the top of the screen, as is the save/load menu-icon.
The graphics are nice and set the right mood, and the reduced palette that is used in the 'Alien world' certainly adds a certain film-noir character. The eerie (Adlib) music adds to this as well, but tends to be a bit repetitive. The sound effects, however, are all but lacking and the few voice-samples are of poor quality.
If you're a fan of (horror-)adventure games or of Giger's work, this is definitely something you should check out. For those of you who are looking for a fun and easy adventure to solve in an evening or two: this is not your best choice.
One of the most unique adventure games around when it was published in 1992. The graphics in the game are based on drawings made by a horror designer. Cyberdreams have succeded in creating a gloomy environment in the game where you have the constant feeling that something about to happen.
You play as Mike Dawson who has just moved to a new town. You wake up to find out that someone have put something into your mind and the time is now against you. Will you be able to get rid of it before it's too late?
One of the most memorable (and few) science fiction- horror games ever released, Dark Seed is an interesting horror/scifi story based on the haunting artwork of H.R. Giger, creator of Aliens. As writer Mike Dawson, you must travel in both the human and alien dimensions to thwart the aliens' evil plans. Interesting premise and outstanding graphics make for an interesting game that unfortunately gets bogged down with too many illogical (and timed) puzzles. A good first effort from Cyberdreams, and *much* better than its horrible successor Dark Seed 2.
Darkseed isn't a scary game for nothing, the graphics were made by H.R. Giger, nobody less then the maker of "Alien: the eighth passenger". It all starts when Mike Dawson, (nothing to do with Dawson's Creek, really!) one of the designers of Cyberdreams software company, wishes to buy a camp house for taking some days off and writing science fiction books. He found a really cheap mansion in a small city called Woodland hills, but something happens on your first night in the new house: Mike has nightmares, and dreams about something being implanted inside his brain. Next morning he wakes up with a big headache. Now he has three days to solve this mystery before.... uh oh... well, I think you wouldn't like to know that.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
People who downloaded Darkseed have also downloaded:
Darkseed 2, Discworld, Discworld 2: Mortality Bytes, Discworld Noir, Dark Eye, The, Dig, The, Death Gate, Daughter of Serpents (a.k.a. The Scroll)
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