Dark Fall: The Journal is a creepy first-person point and click adventure game originally released independently in 2002, and then re-released globally by the Adventure Company a year later. In this classic digitized ghost story, everything begins with a panicked phone call in the middle of the night...
darkfall.jpgPete, your brother, has gained quite a reputation for himself as an architect, and he has chosen The Station as his next big project. Once a quaint hotel in the English countryside, The Station is unique in that it is built quite literally over the train tracks of a now defunct train station. Back in the early twentieth century both station and hotel bustled with activity and even served as something of a social hub for the locals. But then six people disappeared from there never to be heard from again. The Station never recovered from that, and it seemed it would be closed forever. Until your brother came along with his hopes of resurrecting the old abandoned hotel as a night club.
This is the business that brought Pete out to The Station in the first place where he ran into Polly and Nigel, two college students turned amateur ghost hunters. But by the time you arrive to the abandoned hotel, neither your brother nor his two new friends are anywhere to be seen. Like those six people from six decades ago, Pete, Polly and Nigel seem to have disappeared without a trace. Instead, as you walk through the shadow-laden train tunnels to The Station, you are greeted by the disembodied voice of a young boy, yet another victim of the hotel's dark secrets. As he guides you to the hotel, he explains that it is up to you to help not just your brother, but everyone else who has fallen prey to whatever it is that stalks the halls of the hotel.
Compared to modern point and click adventures of this type, Dark Fall is positively streamlined with a very simple interface. The cursor automatically changes to indicate if you can move to a certain place, use an item, perform an action, or investigate closer. Your inventory will remain at the top of the screen, and all you need to do is click on an item in your inventory when you are on a screen that requires the usage of an inventory item. There are no independent inventory or status screens to navigate. Of particular note is that the game also does not keep track of any dialogue or documents you come across along the way, and given the sheer volume of information available here, it is highly recommended that you start up a journal of your own as you play. Also of note is that your game is saved as a notepad file and you will be asked where you want the game to be saved. As a result it's also recommended that you create an independent save folder so you don't have to go hunting when you want to load your game later.
darkfall2.jpgAs you explore The Station, not only will you piece together what happened to your brother and the two college students, but you will also meet the six missing persons of yesteryear as well. You'll uncover the stories of a failed actress and a bank robber, an overworked young woman secreting her boyfriend away under her mother's nose, and an odd pair of friends whose own explorations have uncovered something great and terrible somewhere in the bowels of The Station. Can you unlock the mysteries of this once thriving hotel? More importantly, can you lock its darkest secrets back up before it's too late?
