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Anchorhead
Curses
DARK SEED
The Longest Journey
Winter Wonderland
Wishbringer
Zork: Grand Inquisitor
DARK SEED
Point'n'click adventure
Setting: Present age, horror
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Rating: 8 %
Story: (in Arbeit) 1
Gameplay/Interface: (in Arbeit) 1
Puzzles: (in Arbeit) 1
Graphics: (in Arbeit) 1
Music, Sound: (in Arbeit) 1
Voices: (in Arbeit) 0
Packaging: (in Arbeit) 0
Fun: (in Arbeit) 1
Dark Seed is a game that impressed me deeply when I was a kid. As I start to write this review it dawns on me that I maybe was easy to impress back then, or that the game was better back then than one would perceive it now. But let's not be blinded by prejudice - How good is Dark Seed, 33 years later, from a 2025 point of view? I have fond memories of the spooky H.R. Giger setting and the small town exploration vibes, but I haven't played it for 33 years, so I'm pretty curious to find out. Shall we find out together? We shall.
The basics: Dark Seed is a 1992 point'n'click adventure game by US studio Cyberdreams that features art by renown Swiss artist H.R. Giger. It's a horror adventure, and it features character animations derived from filming actual humans. Should have potential, eh? Let's see.
The Story
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The Graphics
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The Interface
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The Puzzles
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Music, Sound, Voices
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The Packaging
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The Verdict
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Cyberdreams, the company behind Dark Seed, was founded by Patrick Ketchum in 1990. Ten years before, Ketchum had founded Datasoft, a computer game developer and publisher that was relatively successful before it went bankrupt in 1987. Datasoft made good money with move and TV adaptions, e.g. the platformer Bruce Lee in 1983 or the Dallas Quest text adventure in 1984. It is likely that this fact motivated Ketchum to produce another licensed game with Cyberdreams.
Sources:
- URL
External links: Wikipedia.
Unfortunately Dark Seed isn't yet available as a legal version adjusted to modern systems, as platforms like Steam or GOG usually provide games. I thus had to resort to an abandonware version, which I don't recommend but in this case don't demonize either. Rights holders, make this game available for purchase on the usual platforms!
The intro is slightly frightening, as it shows a man (that's us, as we learn in a minute) being held captive by some unknown force, getting an injection into his forehead, maybe some kind of... embryo? It's mandatory you've read the back story (provided further up in the review) as the game throws you into cold water. We wake up in a bed (our bed, in our new house in Woodland Hills) and complain about terrible nightmares - the nightmare depicted in the intro. We're Mike Dawson, head of an ad agency, and we've bought the house we woke up in to find some peace in order to concentrate on a major job. That's it, no tasks so far. Okay then, let's explore the house - and find a cure for this terrible headache...
Two doors available. The right one leads to the bathroom. The controls are a bit clunky: Right click shuffles through different cursor "modes", default being movement. So to examine something, you first need to right-click until the cursor becomes a question mark, then pixel-hunt the screen to find spots where it becomes an exclamation mark, then left-click. To open/close or use something on the screen you first need to right-click until the cursor becomes a hand, then pixel-hunt the screen for spots where it becomes a hand with the forefinger stretched out, then left-click. Clunky as I said, but of course one can get used to it. Inventory pops up when you move your cursor onto the all-seeing eye on top of the screen btw., and in the inventory is the load/save menu.
So, the bathroom. There's a mirror cabinet above the sink that we can open, which leads to Mike automatically taking a pill, which makes the annoying headache messages stop. We can also take a shower, so why not, won't harm probably.
The review above mentions it, and also mentions that I hate it: The game runs in real time. Things happen even if you don't do anything. Luckily the game lets you slip not taking your headache pills at the very beginning, but while you explore the house the doorbell will ring, and later on the phone will ring, and you better be quick to open the front door resp. pick up the phone (in your bedroom) then.
On with the game. The next room to visit is the second bedroom, right of the bathroom or right of the upper landing. Not much to see here except for an old trenchcoat. If you examine it twice (...) you notice a bulge in one of its pockets. Operating the trenchcoat now brings to light a library circulation card for a Lord of the Rings issue (a bulge...) that we automatically sack. Yay, our first item! After the money we initially have, that is.
Walkthrough: https://www.walkthroughking.com/text/darkseed.aspx (Word) Noch ein Walkthrough: https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/docs.php?id=426 Youtube-Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9hoMwG3cp0