Reviewed: June 29, 1999
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Interplay

Developer
Amazing Studios

Released: April 13, 1999
Genre: Platform
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

9
10
9
9
9.7

Supported Features:

It has been a long time since I have been so captivated by any game; let alone a side-scrolling action title like HOD. Tantrum; a division of Interplay and the designer of fine 3D games such as Die by the Sword, went all out in bringing a stunning cinematic adventure to the Playstation.

For those of you who can remember as far back as the late 80's, there was a great adventure title from Sierra/Dynamix called Willie Beamish about a boy and his frog. The opening movie in Heart of Darkness instantly reminded me of this classic adventure only the frog was now a cute dog named Whiskey and the carefree adventurous boy is named Andy.

The story for this game is pretty original. Seems that there is a solar eclipse happening and the evil ruler of a shadowy universe is using this period of darkness to pay Earth a visit. When they mistakenly kidnap (or rather dognap) Whiskey, Andy races to his hi-tech tree house complete with computer, hovercraft, and a devastating energy weapon, and begins his one-man Rambo assault on the denizens of the shadow world.

Heart of Darkness is total action from the instant you crash your ship into the canyon wall until the finale when you defeat the evil ruler of darkness and rescue your dog. Perhaps the most unique concept in this game are the enemies which are actually created from shadows. The main enemies in HOD are these little shadow sprites that come at you by the hundreds, but they are easily eliminated by your endless stream of energy from your trusty Plasma Rifle.

Other ingenious concepts allow you to manipulate real-world objects by using the shadows they cast. A classic example is where you need to move a large rock that is hanging over a deep chasm. You can't reach the actual rock, but you can push the "shadow of the rock" which is being cast on the canyon wall. Other times you will find a dead tree or a piece of dinosaur fossil casting a scary shadow on the wall that will come to life and attack you as you get near. You are never really safe unless you are in the dark.

The puzzles in HOD range from the basic "knowing where to stand so you can kill all the shadow creatures" to some more advanced object manipulation in the later levels. About halfway through the game you will lose your Plasma Rifle but in return you will gain some magical powers which give you the ability to shoot green energy and turn seeds into climbable beanstalks. Andy cannot carry these seeds so you are forced to kick or push them along the path until you get the seed into position where you can zap it. The concept is simplistic, but it makes for some challenging puzzles, especially on the levels where your seeds will drop into the water and float to the next screen.

Andy has a wide range of moves including the standard running and jumping. Certain textured backgrounds are climbable surfaces, so Andy can stick to walls and climb up and down at various points in the game. He can push boulders, swim, and even has a cool somersault move he can do either while standing or running. If the shadow creatures ever manage to get past Andy's plasma weapons and grab him you can quickly manipulate the controller from side to side to fling the creatures off. You must do this quickly because once two or three of these guys gang up on you it is almost certain death.

But death isn't that bad in Heart of Darkness. In fact, you will become quite accustomed to it before you finish this game. On the average you can expect to die about once every 7-10 screens. Fortunately the game designers have put in checkpoints about every 2 screens and you have unlimited lives, so even though you will die often, you won't have to replay large portions of the game over again. Many times you will have to die just trying different solutions to certain puzzles while other times you will die simply because you weren't fast enough on the trigger. If you die often enough on the same screen a helpful hint will be displayed hopefully pointing you towards the correct solution to your problem. It's a bit frustrating at first, but once you accept dying you learn to overlook it and just enjoy the game and story.

Unlike Willie's artistic comic book adventure, HOD features stunning cinematic cut-scenes and some of the most gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds to ever be seen in a Playstation title since Oddworld. HOD uses the 16 million color hi-res mode of the Playstation to give us a side-scrolling action title that looks more like a movie than a game. The cut-scenes never interrupt the game but rather blend almost seamlessly with the action portions creating the illusion that you are really controlling a movie character and not playing another 2D shooter.

As a bonus, you will find a pair of Red/Blue 3D glasses with your game. When you finally do manage to finish Heart of Darkness you are treated to the closing movie in stunning 3D. Ah, time for that nap. Just make sure you turn the lights off. You never know what might be lurking in the shadows...