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Review
Last
Half of Darkness: Tomb of Zojir
Review by Alexander Tait
March 1, 2010 |
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 There
are times when life seems completely out of control or uncertain.
I'm sure we all feel this to a lesser or greater degree. In the midst
of all the confusion and randomness there are: death, taxes, and the
love of a parent for a child. I would like to add another item to
the list of certainties: that any Last Half of Darkness game will
be an enjoyable albeit scary and satisfying adventure game.
I've played all the previous
titles and this one has been my favorite. It's logical and straightforward.
All the puzzles make sense and fit within the storyline.
This is the fifth title
in the Last Half of Darkness. The first self-titled game was a DOS
game with very simple graphics. The second was a photorealitstic slideshow
type game. Many people don't know about the first two LHODs. Most
people's awareness of the series began with the LHOD title subtitled
Shadows of the Servants, and the love affair continued with Beyond
the Spirit's Eye.
 The
game looks great. Everything's dark with eerie lighting providing
just enough dim, shadowy glows to be spooky without losing visual
acuity. The game will immerse you in its unspoken horrror. Bugs and
other critters flit around screens heightening the immersion, giving
the impression that there is life in the primarily still screens.
Sound is uniformly excellent
in the background ambient noises and eerily spectral, banshee-wail
music. Sometimes the spoken dialog is a little indistinct because
of distortion to add to the spookiness. Thankfully, in most cases
there are subtitles, without which understanding everything a witch
says can be difficult! I say most because there were some places where
there just wasn't any subtitle to accompany the dialog. This only
happened occasionally and was noticeable in its absence because of
the consistently high standard usually found in the game.
 In
this title, the adventurer is an unnamed “stranger” who
has been drawn to an island somewhere in Louisiana. Your goal as the
player is to find and replace bloodstones that are linked to the Tomb
of Zojir. If these bloodstones aren't found and placed around the
tomb, the fate of the world is in peril. So, nothing groundbreaking
or earthshattering here. Anyone who's ever seen New Orleans or Louisiana
in a movie will know what to expect: dark, overgrown swamps with lone
cabins lit by solitary candles, abandoned decrepit southern mansions,
and spiders, snakes, and...worse...MUCH worse! Despite the fact that
the storyline is not unique, Bill really knows how to write a tale
and how to inject it with just the right amount of horrific elements.
PREPARE...TO...JUMP (when you least expect it!).
 The
point-and-click interface is intuitive and anyone who's played a game
before will have no trouble picking up Tomb of Zojir and running with
it. Don't show your friends this game because they may do just that-run
away with it! You may never see the game again! The game is easy to
save and load. Menus are easy to read and there is an absence of clutter.
Even the novice gamer will find it easy to use. Navigation can be
a little awkward at times. Whereas going forward is no trouble, when
returning the way you've been, you are required to back out without
being able to see where you are actually headed. There were a number
of occasions where I went the wrong way but I soon got used to it.
Novice gamers will probably find this a challenge. The map feature
is very useful and will save a lot of time in backtracking-just click
and go to an area you've already visited.
 Unusual
for modern games, and harking back to the classic days of adventure
games, is the inclusion of a number of physical items in the gamebox.
Some are in document form and others are more, shall we say, APPROPRIATE
to the nature of the game. All I will say is: prepare to get a fright
when you open the box! DO NOT throw these away. These are essential
to completing the adventure. A walkthrough will NOT get you past the
puzzles that relate to these items as the solution is random each
time you start a game. By the way, even the DVD-ROM disk has information
on it that's pertient to completing the adventure!
The series is the brainchild
of William Fisher and this guy not only knows how to write and program
an excellent adventure game in the horror genre, but his care and
love for his product carries over to customer service. If you have
a technical problem, Bill welcomes contact (wrfstudios @ aol.com)
and strives to solve the problem for you so you can play his game.
I did not experience any difficulty with this title-it ran stably
from beginning to end. Bill also welcomes constructive feedback. The
major game publishers could learn a lot from Bill in this age of releasing
games before adequate testing has occurred.
 Try
not to use a walkthrough-everything can be solved with perseverance.
If you need some help, there is a walkthrough on the WRF website (www.lasthalfofdarkness.com).
Be sure to watch the credits right through to the end. Not only is
there an extra scene, but the patient, persistent gamer will be provided
with a code and link to download a free casual game from the WRF website!
I really love what Bill and the WRF team do and I hope he keeps on
doing it.
This game THOROUGHLY deserves
an A.
What are you doing here?
Get on the website now!! There's a video to watch if you're still
not convinced, along with screenshots to whet the appetite. There
are demos and screenshots for the two previous titles too. Bill is
so sure of his product that he has a 30-day money back guarantee.
The game is $22.95 including shipping (payment options include PayPal).
System Requirements:
- Pentium 800MHz
- Windows 95/98/ME/XP/Vista (I played it on Seven without difficulty)
- 128MB RAM
- DVD-ROM Drive
- 32MB Video Card
- Sound Card
- 2GB Hard Drive Space
- DirectX 8
- Mouse
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