It has
been an inordinately long time since my last JFA review column, but
believe it or not, I am back with a new (and highly worthy) free adventure
game to play.  Plus, I just
wanted Randy to stop emailing me to ask whether or not I was dead.  (Actually, my mind was just too busy being
sucked away by the demonic place ordinary folk call “college.”)  Well, here I am – back from the dead –
with a review of Pleurghburg: Dark Ages.

Click
here to visit the official site of Pleurghburg: Dark Ages
Click
here to download Pleurghburg: Dark Ages (Mirror 1)
Click
here to download Pleurghburg: Dark Ages (Mirror 2)

Pleurghburg: Dark Ages is one of the
longest free adventure games I have ever played. 
I actually lost track of the hours that I put into it, but
I estimate that it was at least 15 hours. 
That’s nearly as long as a typical commercial game! 
Length is not always an asset, but in this case it is –
Pleurghburg is also one of the better free games I have played.  In the game, you play a detective named Jake McUrk in the city of
Pleurghburg in the year 2012.  According
to the introduction, the city was plagued by crime and gang rule in
the recent past, but rebel groups took control and restored order
to the Police Detective Agency, of which Jake is a member. 
Unfortunately, the city is not to be crime-free for long, as
there are malicious schemes to return Pleurghburg to its days of terror
surfacing, involving cults, corruption, and lots of bloody mayhem.  (Yes, lots of bloody mayhem.  I wouldn’t advise letting young children
or extremely squeamish people play this game, as there is a fair amount
of bloodshed and gruesome sights in this game. 
I had no problem with it, and I’m sure most people won’t
either, but be forewarned.)

As free games go, this game has one of the better-developed
plots.  As Jake, you investigate
crime scenes, collect evidence, and talk to people to piece together
the mysteries behind the murders and conspiracies, along the way solving
a variety of puzzles to advance the game. 
Although the game is generally linear, there are some twists
that enhance replayability, such as a gameplay branch halfway though
the game (Jake can choose between two paths of investigation, each
equally interesting) and multiple endings accessed through four different
paths of action at the end of the game.

One
of the only qualms I have about the game is that there were far too
many characters with very little character development. 
The perpetrators, victims, and other miscellaneous people throughout
the game were just names with hardly any background information and
I soon become confused about who was who. 
Even the major characters were often underdeveloped because
their motives and backgrounds were left unexplained. 
I would have liked to know a little bit about each of the characters
and why they behaved the way they did. 
But that’s just me.

The graphics in Pleurghburg: Dark Ages
are nothing special.  Backgrounds
are relatively humdrum, character detail and animation is poor, and
the interface graphics, with a neon green theme, are far too garish
and obnoxious for my taste.  However,
I concede that had the author attempted to create lush detailed background
and character graphics, this game would probably have never been completed,
so this area does not weigh heavily in my final grade. 
It is an area where much improvement could be made, in any
case.

Where graphics
lack, the game makes up for it in an aural experience quite beyond
most free games available.  The music is catchy and fitting. 
When danger is amiss, the music reflects that by becoming threatening
and ominous.  All in all, the
music is a great success.  Sound
effects (primarily things like gun shots and doors closing) also enhance
the game.  There are no voices, which is expected –
not only is voice acting enormously difficult to do properly with
limited resources, but it would also make the file size of the game
balloon to obscene proportions.  In
lieu of voices, of course, is textual dialogue. 
At times I felt the dialogue was a little stale, but for the
most part it was successful.

Pleurghburg: Dark Ages plays much like Sierra’s Gabriel
Knight: Sins of the Fathers.  Game time is split into four days, each day
split into morning, afternoon, and evening. 
The background scenes change based on the time of the day.  Jake navigates throughout each location through
various actions, including walk, look, use, talk, etc.  These actions are accessed through a mouse-over
interface comparable to traditional Sierra games.  To navigate between locations, Jake uses a
city map, which shows the various accessible areas.  As the game progresses, new locations become available and old ones
disappear.  Cut scenes are
also similar to those in Sins of the Fathers, done in panel-by-panel
comic book style. The game also features an option menu that
allows the player to change the speed of the game, text speed, and
other various things.  Changing the speed of the game is very useful
in this game, as having Jake walk at the speed of a tortoise would
get aggravating otherwise.  There
are, however, some timed action sequences in which slowing down the
game is crucial to success.

The puzzles in this game are excellent. 
If there is one thing I hate in a game, it is a completely
illogical, random, and pointless puzzle, such as those commonly found
in Myst-clones.  There are a variety of puzzles in Pleurghburg.  There are primarily the traditional inventory
type puzzles, involving combining inventory and using appropriate
objects in the right places.  If
the game revolved solely around inventory puzzles, however, I would
be mildly disappointed.  Thankfully,
there are also shootouts with baddies (they resemble “action”
sequences but are not difficult) and a few puzzles that involve interacting
with the environment (such as turning the right valves to gain access
to a new location).  Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how
well designed the puzzles were.

Story:
A
Graphics:
C
Music/Sfx:
A
Gameplay:
A+
Overall:
A

Pleurghburg:
Dark Ages is a fairly long game that features a decent plot despite
somewhat underdeveloped characters.  Although the game’s graphics aren’t
anything to ogle at, it makes up for it with excellent music and puzzles.  One of the better free games I have played!

Click
here to visit the official site of Pleurghburg: Dark Ages
Click
here to download Pleurghburg: Dark Ages (Mirror 1)
Click
here to download Pleurghburg: Dark Ages (Mirror 2)

Game
Tips:

•  Play the game at the
  lowest resolution (320 x 200) as it makes the text considerably
  more readable.  The background
  graphics do not lose any quality that I could see.  Note that once you start a game in a certain
  resolution you cannot load it into a different resolution.
•  Save often, but especially
  save the game before you tell your boss which path of investigation
  (choice of two) you want to take and also save near the end so you
  can find all four possible ways to solve the end-game sequence –
  so that you can return later and try the alternate routes without
  replaying the entire game.
• Use the game options
  menu to change the game speed when needed – to make Jake walk
  faster and also to slow the game when you need to get through the
  “action” sequences.
• Don’t forget
  to check Jake’s computer every once in a while for new email
  and to feed new names into the computer’s search function.
• Be sure to return
  to characters you have talked to often, especially your boss at
  the PDA, as there is often something new to talk about. 
  You may also want to show your boss significant items that
  you find so he can help you analyze them.