I reviewed the previous game in this series, Shadow of the Servants, and did a walkthrough for the original Last Half of Darkness, so I feel I know this series pretty well. Looking over the notes from these games, it’s clear that Bill Fisher knows how to make a horror adventure game. His programming and graphical skills have improved from both previous entire and I heartily recommend this game to fans of The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour or similar games. There is more of a story behind this episode but I found it a little confusing and unclear. I understood enough to follow the game and enjoy it but I’m still not clear exactly what transpired prior to my arrival in the seemingly abandoned town. Nevertheless, this game is at least as good as the previous games. There is a spooky atmosphere from the second you start playing. Initially, the game is highly linear and I wondered if it was going to be too simple but after the introductory ten minutes of play, the game becomes more open with a number of varied places to go-a spooky house, an old canning factory, and an eerie graveyard to name only three.

The game is based in New Orleans and deals with you, the protagonist, being sent to an estate called Shadowcrest. It links in with the previous episode because you have heard of the events of Shadow of the Servants through your sister but other than that, the game is unrelated to the previous entry. Apparently, the master of Shadowcrest was an explorer who brought back a mystical item called “The Eye of Acaris” from some exploration he was involved with years before. He removed the black jewel from the Eye, releasing a curse. You are there to find the lost gem and reunite it with the rest of the Eye to lift the curse.

Sound is a little bit of a mixed bag. The music and incidental noises are excellent but the voices remain tinny and scratchy in quality. Unfortunately, not everything is subtitled, but most dialogs are and this is not a particularly dialog-heavy game. It is strange to see the written words printed on the screen after the character has spoken. I didn’t like that as much as in other games where the subtitles coincide with what is spoken. Maybe, I’m just picky but I had the same feeling (to a much greater degree) with a DVD I watched subtitled in Spanish once-I kept feeling like I was trying to catch up because the subtitles were always delayed to when the characters were talking.

The visuals are good to very good for backgrounds and for animals. The people are less well-rendered and tend to have a doll-like look about them. It doesn’t really come into play too much as there are few “people” characters but when they appear they are in stark contrast to the rest of the animation and imagery. It’s obvious from this and other games that creating realistic human beings is a much more complex task than other visual programming. However, this is a minor thing and is not distracting enough to cause any problems at all. Take a look at the screenshots for to get an impression of the quality in this game.

WRF Studios commitment to every customer continues with this game. I found a bug in the game and contacted Bill by email ([email protected]) and he had a patch for the game within 48 hours. The day after that, he sent another patch with a small improvement following on from his ruminations on the bug I discovered. I cannot recall service of a similar standard for any other game I’ve had trouble with in the past. Incidentally, and also at odds with other technical support experiences I’ve had, the patch did exactly what it was supposed to do! I didn’t need to fiddle with videocard settings, reduce acceleration, or anything else that other companies do to place the responsibility for the game not working out of the box onto consumers. They offer a contact phone number also: (858) 216 –6007, Monday-Friday 9am-5pm PST. Plus, Bill’s a nice guy!

The game can be purchased from the WRF Studios website for $27.45 ($22.95 + $4.50 shipping within the US and $6.50 outside). They offer a 30-day money back guarantee so an uncertain buyer may be more willing to take a chance on this title. The website also has a free online Last Half of Darkness game as well as a 200 MB demo.

One other thing: Vista users are advised to read the readme that comes with the game-it details very specifically how to configure Beyond the Spirit’s Eye successfully.

Basically, if you like the previous Last Half of Darkness games, the Stauf series, or even the Shivers games, this is going to be enjoyed by you. I wholeheartedly recommend it. I give this game a B taking into account the problems that niggled in my mind. Other people may well rate this higher.

System Requirements:

• Pentium III 800MHz
• Windows 95/95/ME/2000/XP/Vista
• 256 MB RAM
• 32 MB 3D Video Graphics
• 3 GB Hard drive disk space