Dark Vengeance

Overview

An endless eclipse of the sun has befallen Amagar and one of three characters must do their best to extract a Dark Vengeance on the evil creatures that have arisen from the sea. Nanoc the Gladiator, with his brutish size; Kite the Trickster, with her speed and agility; and Jetrel the Warlock, with his long-range magic are all trying to stem the tide of evil in the land. Which is the Chosen One? You will have to decide.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Dark Vengeance is a shooter. Although it attempts to combine a few puzzles, an adventure plot, and some RPG elements, it remains a mediocre third-person shooter game. Many vicious enemies assail you and you run around using a variety of medieval weaponry to take them out. You have to find certain keys to open certain doors and certain items to activate certain devices, but this is all very straightforward with the levels being mostly linear and obvious. I don’t know if it is just a badly-made 3D engine, but I found Dark Vengeance incredibly hard to control, making it difficult to aim at and take down your enemies. Many times I would end up using my weapon twice instead of once and missing both times. When several bad guys were on the screen at the same time, it became hopelessly choppy and I ended up just running from one area to the next, doing my best to avoid an entanglement.

One element that does extend the life of the game is the fact that you can play through with all three characters, and play completely different levels for each one. Each time it almost feels like a new game since each character has a different style of combat.

Graphics

The graphics in Dark Vengeance are adequate, but definitely nothing special. The environments are descriptive and unique (an arena, an old mansion, a mineshaft, etc.), but lack any special zest. Because the action was so choppy, it was hard to even appreciate either the main characters’ or the enemies’ individual graphic style.

Audio

The only thing that really set Dark Vengeance apart for me, and will probably make me remember the game for a long time after I’m done playing it, is the audio. The little spoken messages by the main characters are hilarious and add something special. For instance, Jetrel announces, "Who’s thine daddy!" Nanoc grunts like the moron he’s supposed to be and Kite gives you an attitude when you try to open a door you haven’t a key for. I’ve laughed more in an hour of this shooter than many hours of supposedly humorous adventure games. It is probably not worth spending too much money on this game just to hear these snippets, but if you can get Dark Vengeance cheap, you’ll at least get a belly laugh or two.

System Requirements

Minimum: Pentium 166, 16 MB RAM, 50 MB hard drive space, DirectDraw compatible video card

Reviewed on: Pentium 233, 32 MB RAM, 2MB VRAM video card, 3Dfx Voodoo card, SoundBlaster 32, and minimum installation

Bottom Line

While Dark Vengeance shouldn’t be at the top of anyone’s wish list, it does provide some light entertainment, a few laughs, and maybe even enough interest to play through three times with each different main character. If you can get it for a deal you’ll get your money’s worth and you won’t feel like extracting any Dark Vengeance on the salesman.