Attic of the Underdogs

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Review by Underdogs:

Of Light and Darkness is a very unique blend of puzzle, action, and adventure that will prove too esoteric to most gamers to enjoy.

The game's great premise and beautiful artwork will, at first, lead you to believe that you might actually have an exciting adventure ahead of you: a fascinating journey into stopping the coming Armageddon.. The stories of famous historical sinners and their crimes mixed with the apocalyptic visions and beautiful scenery all evoke a poignant mood that is ruined entirely by the actual mechanics of playing the game.

Gameplay, as can only be expected from Cliff Johnson, is imaginative and unique: your task is to find colored orbs and combining them with the correct object in the right room in order to redeem the spirits of the world's historical sinners, thereby staving off the coming Armageddon. Unfortunately, the world, however beautifully drawn, is relatively small, and the game becomes more and more repetitive as time goes on, until it degenerates almost completely into a frustrating game of clicking-madly-on-the-screen.

What makes gameplay very repetitive is the inexplicable separation of the game into 3 levels, each of which are nearly identical to one another. You'll find to your horror that after you have spent hours to redeem the nine sinners in the first level, you have to do it again in the second. This is very tedious, pointless, and just plain bad game design. Although listening to different sinners and trying to match their sins with the right objects and orbs is fun, it's only fun for the first time. By the middle of the second level, you'll start to wonder if the game is really well worth finishing.

Overall, as fan of The Fool's Errand, I find Of Light and Darkness a half-baked game with great promise but horrendous execution. It is as if the last 2 levels (which are 2/3 of the whole game) are tacked on simply to make the game a little longer. The game's unique premise and artwork may appeal to anyone looking for something different, but that's all it can manage to be-- a different game, not a classic.

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Screenshots © The Good Old Days