The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav is... Well, Dark - Preview
by Daniel Share-Strom , posted on 14 June 2012 / 154,641 Views
Daedalic Entertainment Communication Head Hauke Schweer wasn’t kidding when he told me that their upcoming game is “quite unusual for us.” After all, for a studio best-known for lighthearted fare like Harvey’s New Eyes, the sinister themes of The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav are a departure indeed.
It all starts with our main character, Geron. Thirteen years ago, before being burned at the stake, a seer prophesied that the lad would bring about the end of the world. Now the seer has seemingly returned to fulfill his promise, and the birds of the Kingdom of Andergast has become violent and started attacking everyone they see. Now Geron must go on a quest to change his fate.
The first thing that struck me upon seeing the game in action is its striking graphic-novel art style. For a sprite-based game, the animation is exquisite, and it certainly looks like a comic book come to life. As Mr. Schweer loaded up a section of the first chapter, the vibrant Autumn marketplace scene was spellbinding.
In this first scene, Geron had to find four oak leaves in order to win an audience with the king. This is accomplished by clicking around the environment and talking to people. One leaf was simply found in a basket. Another had to be retrieved from two thugs who had beaten Geron up. Yet another was a prize for winning a woman’s carnival game. However, he first needed to find some acorns to play with. In order to get it, Geron first had to convince a nearby minstrel to play her favorite song, distracting her long enough so you can nab it. Having a witty conversation with the woman was enough to earn the fourth and final oak leaf.
A later scene took place after the meeting with the king. Kryll (the evil birds) have begun attacking people and brutally killing them. Geron must find out what is causing these assaults. His current task saw him searching the forest for a fairy who would help him. He found the fairy, Nuri, quickly. However, she barred him access to her home inside a tree until he could prove he was a ‘friend of the forest.’ Partaking in some point-and-click adventuring, Mr. Schweer found that there was something pointy in a pile of leaves, but couldn’t take it yet. He picked up a snail and used it on the leaves to get it to stick to a cage. The snail was placed inside the cage and placed by the leaves. At this, a hedgehog left the leaves and entered the cage to eat the snail. Taking some of the hedgehog’s spikes and some chestnuts, he built a stick-figure that looked like a king. Showing the chestnut king to Nuri proved to her that Geron was a ‘friend of the forest’, and she let him in.
The final scene shown was from later on in the game. Geron and Nuri had been separated and he was trying to find her. He walked into a dark cabin, only to be followed by a dark stranger who knocked him out. Geron woke up to find himself bound to a column inside the cabin. “The raven shall deal with him,” a voice said from outside. “He will make him talk.”
Not all was lost for Geron, as it turned out Nuri was on the roof of the building. She tossed him a shard, but he could not reach it. Actually, he couldn’t reach much of anything, since the entire room was obscured by darkness. Luckily, Nuri knew a magic spell that could brighten things up, but she could only light a third of the room at a time. Geron himself had a ‘break’ spell, while Nuri also had a ‘repair’ spell, so Mr. Schweer began directing her to move the light around as he smashed things and had her repair them. To be more precise, she repaired some broken gears, which began moving a piston. He then broke an oil lamp with magic. She fixed the lamp, which knocked over a saw, which Geron used to cut himself free.
So yeah, this is definitely a point-and-click adventure game.
It’s one you can sink your teeth into, too— in Daedalic’s internal testing, the fastest anyone had managed to complete the game was eight hours. You can have a go at this record when The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav launches on Steam June 22nd.
