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The Darkest Road

by Clive Wilson

Episode 1 of the Silent Song trilogy
Fantasy
1991

(based on 1 rating)
1 review

Game Details

Editorial Reviews

Baf's Guide


The fearsome Black Wanderer threatens the land with darkness and sorrow, only an elf with the gift of Silent Song can stop him, yadda yadda. Old-school generic fantasy, with occasional misused words ("...it has no handle and no keyhole. How to open it, you surmise?") Starts in a sparse and reasonably explorable outdoors section, then drops into a linear series of locked doors and guardians where progress often depends on having poked at the right bit of random scenery in a location that you can't get back to. Difficult puzzles, some syntax-guessing; in one place, "examine room" is necessary.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

SynTax
The puzzles are all of a good standard and will have most adventurers stretching their brain cells on more than one occasion. They are not overly difficult but in places take some thought with the solution being very logical. [...] Very enjoyable to play. (James Judge)
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SynTax
Unfortunately, it took me a little while to find both parts of the map, but once that was completed, the rest of the game opened up quite nicely. (Tom Lorimer)
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Member Reviews

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Number of Reviews: 1
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
"It was lucky that you had the statuette.", February 26, 2021
by Rovarsson (Belgium)
Related reviews: Fantasy

...says the narrator voice in The Darkest Road at a certain point. Lucky indeed, given that there was no clue whatsoever that I would find anything, let alone a magic statuette, in the place the walkthrough eventually told me to look!

What would one do if one were a simple farmhand in a fantasy setting and one saw a prophecy coming over the horizon? Run like hell, of course, because prophecies tend to lead to gruesome death and other inconveniences in these circumstances...
But not you. You have elvenblood trickling somewhere in your bloodline, so you heed the call. You take in the old prophecy-bearing wizard who stumbled into your care, nurse him back to health and let him teach you of the "Silent Song", a rare magic talent that lurks in you because of said elvenblood.

So off you go on an oldschool quest to vanquish the Dark Lord.

The Darkest Road has very good atmosphere. On your quest, you move from your familiar homestead to the wide grasslands, then through the dark forest, then sharp and windy mountainpeaks until finally you arrive in Evil's Lair. With each new area you explore, the surroundings feel more hostile and oppressive. Here and there is a resting point, a beautiful location that breaks the gloom and dread for a moment.
The descriptions are very good. Even though you encounter standard dark fantasy stuff, there are many details that lighten up the clichés.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is not so good. There are many non-interactive locations. Well-described as they may be, they don't offer enough reward to the player for the effort she has made to reach them.

And quite an effort it is! The game is full of unintuitive and underclued puzzles.
Many solutions are dependent on whether you are carrying or wearing a sparsely described and unhinted object, not on the player figuring out what she could do with said object.
When you do have to manipulate objects, often you get into try-everything-on-everything-else territory, like in a bad point'n'click escape game.
Also, there are quite a few one-use-only commands that only work in one situation. Try the same verb in any other situation and you get a default dismissive response. Not strong motivation to keep trying.
Add to the list that obvious synonyms or alternative verbs are not implemented (I could MOVE but not PUSH some heavy object), and I believe I am to be forgiven for playing this one largely by walkthrough. I gave it a fair chance, really I did.

To end on a more positive note, the unforeseeable sudden gruesome deaths are quite amusing, as the narrator offers to resurrect you. Which translates as "Would you like to restart?"

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This is version 6 of this page, edited by Googlipod on 3 October 2021 at 10:36am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page