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 Heart of Darkness is a self-described "cinematic action platformer" released in 1998 for the Playstation and the PC. It was developed by Amazing Studios and is a spiritual successor to Another World/Out of This World. It was one of the first games ever to have its score performed by a live orchestra (Sinfonia of London) but due to a 6 year development time and delays, several other games beat it to the punch and stole away its accolade of being the first game released with a fully orchestrated soundtrack The story revolves around a young boy named Andy whose dog, Whisky, The one thing that struck me back when I played it as a kid and even now when I know what to expect is the difficulty of this game. It's that kind of Face-into-hands and go "uuuuuuugh" difficulty that games from the 80's usually evoke. First-time players will probably find their merry stroll through the games world brought to a sudden halt a mere 2 screens into the game and subsequently be subjected to many a scrunched up face of concentration and out loud exclamations of "WHAT!?" as they watch Andy eaten whole, strangled and drowned, burned alive and most commonly, falling to his death The main reason this game has stuck in my mind so long is most likely due to the massive amounts of juxtaposition it has. With the humour driven and goofy cut-scenes (now with an added level of comedy as 3D animation has come on a LONG way since '98) and the quiet, mysterious, almost peaceful atmosphere of the game itself coupled with the dread of uncertainty of what's around the next corner Mainly I'm interested to see how many other people have played or even heard of this game before. I know Another World is quite well known of today but the few times I've mentioned Heart of Darkness before it's been met with nonplussed looks. Anyway, please enjoy these videos of Heart of Darkness. I made them just for you. Videos Heart of Darkness Part 1: Intro & World 1 -[YouTube]/[Polsy] Heart of Darkness Part 2: Worlds 2 & 3 - [YouTube]/[Polsy] Heart of Darkness Part 3: Worlds 4 & 5 - [YouTube]/[Polsy] Heart of Darkness Part 4: Worlds 6 & 7 - [YouTube]/[Polsy] Heart of Darkness Part 5: World 8 - [YouTube]/[Polsy] Heart of Darkness Part 6: Death Reel - [YouTube]/[Polsy] Heart of Darkness Bonus: Extra Scene & Ending in 3D - [YouTube]/[Polsy] Dex01 fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Sep 17, 2014 |
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Aug 19, 2014 21:50
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The best Calvin and Hobbes game ever made. But yeah, quite glad to see another LP of this game. I never had the implication of it being an rare game, as a number of people I knew as a kid had played it. I personally think the animation was stylized enough that it's aged alright, except Andy's face. (also get the tag changed for the thread)
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Aug 19, 2014 22:36
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The only other time I've seen this game is watching someone else play it for their first time on a stream and you really aren't kidding about the dying a lot. I think they managed to get to the spot where you lose your weapon and couldn't figure out how to proceed over the course of about an hour. It'll be pretty great to finally see more of this game than the first 5 or so screens 
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Aug 19, 2014 23:06
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I still don't know how you managed to finish this game at the time because I'm pretty sure this was before we had the internet. Touch the glowing green rock to get magical powers when everything else kills you? I wonder how many kids just gave up at that point because they couldn't progress! Also this game is way more violent than I remember, but then again I was about 6 or 7 at the time so eh Precious childhood video game memories, bro, keep it up 
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Aug 19, 2014 23:27
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So how much of the book got translated into the game?
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Aug 19, 2014 23:56
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I loved this game I played it when I was really young it was the first real trial and error game I ever played. Before that everything was just as punishing or more so but had a limited amount of lives. Edit: well I guess there was out of this world and prince of Persia as well. (something with the early stages of this genre and rotoscope...) ares5566 fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Aug 20, 2014 |
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Aug 20, 2014 00:48
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Please show all the wonderful death animations, thanks in advance.
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Aug 20, 2014 01:50
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Gharbad the Weak posted:Please show all the wonderful death animations, thanks in advance. Definitely this, it's too core to the game to do a perfect run and then show none of the death animations as a bonus video.
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Aug 20, 2014 02:56
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Yeah, you can't not show off all of the deaths in this game.
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Aug 20, 2014 03:01
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Lava posted:I still don't know how you managed to finish this game at the time because I'm pretty sure this was before we had the internet. Touch the glowing green rock to get magical powers when everything else kills you? I wonder how many kids just gave up at that point because they couldn't progress! Finding that meteor may have been one of the most satisfying experiences of my young life. That said, I got to the very end (or at least, very close) but still couldn't finish it. Had to dig it up again much, much later. The shadow enemies still give me the creeps. Never thought I'd see this game given the LP treatment, but I'm VERY excited for it, especially with someone so competent at the helm. Along with Tomba/i!, it was one of my favorites on the PSX.
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Aug 20, 2014 06:19
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I remember this game. The horror, the horror...
Pierzak fucked around with this message at 11:06 on Aug 20, 2014 |
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Aug 20, 2014 11:04
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I played this in 1998 on my PC, as it had quite a bit of a build-up back in the day. Ahh, memories. Getting to the end was quite a challenge, but the infinite lives thing does mean you can just keep butting your head against it until it cracks.
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Aug 20, 2014 12:12
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This is one of the most 90s games I have ever seen. Also those winged amigo things are horrible. What were the makers thinking with those things? I'm pretty sure that even if I had played this game when it came out, 8 year-old me would've still found them unbearable. The gameplay looks pretty good, though. That is some seriously smooth animation (in gameplay I mean, not cutscenes obviously).
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Aug 20, 2014 16:50
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Hammurabi posted:This is one of the most 90s games I have ever seen. Exactly what I was thinking. I understand why they called it cinematic. The cutscenes have film music... and the entire thing plays out like the cartoons I used to watch during my 90s childhood. Even though I don't know this game, it brings back memories. The transition from 2d gameplay to 3d cutscenes is really smooth, I have to say. And the backgrounds during the gameplay look quite nice - if you don't try to watch the LP in HD full screen mode.
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Aug 21, 2014 00:39
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Carbon dioxide posted:Exactly what I was thinking. I understand why they called it cinematic. The cutscenes have film music... and the entire thing plays out like the cartoons I used to watch during my 90s childhood. Even though I don't know this game, it brings back memories. Unlike most other games of the time, it looked jagged and pixely even when it came out. It was in development for a long time and was originally scaled for lower resolution monitors than 800x600.
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Aug 21, 2014 08:40
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Oh God, THIS GAME. I spent SO LONG trying to beat it, back in the day, and when I finally did, it was SO SWEET. EDIT: As for the game being short, it sure feels incredibly long when you die five times per screen and the game isn't particularly generous with checkpoints. Any chance you might do a death reel? Because some of the deaths are pretty impressively grim considering the relatively cartoonish introduction and concept. PurpleXVI fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 09:05
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Love this game, even if it fills me with rage every time I play it through. It's still more fair to the players than Another World, though!
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Aug 21, 2014 14:50
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I've never heard of this game, but it's really giving me Another World vibes, aside from all the forced comedy. Also yes thank you childrens game for showing me the bare tits of an ugly made of species ughughugh.
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Aug 21, 2014 21:13
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kalonZombie posted:I've never heard of this game, but it's really giving me Another World vibes, aside from all the forced comedy. It's a very schizophrenic game, I even felt that playing it as a teenager. I could pass on a lot of the goofier stuff, that entire race, if it didn't make for a really cool moment later.
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Aug 21, 2014 22:47
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isn't this game done by the same team that did Another World and Heart of the Monster (or whatever)?
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Aug 22, 2014 06:08
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Aces High posted:isn't this game done by the same team that did Another World and Heart of the Monster (or whatever)? Yup! Specifically, Eric Chahi's name is quite prominent on this game, and he's the feller behind Another World. As to this game? I played it once, when I was younger. I got about as far as the Amigo Village before going "nope, sorry, don't like hard-as-balls anymore" for a while. But there are some questions as to how people played this without the benefit of the Interwubs. Put simply, we had two recourses, and one wasn't guaranteed to work (eventually). 1) Butt your head against random poo poo, try random things until something works and/or kills you. If there's a lives system, write that bastard down in your walkthrough notebook (which always had shakier handwriting the further you got in whatever game you were doing) 2) Wait for a magazine like CVG, PC Gamer, or the like to do a series of walkthrough articles, cry bitter, salty tears as the thing they tell you to do is the thing you tried, but the control scheme just wasn't working for you that day or you'd just got the timing wrong. As to the Amigos, they are by no means the worst I've ever seen. Remember, both I and this game come from a generation that had Schnarf and Conan The Barbarian as Saturday AM Cartoon (complete with equally annoying sidekick.) If anything, they were probably aiming for something along the lines of Sloth. Can't deny it gets old quickly though. EDIT: Hrm... There's a blog/gamer article idea... "You Dang Kids Have It Lucky: Playing [old hard game with dick moves] Without Assistance" JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 11:40 on Aug 22, 2014 |
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Aug 22, 2014 11:38
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They... just held down our friendly flying monster and BURNED HIM ALIVE. Yeah, this game needs a mature rating.
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Aug 24, 2014 03:11
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I dunno why another world gets all the praise and this game gets looked over, when it's way better. Are the muppets just that annoying?
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Aug 24, 2014 03:19
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darealkooky posted:I dunno why another world gets all the praise and this game gets looked over, when it's way better. I remember they weren't that bad when I was a kid, but now they just feel terribly forced and Jar Jar Binksy.
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Aug 24, 2014 11:24
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I bought this game used because I had such fond memories of Out Of This World on the SNES. I'm pretty sure there was something I had to look up online to finish the game (which may have been as simple as "Yes, the seemingly infinite gauntlet of enemies eventually ends"), but I made it most of the way on my own and never really felt inspired to play through it again. I guess I don't revisit the PS1 era at all these days, which is a shame because there were some great games. It's just a hassle to find a memory card that either has my old saves or room for new ones.
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Aug 24, 2014 18:26
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This one actually had a PC release and it was one of my first major PC games, along with Starcraft and Fallout.
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Aug 24, 2014 18:58
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Oh poo poo, I remember seeing an ad for this game in a magazine and I wanted it so bad, but could never find it.
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Aug 26, 2014 20:56
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I love how schizophrenic this game is. On moment you get crappy 90's cgi with cheesy cartoon humor, then you get the gameplay, with its gorgeous animation and vaguely oppressive atmosphere and brutal death animations.
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Aug 26, 2014 21:07
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Not to sound like a dick and your thread title really made be chuckle, but being from 1998, this game is supposed to be displayed at 4:3 aspect ratio. You're stretching it to 16:9 which makes everything look way fatter than it is supposed to look. Can you fix this in future updates? You're really doing the game a disservice, it looks much better using the correct aspect ratio.
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Aug 26, 2014 21:19
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New Video! We meet some spiders, and learn the truth about skeletons Heart of Darkness Part 3: Worlds 4 & 5 - [YouTube]/[Polsy]
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Aug 27, 2014 00:05
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It feels like kind of a shame that they never did more with the shadow thing other than one or two puzzles to solve and the occasional, "SURPRISE, THIS BRANCH KILLS YOU DEAD WITH ITS SHADOW"-thing. It could have had some potential for interesting puzzles.
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Aug 27, 2014 06:42
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I was totally expecting that tree you landed on to be a Venus Flytrap. Surprised when it didn't try to eat Andy. Also, EPIC PLOT TWIST.
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Aug 27, 2014 20:28
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Huh. Yeah, it does seem like Andy is the only one with a good shadow. Or at least not an evil shadow.
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Aug 28, 2014 18:11
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Oh man this game. I found it in a toy store as a kid, the cover looked kinda neat so I decided to pick it up. Probably one of the best deals I've ever made. Come to think of it, I also got Symphony of the Night pretty much the same way. You totally drown in the water, so needless to say watching that swimming section was stressful as gently caress, when I saw you skip that first pocket of air I was literally going nuts. If you people think the game feels kinda foreboding now, wait 'till you see the death animations. It gets downright brutal. Brumaldo fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Aug 28, 2014 |
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Aug 28, 2014 22:24
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Was this one of the first games to wallow in development hell for so long? A 6 years dev cycle was pretty unheard of in 1992, back before DNF, Daikatana, and Team Fortress 2. I mean the quality shows, but holy cow that's a lot of time and money to spend on this sort of game. Do you have any insight as far as why this game took so long to make?
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Aug 28, 2014 22:36
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Usually I would be posting an update right about now, but due to underestimating how little time I was going to have to myself and also going on Vacation this Thursday, this weeks update and subsequently next weeks will be postponed. I'm really bad at planning ahead 
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Sep 2, 2014 22:03
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While I never really connected with the characters this game is so loving beautiful (aside from the FMVs). I think it wasn't until Rayman: Origins that I saw a 2D game with animation as fluid. Though I never did beat it (drat end boss!), so thanks for the LP.
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Sep 9, 2014 04:36
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New Video! As we draw ever closer to rescuing Whisky, we break into the lair where he is being kept and come across enemies that multiply Heart of Darkness Part 4: Worlds 6 & 7 - [YouTube]/[Polsy]
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Sep 14, 2014 22:08
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It's a shame that this game is so short because it is so good, and was a huge part of my childhood. Also, that last video is listed as private. SirSamVimes fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Sep 14, 2014 |
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Sep 14, 2014 22:12
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Dex01 posted:New Video! It looks like the video is private.
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Sep 14, 2014 22:17
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