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Dark City - Kyiv
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With an opening of a floating wreath sinking beneath the waves as it reaches the shore, Friendly Fox introduces you to Dark City - Kyiv. This Hidden Object Adventure game casts you in the role of Detective Agatha, a specialist in the uncovering of fraudulent psychics. You have been asked to investigate an outbreak of spiritualist frauds that were currently taking place in the city of Kyiv.
Assisting you in your investigation of the paranormal events causing problems in Kyiv is the fairly usual assortment of tools running across the bottom of the scenes making up this game. These tools include a Map that provides information regarding where tasks, morphing and collecting items can be completed plus a folder holding case notes and an inventory holding items you have collected for future use. Any item accompanied by a plus sign will require some work before use. Short cut icons are provided for making decisions plus accessing Hint and Strategy Guide features. Mounted on the left side of the screen will be a fly-out options which will inform you when collectibles and morphing objects are available in the current scene.
Although invited to the city of Kyiv to investigate fraudulent psychics, you quickly discover that the real reason for your presence is to investigate the disappearance of those with special powers. Each disappearance is accompanied by the appearance of a Motanka doll that resembles the missing person. Rumours start to emerge that somebody is attempting to resurrect an evil spirit known as Viy who, when awakened, will inflict winter and darkness on the people of Kyiv. It is up to you, in the role of Agatha, to discover who is behind the resurrection plan and stop it happening.
The various scenes depicted in this game are well-drawn and draw the player into the gaming environment and its time period. Often eye-catching animation are used. Character inhabiting the area will be shown as animated overlays and will deliver their dialogue in both spoken and printed format as you visit areas of the city and even avert a disaster involving the local cable ride.
As part of your investigation you will encounter different characters and be faced with a variety of tasks. From time to time these tasks will involve adding to your case notes by matching characters or events to appropriate incidents. This particular action does not allow you to make a mistake by pairing the wrong character or event to the incident and will force you to try again. You will also need to examine greyed-out scenes to find clues regarding possible hiding places or actions involved with an incident.
The game also contains a number of mini game puzzles and Hidden Object scenes. In the case of mini game puzzles you could be asked to create a path to your desired destination; find the appropriate lifelines for a palm reading; mix a potion to clear smudges from a document and arrange jewels in their correct places among other puzzling tasks Some of the puzzles offered come with a choice of Casual or Hard difficulty.
Indicated by an outbreak of sparkles, Hidden Object game play offers the usual collection of formats. You could be asked to find text lists of required items, pair items, locate the correct key for individual locks or find sections of a scene.
While I felt the game's ending could have been more dramatic, I enjoyed playing this game set in the Ukraine where the last trial of witches was held in 1829. I downloaded my copy of this title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $19.99. You can also download it from Big Fish Games priced at £15.46. The game requires a 1.0 GHz processor with 1024MB of RAM and 1.45GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.
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