Dark Fall

Dark Fall is a first-person psychological horror/adventure game, which employs a very simple HUD. At the top of the screen is the "Activity Bar." On the left side of the bar are items which the player has acquired during the game. On the right, are buttons which allow the player to save their game, quit their game, or load a previously saved game.

The game uses a basic point-and-click interface to move the player around and manipulate the game world, which is presented entirely through static pre-rendered images. As the player moves the cursor around the screen it can change into different styles depending on the situation; neutral cursor (no interaction is possible), an arrow (the player can move in the direction indicated), a finger (indicating an item with which the player can directly interact), a wrench (the player must use an inventory item to initiate interaction), a magnifying glass (an area which can be examined in more detail), backwards arrow (the player can move backwards whilst facing the same direction; i.e. they do not have to turn around).

The game begins on April 29, with the player Mr. Crowhurst (whose first name remains unknown) receiving a message from his brother, Pete Crowhurst, an architect working on the redevelopment of an abandoned Railway hotel in Dowerton, Dorset. Pete pleads for his brother to come to Dowerton, as something is wrong and he needs help. He mentions he is working with two ghost hunters, and says "I think whatever they were hunting has found them.

I think it's found me, too." He then says "it" is outside the door, whispering his name, and he feels compelled to let it in. As the message ends, a door is heard opening.

Dark Fall was written, designed and programmed by Jonathan Boakes, who was working as a sushi chef at the time. He first got the idea for the game whilst exploring a real abandoned train station and adjoining hotel in Dorset in January 2000. The buildings were sealed shut with corrugated iron, but rusted peepholes allowed him to look inside and determine they had been quite opulent in their day, and had last been used in the late 1940s. Upon further investigation, he discovered one of the doors of the train station was so rotted, the weight of the iron had pulled it partly off its hinges, and he was able to get inside and explore the buffet room.

Upon returning to his nearby B&B, he asked the owner, a man named Crabtree, about the hotel and station, but he knew nothing of their history, simply that they were there. It was this air of mystery that first led Boakes to consider a video game in such a setting. He was also inspired by the Sapphire & Steel serial "The Railway Station", which was set in an abandoned train station and featured "two existential 'time agents' [who] visited an old railway station to get to the bottom of a 'time rip'. Something was bringing the dead back into our world as embittered spirits."

In March 2004, Lorraine Lue of DreamCatcher Interactive Europe reported that Dark Fall "kind of surprised us because it is selling very well worldwide, including Germany and the UK." She attributed this partly to the game's use of atmosphere, rather than violence, to generate fear. In North America, Dark Fall sold 17,828 retail copies during 2003, and another 5,432 in the first two months of 2004. The game received "mixed or average reviews" upon its general release in 2003. It holds an aggregate score of 68 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on twenty-three reviews.

IGN's Staci Krause scored the game 7.8 out of 10, writing "It is rare that a PC game, especially a point and click adventure, can give you that edge of your seat feel. Dark Fall: The Journal, definitely does this. Although it's not the most technologically advanced of games, it has a gripping story coupled with subtle nuances that add a dimension of fear to the experience. Add in some puzzles and a lot of investigating and what you have is a pretty decent game."