Lighthouse Interactive and its project partners, developer Discus Games and Graviteam‚ announced Monday that their upcoming WWII tank simulation game, Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942, will hit shelves across North America in early November and set a firm date of November 7 for European stores.

Steel Fury is known in previews as a historically accurate and thickly detailed war game. The PC DVD-ROM game features the Russian‚ T-34/76 1941 tank.

“The events of‚ Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942‚ are based on a little-known Russian offensive that occurred during May 1942, in which a German counterattack had three Soviet armies surrounded, forcing them to fight their way out of the Barvenkovskiy Kotel “meat grinder,” the companies said in a statement.

Game summary:

Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942‚ is based on real-life events that took place from May 12-28, 1942, which engaged the Red Army in the fight of their lives. During a vicious German counterattack that began on May 17, 1942, three Soviet Armies were surrounded and were forced to fight in what has become known as the “meat grinder.” Through the monstrous roar of tanks and military vehicles, and the blaring sounds of war, players will experience bitterness at the loss of their comrades during battle and elation when they are victorious.

Game features:

• Historical Authenticity:‚ Missions are based on true historical events recreated from archives and photo references, including the interiors and exteriors of vehicles and tactical markings. The player has access to vast battlefields without obstructions from impenetrable forests or other obstacles, allowing them to choose any path available to achieve victory!
• Fear and Fury Filled Missions:‚ Throughout 30 playable missions in three unique single-player campaigns, experience large scale battles with numerous active vehicles.
• ‚ Vehicles:‚ Interact with and command all units involved in the advance against the enemy, including: more than 40 different realistically modelled vehicles, with three playable tanks: T-34/76 mod. 1941, Mk.II “ËœMatilda’ III, and the Pz. IV Ausf. F2.
• Take Full Control:‚ In first and third person views, assume crew positions for Commander, Gunner, Loader, Driver, and Hull Gunner.
• Realistic Game Physics:‚ The advanced game engine allows for precise calculation of ballistics and collisions models. Objects can be destroyed and the terrain is deformable. Both player and AI controlled vehicles are subject to realistic physics.
• Realistic Environments:‚ The game engine supports dynamic lighting, featuring night-time missions and different weather conditions. The engine’s particle system allows for realistic smoke and water effects, as well as debris from explosions.
• Damage Model:‚ Everything in the path of a tank-round can be destroyed. Vehicles can damage buildings and knock down trees. Due to the advanced game engine, impacting shells create craters and trenches take damage when tanks run over them, deforming the terrain.
• Difficulty Levels:‚ Players can adjust the level of complexity the game offers. Missions gradually raise the difficulty level by introducing more vehicles, troops, and harder to achieve mission goals. Thanks to training missions, the player can easily learn how to control their tank and supporting AI troops from all crew positions.
• ‚ Editors and Utilities:‚ Players have the ability to create custom missions and make modifications. Easy-to-use editors make it possible to add new vehicles and weapons to the game.

For more information on‚ Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942,‚ visit the official websites at‚ www.steelfury.info‚ and‚ www.lighthouse-interactive.com.

Lighthouse Interactive announced Thursday that their new conspiracy Adventure game Belief & Betrayal has been released to retail shelves across North America.

GAME SUMMARY

As journalist Jonathan Danter, you discover that a ten year old murder is somehow part of a greater mystery that could destroy humanity itself. Filled with baffling plot twists and conspiracy theories, you must uncover the mystery that reaches back through history from 1194 A.D. to the time Judas received 30 pieces of silver to betray Christ.

Travel to exotic locations throughout Europe including: London, Venice, Rome and the Vatican, to uncover skeletons hidden deep within the closets of some of the most powerful leaders around the World.

FEATURES

• Play as 3 different characters throughout the game to solve the mystery
• Find lost ancient manuscripts and decipher mind-boggling codes and symbols
• Explore stunning environments and incredibly re-created historic locations
• Strong action/adventure storyline creates a compelling gameplay experience
• Use the memories and thoughts of the intriguing cast of characters to solve puzzles and expose dark mysteries
• Game based on historical events though the story is pure fiction
• Easy to navigate 3rd person point & click interface using the Virtools engine

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

OS: Windows 2000 / XP / Vista
CPU: 1 GHz Intel Pentium processor or AMD Athlon processor
RAM: 512 MB (1 GB recommended for Windows Vista)
Video: 64 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible or better video card
PC DVD-ROM: 4x
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Available Hard Disk Space: 2 GB
DirectX: 9.0c
Other: Mouse, Keyboard and Speakers

Lighthouse Interactive and dtp Entertainment announced that their latest adventure game, Belief & Betrayal has gone gold and will be released in North America June 10.

B&B is a point and click adventure game wrapped around a cold case murder mystery.

“The adventure game community has been very patient,” said Erik Schreuder, CEO of Lighthouse Interactive. “We are confident they will appreciate the optimizations made to improve Belief & Betrayal to meet their expectations.”

Game summary:

As journalist Jonathan Danter, you discover that a ten year old murder is somehow part of a greater mystery that could destroy humanity itself. Filled with baffling plot twists and conspiracy theories, you must uncover the mystery that reaches back through history from 1194 A.D. to the time Judas received 30 pieces of silver to betray Christ.

Travel to exotic locations throughout Europe including: London, Venice, Rome and the Vatican, to uncover skeletons hidden deep within the closets of some of the most powerful leaders around the World.

Game features:

• Play as 3 different characters throughout the game to solve the mystery
• Find lost ancient manuscripts and decipher mind-boggling codes and symbols
• Explore stunning environments and incredibly re-created historic locations
• Strong action/adventure storyline creates a compelling gameplay experience
• Use the memories and thoughts of the intriguing cast of characters to solve puzzles and expose dark mysteries
• Game based on historical events though the story is pure fiction
• Easy to navigate 3rd person point & click interface using the Virtools engine

For more, check out the game’s website.

Lighthouse Interactive released a new trailer today for their upcoming thriller/adventure, Overclocked: A History of Violence, coming to American PC’s in November.

Game summary:

Set against the backdrop of a catastrophic thunderstorm raging over New York City, step into the world of Overclocked as former army psychiatrist, David McNamara. You are called to the Staten Island Forensic Hospital in New York City to consult on a case that requires your expertise in forensic psychiatry. Tasked with exploring the minds of five young men and women who were found scared, screaming, and without memory, you make alarming discoveries as you begin to cautiously probe the psyches of your young patients. Throughout the game, you will play as five other characters in this chilling interactive psycho thriller.

The trailer reveals more of the game’s plot and introduces the other characters including the five young patients who were found wandering the streets of New York City — distraught, scared and screaming, Lighthouse said Monday.

Lighthouse Interactive and developer ClockStone Software announced Thursday that a new update patch for their fantasy-based action RPG Avencast: Rise of the Mage has been released.

“The update adds several new enhancements upgrading the game to version 1.03,” Lighthouse said in a statement.

Upgrades in version 1.03:

• Monster health bar instead of “wounded text”
• Low mana/health feedback improved
• Bugfix: unexpected monster health refill
• Bugfix: monster disappears
• Bugfix: planetarium laser
• Balancing: Kalios fire dwarf quest easier
• Balancing: Tertius boss monster in vault level easier
• Workaround: ‘disable videos’ option for users with codec/driver problems

The complete list of new features included in the upgrade, is available at the Lighthouse forums and at www.avencast.com.

Download the Avencast 1.03 patch (file size: 8.8 MB) FREE from Blast Magazine

Game sumary:
As the sun rises over Avencast, the renowned academy of magic; a young adept begins his perilous journey. In a world of wizardry, wonder and untold mystery, you must undertake some of the most diverse quests to hone your abilities in spell casting, weaponry and melee combat. Your martial skills are soon put to the test as demonic monsters of unknown ancient origin descend upon Avencast turning the academy into a horrific state of chaos and destruction. Armed with over 50 combat moves and spells, and a vast arsenal of equipment items, you must uncover the source of these ominous happenings while vanquishing an onslaught of fiendish enemies. Treachery and deceit reveal themselves as the vicious army of adversaries beleaguers your frail haven threatening Avencast’s very existence. Amidst the mayhem, an astonishing truth unfolds which will forever change the battle scarred Wizard.

Lighthouse Interactive and Vertex 4 released update 1.08 for SunAge, their sci-fi real-time strategy game for PC. The new update adds several new enhancements, an auto-updater, bug fixes and above all, new multiplayer features.

Features in update 1.08:

• Re-balancing of several in-game units, an added enhancement given community feedback
• Multiplayer game lobby with chat functionalities
• Master server and improved online functionalities
• Improved firewall support and “punch through”
• Auto-updater functionality (future patches or fixes will be downloaded automatically upon startup of the game).
• Heavily reduced network traffic; rework of the network protocol, now UDP

Download the SunAge 1.08 patch free from Blast Magazine

About the game:

Earth is a desolate wasteland destroyed by the radiation and heat of the sun. Humankind, known as the Dome Confederacy, have been forced to retreat into shielded cities enduring constant attacks by the Raak-zun cult; a sect of religious outcasts who live outside the dome. An age long war has ensued as both races battle for the limited resources of the dying planet. Amidst the havoc, the gateway to a bold new planet is unlocked. Hope is on the horizon, but this Mecca is teeming with lethal Sentinel drones who will not hesitate to annihilate any life form that gets in their way.

Game features:

• 3 Distinct Races – Human, Raak-zun and Sentinel – each with their own units, buildings, technological advantages and disadvantages.
• Unique Upgrades – Alternate modes can be researched for all units, unlocking dual functionality for greater tactical depth.
• Graphics – Stunning sci-fi environments from vast industrial cities and devastated wastelands, to a lush alien planet. While displaying rich graphical environments and visual effects, SunAge is very playable on lower spec PC’s and laptops.
• Tactical Landscape – All units and their alternate modes are crucial to the overall strategy. Exploit weaknesses in the enemy’s network while strengthening your own connection lines.
• Formations – Squad concept combined with long distance camera views allows a large number of units to be fighting onscreen with a clear overview of the battleground. Singleplayer – 25 campaign maps with compelling plots for each race.
• Multiplayer – LAN and Online – Classic multiplayer with focus on gathering4 different kinds of resources and outsmarting the opponent in battle. 10 maps created uniquely for multiplayer mode.
• Command Queuing – Command your units to prone, build or attack where you want them and when you want them to do so.
• Indirect Intelligent Targeting (IIT) – Order your units to focus on pre-selected targets.

For more information about SunAge visit the game’s official website.

See also: Blast Magazine puts out the first preview for SunAge.

After playing a late beta of SunAge, I am convinced that the upcoming real-time strategy PC game can be a great one if the American version — due in early 2008 — doesn’t skimp on anything.

The game was originally conceived 11 years ago, the developer said on its blog. It went gold on November 21 and was released for direct download in UK, Scandinavia, Benelux and Italy December 2.

A patch came out three days later.

That’s disappointing but not surprising. I played v0.9-1 and encountered plenty of issues, particularly in point of view movement. Unlike most strategy games, SunAge doesn’t let you slide around with the keyboard arrows. You have to drag the cursor to the edge of the screen, and the map automatically moves.

That is a terrible, awful way to control a strategy game. The last thing you want to happen when you’re reaching to control your units is to have the map move around on you. Fix that. It’s a 2D strategy game. The keyboard isn’t too retro.

Getting past the controls and beta bugs, SunAge is a 2D post-modern strategy game with wonderfully crafted elements of cyberpunk, fantasy and military. Unlike early reports, the game is largely based on Earth, with an alien planet added. Earth. in an Al Gore-like prediction, is no longer hospitable for humans, who have retreated to secure domes.

You get to play as any of three races, the Federals, the Raak Zun, and the Sentinels.

“The Federacy was an organization born out of necessity. As conditions on Earth became increasingly hostile, humanity was faced with a difficult decision. Adapt, or die. The Federacy was formed, an international entity formed of many collapsing governments, to protect the remnants of a dying race,” and that’s the pseudo-noble human race you can control. Very post-mod, post-apocalyptic.

But — “When mankind retreated into the domes they also committed an act of grand betrayal – abandoning many of their peoples to perish in the toxic wastelands. But not all perished. Suffering decades of mutation and hardship, a new race was born with the instinct and brute force to survive the dangers of the wasteland: the Raak-Zun.” — They tend to look a lot like orcs.

The game uses four different kinds of ore and elements, Nitrium Ore, Plutonium, Zirkonium and Iberium Rods that let you produce units, vehicles, aircraft and advanced tech. It’s sort of like the original Star Wars strategy games where you’re seeking out futuristic materials to build your futuristic military units.

Just think of Zirkonium as chopping down trees for wood in Warcraft.

The game uses a lot of units and a traditional commander role on point.

SunAge has a good story, solid races and units and an RPG-type element with pop-in conversations and monologues that reminded me of what I used to see in Phantasy Star IV, one of the best RPG’s of the 16-bit generation. If they hold true to that — maybe some cut-scenes? — it’s a great feature.

I picked up the gameplay elements with a little effort. Grouping units together is intuitive and they will open fire on all hostiles. In my version, my units didn’t flock to a far-away enemy if I targeted it. They needed to be in range to respond to the attack command. The full version will improve on this with “combat queuing,” letting you issue batches of orders to your men. You can also formate your units in different ways depending on the enemy.

The game is 2D, but don’t get your shorts in a knot over that. The scenery elements look great and elements are detailed. There’s full voice acting and good character development as the story unfolds.

There’s some work to be done. The game is getting decent feedback on forums so far, but it is being criticized for a steep learning curve.

“This game keeps handing me my ass even in the early missions. It seems like you guys got so proficient at the game you forgot to see if us noobies could handle it,” said nailernforce on the Vertex4 boards.

I like SunAge. I think there’s room to improve it and make it ready for an ADHD American market. I also haven’t heard anything about unit or map editors yet — so we’ll have to see about mods and editing.

So let me put Lighthouse Interactive and Vertex4 on notice: You don’t get any second chances in the United States. Fix the bugs and controls before you put it out here. If the game can’t be played without some sort of bug or freeze-up, it will fail here. God dammit, you put 11 years into this one. Don’t let a month’s worth of bug testing eff it all up.

Features:

• 3 Distinct Races – Human, Raak-zun and Sentinel – each with their own units, buildings, technological advantages and disadvantages
• Unique Upgrades – Alternate modes can be researched for all units, unlocking dual functionality for greater tactical depth
• Graphics – Stunning sci-fi environments from vast industrial cities and devastated wastelands, to a lush alien planet. While displaying rich graphical environments and visual effects, SunAge is very playable on lower spec PC’s and laptops
• Tactical Landscape – All units and their alternate modes are crucial to the overall strategy. Exploit weaknesses in the enemy’s network while strengthening your own connection lines
• Formations – Squad concept combined with long distance camera views allows a large number of units to be fighting onscreen with a clear overview of the battle ground
• Singleplayer – 25 campaign maps with compelling plots for each race
• Multiplayer – LAN and Online – Classic multiplayer with focus on gathering 4 different kinds of resources and outsmarting the opponent in battle. 10 maps created uniquely for multiplayer mode
• Command Queuing – Command your units to prone, build or attack where you want them and when you want them to do so
• Indirect Intelligent Targeting (IIT) – Order your units to focus on pre-selected targets

System requirements:

• OS: Windows ME / 2000 / XP / Vista
• CPU: 1,2 GHz Intel® Pentium® III or equivalent AMD® Athlon processor
• RAM: 512 MB (1 GB Recommended for Windows Vista)
• Video Card: 128 MB 3D accelerated video card
• PC CD-ROM: 4x (or PC DVD-ROM drive)
• Sound: DirectSound compatible (Sound Blaster X-Fi series sound card recommended)
• Available Hard Disk Space: 1 GB
• DirectX: 9.0c compatible
• Other: Mouse, Keyboard and Speakers
• Multiplayer: LAN or 56K (or faster) Internet Connection

Quick hits:

Publisher: Lighthouse Interactive
Developer: Vertex 4
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Real-time strategy
Players: 1
Launch Date: Q1, 2008

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 3 out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars (Based on the Beta. As Homer Simpson said to Maggie: Prove me wrong Silent Bob)

Downloads:
Wallpaper

Myst was a game so beautiful, so technologically revolutionary and so cerebral that it was the best selling computer game of all time until millions of screaming girls started playing “The Sims.”

The game also spawned a generation of gaming. Many people call it the phenomenon of the “Myst clone,” but make no mistake, the entire genre of mouse-driven adventure games pays homage to Myst. (Read The Review Center’s original review here)

Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder is no Myst.

But it is a mouse-driven adventure game with deeply challenging puzzles as you play detective Howard E. Loreid, lead investigator on the case of the Clark Field murder. The game inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, and if you’re familiar with Lovecraft’s works, Darkness Within is a familiar yarn about estranged family members’ secrets and the occult. The plot is jaded, but it’s a video game, so I let the clich©s go usually. No, the plot doesn’t hurt “Darkness,” it’s the terrible gameplay and lack of character interaction.

Loreid is having nightmares lately, and the game opens in one such dream about a mental institution and a dead body. He wakes up to the sound of his cell phone ringing and his office calling. Loreid has to get out of bed and head over to his office, finding his phone and car keys in the process. No shower, no getting dressed, no animation, just clickity click click and you’re suddenly headed to the police station.

The “police station,” like most scenes in the game, is a beautifully decorated, wholly un-interactive experience. Loreid’s office is just that, a one room office with no people, no activity, a phone you can’t use and a computer you can’t interact with. Comeon folks, they were letting people click more items in rooms in 1995 games.

You do a ton of clicking in Myst, but not nearly this much. In Myst, every click results in something interesting. In “Darkness,” every click results in another click.

What really gets me is the sheer lack of any character interaction. The game starts with a ringing cell phone and a coworker calling, but there’s no bustling police station, paternal captain or fellow officers — just an empty office.

Still, the one room jobs are far better than some of the larger scenes. There’s just too much clicking. Like going up a flight of stairs — you click once to go up halfway, then again to move across the landing, then again to go up again, then another click to open the door at the top of the next landing. You also have to be in the correct step to interact with items and evidence. If you can see something, you can’t click it until you’re right up against it. Then you click it and the item zooms up. Then you click it again and you can finally look/analyze the item.

And that’s what turned me off of Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder. It takes so long to move around and find things, that I didn’t have any mental energy left to dedicate to what are actually pretty well-crafted puzzles.

That’s all in spite of the fact that Darkness Within is a beautifully well-designed game. For a low-budget title, the graphics are excellent, the lighting effects are superb and the item detail defy it’s system requirements (set at 1 Ghz/512MB RAM).

Sure the occult angles and soap opera family troubles are brilliantly unoriginal, but really it’s the terrible controls and the awful gameplay that make Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder fail to make the grade.

The game also takes up over a gigabyte of hard drive space, and since Lighthouse and Zoetrope decided to distribute the game on CD-ROM instead of DVD-ROM, you have to install the game from both CD’s. Installation alone takes 20 minutes.

This is all a damn shame because the PC world is desperate for a strong adventure game. Next Life, anything Agatha Christie, Anacapri: The Dream, Operation Wintersun, and now Darkness Within have all been god-awful. Sadly, Darkness Within is the best Adventure game on that list, and for an adventure game whore like me, it’s a sad time to play video games.

I know we get a cut of the proceeds, but click the link to the right, do yourself a huge favor and buy Indigo Prophecy. It’s a few years old, but it’s the best adventure title of the 21st century, and you can get it for 10 bucks.

Play that game and learn what’s missing in the modern adventure game, and without going too far into a tangent, let me just say that the latest games, including Darkness Within are missing the mark on cinematics and creating bland, stale, detached characters. Even in Myst, players grew attached to the plight of “The Stranger.” Howard E. Loreid? Not so much.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Lighthouse Interactive
Developer: Zoetrope Interactive
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Mouse-driven Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: November 6, 2007

Playability: 1.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 2 out of 5 stars

Operation Wintersun is a boring game.

I knew I was in trouble when it took me a half hour to get past the tutorial-style intro. I finally had to turn to the manual to find out that I needed to — no lie — dig in the trash, find a potato, scatter the potato onto a special part of the ground so that a crow would fly off a branch to eat it. I then needed to tear down that branch and “combine” it with a loose bar sticking out from a nearby window.

I was then supposed to use the stick/bar to open another window that was too high. This was all done so that I can overhear two British spies talking, but as soon as I got the window open, one of the spies came outside to talk to me and the level was over.

…

Then the gameplay started to get slow.

The rest of “Undercover” is summed up best by Brett Todd, a Gamespot reporter “Anyone who can solve this spectacularly hard game without resorting to a walk-through deserves a ticker-tape parade like the kind they used to give generals and astronauts.”

The game is hard. The puzzles are completely non-intuitive. But worst of all, the gameplay and movement is so ridiculously slow that you don’t want to go spend days going through it all.

I really tried to like this game. It has a pretty interesting plot, good graphics and landscapes and a full voice cast. I even tried to forget the fact that Lighthouse Interactive, the game’s publisher, is largely European-based, so slowly developing, verbose, detailed plots are natural (just watch any British or Canadian crime drama).

The film-noir plot casts you as British physicist John Russell, drafted by intelligence to check out a Nazi plot to build a nuclear weapon.

The script is solid enough, but in the end I just couldn’t get past the fact that I was falling asleep at the mouse. And I don’t mind a slow, noir-style video game (Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit, Tex Murphy: Overseer) — the fact is that Undercover: Operation Wintersun just isn’t a good game, period.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Lighthouse Interactive
Developer: Sproing
Platform: Windows PC-CD
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: August 28, 2007

Playability: 1 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 2 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Lighthouse Interactive and developer Vertex 4 released a teaser trailer for SunAge, a new real-time strategy game coming in January. SunAge will be playable on a variety of configurations, including lower-spec systems.

Features:

• 3 Distinct Races – Human, Raak-zun and Sentinel – each with their own units, buildings, technological advantages and disadvantages.
• Unique Upgrades – Alternate modes can be researched for all units, unlocking dual functionality for greater tactical depth.
• Graphics – Stunning sci-fi environments from vast industrial cities and devastated wastelands, to a lush alien planet. While displaying rich graphical environments and visual effects, SunAge is very playable on lower spec PC’s and laptops.
• Tactical Landscape – All units and their alternate modes are crucial to the overall strategy. Exploit weaknesses in the enemy’s network while strengthening your own connection lines.
• Formations – Squad concept combined with long distance camera views allows a large number of units to be fighting onscreen with a clear overview of the battle ground.
• Singleplayer – 25 campaign maps with compelling plots for each race.
• Multiplayer – LAN and Online – Classic multiplayer with focus on gathering 4 different kinds of resources and outsmarting the opponent in battle. 10 maps created uniquely for multiplayer mode.
• Command Queuing – Command your units to prone, build or attack where you want them and when you want them to do so.
• Indirect Intelligent Targeting (IIT) – Order your units to focus on pre-selected targets.

System Requirements:
OS: Windows ME / 2000 / XP / Vista
CPU: 1,2 GHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
RAM: 512 MB (1 GB Recommended for Windows Vista)
Video Card: 128 MB 3D accelerated video card
PC CD-ROM: 4x (or PC DVD-ROM drive)
Sound: DirectSound compatible (Sound Blaster X-Fi series sound card recommended)
Available Hard Disk Space: 1 GB
DirectX®: 9.0c compatible
Other: Mouse, Keyboard and Speakers
Multiplayer: LAN or 56K (or faster) Internet Connection

Lighthouse Interactive and developer Zoetrope Interactive released the official demo today for their upcoming psychological horror Adventure game, Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder. The scary Vista-compatible PC game was inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and will be released on Halloween.

“The demo will take players into a world where nothing is as it seems,” said Onur Samli, CEO of Zoetrope Interactive. “Mysteries unfold and players will toe the fine line between sanity and insanity. We wanted to create an eerie game world where players will enjoy being frightened.”

Samli said the game packs an involving story that builds the protagonist’s character as the game goes on and you try to locate the fugitive murder suspect Loath Nolder.

“Darkness Within stands out from other games in its genre since it takes players deep into the dark recesses of the human psyche exploring themes such as the occult, nightmares and paranormal events,” said Erik Schreuder, CEO of Lighthouse Interactive. “The demo gives players a peek into the twisted world built around a compelling murder investigation. Darkness Within will keep players entertained for hours!”

The demo allows you to play one of the scenes you’ll encounter during the murder investigation. The company promises “strange happenings will occur, so players will need to keep their wits about them in order to escape the terrifying darkness.”

Official game summary:

As police detective Howard E. Loreid, players are tasked to solve the murder of Clark Field, a wealthy man involved in the occult. At the top of your list of suspects is Loath Nolder; a highly respected private investigator who mysteriously abandoned his last case for reasons unknown. Rumor had it that he ventured to several exotic places around the world learning from tribe shamans and sorcerers. It remains a great mystery as to why Loath Nolder disappeared so suddenly, resurfacing five years later and resuming his investigations just as abruptly as he had left them. Why does this venerated P.I. now sit on the other side of the law?Your seemingly routine investigation takes a dramatic twist as strange and terrifying happenings begin to plague your psyche. You experience lucid horrifying dreams and are tormented by paranormal happenings. Why do days pass instead of hours when you sleep? What’s real and what’s not? As you pursue fugitive murder suspect Loath Nolder, you must face dire truths hidden deep within a haunting darkness and the recesses of your mind.

Other game features:

• Built-in Hint System with 3 Difficulty Levels – Players can choose to play in Standard, Detective or Senior Detective modes.
• Unique Inventory System – Utilizing the ‘thinking screen’ allows players to collect and examine items, and thoughts. Clues can also be researched, combined or used.
• Dynamic Puzzles and Features – Traditional adventure game puzzles are complimented by deciphering dreams and underlining excerpts in documents to garner critical clues.
• Enhanced Gameplay Experience – The proprietary game engine enables compelling special effects, stunning visuals, and dynamic lighting and shading, in a panoramic first person game environment.
• Eerie Gameplay Atmosphere – An immersive experience is created by a fascinating story, chilling real-time cut scenes, and haunting music.

Download the demo (152 MB)