Dark Fall 2: Lights Out

Horrible navigation like Myst, left the room, just going in circles with no direction. Unplayable.

Liked:
Good fun game with lots of intrigue and a good plot.
Loved the creativity in the portals going to different scenes.
Loved the play on time, probably best part of the game.
The puzzles were generally good, some easy some harder and more complex.

Disliked:
I spent too much time on a key puzzle which was, in my opinion, illogical. I think those who have played know which one that is. It’s Drake’s closet puzzle. Without giving it away, think about it, developers should know that the birth dates would not be relative to the keepers’ disappearance date but more likely to the date Drake got his promotion and moved into his room, i.e., 1907. And even then, the puzzle is still obtuse…

The point and click has had its days.

An old, atmospheric mystery game.
The biggest mystery about it is that Steam shows me having played it for 5 hours, but I don't recall even installing it yet. Huh, perhaps I'll reinstall it this Halloween and refresh my memory.

I'm sure it was a decent point-and-click and puzzle indie game in its time, but in 2024, this game is just too old to play. I'm surprised this game was created in 2004, because the graphics, interface, resolution, controls, and gameplay actually scream mid-90's! Unless you're so desperate for a puzzle game, this antique game is not worth trying to play in 2024 because it just hasn't aged well.

While it's not quite as good as the excellent Dark Fall: The Journal - the puzzles are fewer, simpler, and more linear, and the environments are decidedly more difficult to navigate - Lights Out is still a solid entry in the series.

I'll just stop now, right at the beginning. This game feels wrong. Although it is the same engine and theme as the first, it is obtuse, cliché and boring.
It feels like the bad rip off of dark fall 1 the journal. It's subtle but it's there. Everything that made Dark Fall 1 great, is gone. Everything that made Dark Fall 1 a pain, has been magnified a thousandfold.

You played DF1 and got accustomed to the awful way of navigating because, at least, it suited the regular plant of the hotel? The Dev is having none of that, here you go enjoy mouse tank controls on a open landscape and inside a small, round lighthouse which is 80% a spiral staircase. Enjoy navigating that.

You somehow learned how to manage red herrings and pixel hunting in DF1 and felt confident? Once again, too bad. This game appears to be 97% filler content and the pixel hunting is everywhere, and will lead you to filler props most of times. The navigation combined with the most unreasonable angles needed to interact with any item makes the experience a pain.

You loved the non linear gameplay in DF1, the fact that puzzles didn't need to get solved right away and you had tons of rooms and locations to explore while you thought on it? DF2 is linear and if you don't solve whatever it is the game wants right now and then, you cannot progress. Well no issues in solving riddles you think, that's the game anyway right? Wrong, here in DF2 you just have to pixel hunt 3468 different screens equals to all possible navigation angles until something meaningful can be clicked thus allowing you to progress. No hints on what that thing could be, where to look or what you need to accomplish now.

Did you appreciate the subtle noises in the DF1 hotel? Please be ready for some reaallly generic crap in the audio department in this game instead. Cartoonishly evil laughs, violin screeches, the whole Cliché Orchestra is here, to follow you everywhere regardless.

You thought DF1 interface was bad? In DF2 it is the same but worse. Remember how mercifully few were those interactable items that were put back down if you were to click on it and miss the hotspot? Like the tape recorder and its play button.. Well, you already guessed it, here every item gets interacted like that.

You're welcome to read my review on Dark Fall 1, I was so enthusiastic about that game.
I cannot believe that the same person made this one.
It fails in every regard, but mainly entertainment.
Dark Fall 1 was good but it fell flat at the end. Dark Fall 2 already begins flat. I can only conclude that whatever inspiration fueled the development of that first gem, it was a one time thing. I am putting this game down and not touching anything else from this author