Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness

The game itself is very good. It has gloomy, gooey atmosphere of the famous lovecraftian horror. Despite a few dubious riddles, it's still worth to be played.

But as always steam version sucks so deep, that you'd better not even think bout buying it there. It misses a few cutscenes and has various bugs which break the game completely. Better buy it on GOG. These guys know how to sell good old games.

Old school point'n'click horror adventure. Remember, I said OLD SCHOOL which means flawed gameplay elements. There's not so much as a hint where you should venture next so if you save your game then come back to it weeks later with little to no memory of what you were supposed to do next you'll be confused as fuck. A particular part in this game is ludicrously dark and a real piece of shit to navigate. At the mid point of the game you activate a switch then lose all but one of your items. I thought this was a bug. It is not but don't worry, I've read there's still a few of those. If you can stomach all that there's actually a rather endearing story heavily based on HP Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". If you're a fan of Lovecraft's work then you'll guess it well before the quarter way mark. An engaging, atmospheric (for the time) and somewhat frustrating title. Giving it a thumbs up because I'm gay for Cthulhu.

I think this game is very very underrated. It's quite a faithful adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (my favorite story by H.P. Lovecraft) and has a great atmosphere. Sure, the ending is different, but it's probably better suited for a game than the original one. And sure, it has some problems, but it originally came out in 2001, and the developing team dissolved like, more than a decade ago, so I think it's understandable. Most negative reviews here focus on the game breaking bug that it has; however, there's a very simple fix for it on the steam forums, which requires to replace the main .exe file by another one. I did that before starting, and didn't encounter any bugs at all. If you are bothered by having to do this simple fix, then avoid this, it will annoy you. However, if you are able to do that, chances are you won't experience any problems afterwards.
While the game has some puzzles that are a bit obtuse (there's one which every walkthrough says it's just random guessing, and if it is so, then that is definitely wrong), most of them are actually pretty standard point and click adventure game puzzles. Chances are that, if you are used to playing games like this, most puzzles won't give you any kind of trouble at all. I only had to resort to a walkthrough twice, once for the apparently random puzzle, and once after another one, which I accidentally solved using brute force without really seeing the final solution, and it was required for puzzles that came afterwards (and if I hadn't solved it accidentally, I probably wouldn't have needed the walkthrough). So the difficulty is pretty reasonable in my opinion.
Animations are super dated, but even so, it has some great moments, and for the time, it's not that bad. Some of them stuck with me after the game was over (I actually played this many years ago, before it was on steam, and now replayed it; I didn't remember any of the puzzles but I did remember some of the animations and some story moments, even after all these years).
I think this one deserves a better rating, even when I can understand why people think of this game-breaking bug as "inexcusable". But for its price (especially on sale), and because of how old it is and how long ago the original developing team dissolved, I think we can look past that and just use the very simple, less-than-2-minutes-long fix. And also appreciate the stuff it did right, in a world where so many games get Lovecraft's atmosphere wrong, even when it was the most essential characteristic of his tales.

Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness was originally released for the PC and Playstation in 2000/2001.
Based on H.P Lovecraft's short story “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”.
Both being set in the 1920s Providence, Rhode Island. There’s numerous characters that appear in their respective stories including a character who becomes obsessed with their distant ancestor and the occult. There’s mention of Yog-Sothoth and contains alchemical experimentation as well as the resurrection of dead people. In many ways the game is true to its source material. That is, until you reach the later stages of the game with a really abrupt and inconsistent storybeat and it’s noticeable that there’s a lot of content and ideas cut from the game. The ending feels rushed and unsatisfactory.

It’s a “Point & Click” with less of an emphasis on item puzzles and focuses more on the investigative aspects. It’s a bit clunky and involves some of the worst pixel hunting elements I’ve experienced in some time, a lot of time is spent in pitchblack corridors trying to find doors and unlit torches.
Aesthetically the game uses a lot of pre-rendered backgrounds and has a sizable amount of long cutscenes. The character animation has a notable lack or overabundance of overlap. Sometimes the characters only move one part of their body in slow and uncanny ways, and other times they’ll move every single limb in their body making them look like some weird marionette doll. While a lot of the dialogue and voice acting (cheesy as it may be) captures the uncanny and eerie feeling so integral to the Lovecraftian experience. But it often gets overshadowed by the horrible sound mixing. Often the dialogue is drowned out by the great background ambience.

The most notable flaw with the game is the fact that the steam version is impossible to finish due to a bug that both skips a long cutscene but also crashes the game. There is however a community-fix like most old games, that will save you a lot of trouble.

I would only bother with this game if you consider yourself a fanatic of Lovecraft media and really wanna try all of the games. There’s some value in this game, but If you want a better version just read the short story the game is based on “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”.

I was enjoying the game, even though it was very dated in almost every aspect. However, I was very surprised to discover, almost at the end of the game, that a bug people had been complaining about in 2014 was still there! This made the game unplayable - thank goodness for walkthroughs on the web so at least I know what happened.

I don't like giving this a bad review but the Steam release is a pretty big disappointment. There are a lot of bugs, the chief of which is game-breaking towards the end of the game. To my knowledge, there is no fix and it happens to pretty much any players. If you really want to play this one, find a way to run it on original hardware. The developers are long defunct and the current "publisher" has shown no sign of fixing the issue, which has been a known problem since 2014.

The game that you can play is... alright. Some of the puzzles are quite hard. They're not moon logic levels of hard, but there's definitely some stuff in there you'll have to look up online to solve unless you're very meticulous about studying all the notes and hints prior. There's enough atmosphere to give it a certain charm, and enough janky art and animations to make it funny at times. Overall, probably not worth your money - even at it's current store price.

Do I recommend this game? It's graphics are comically dated. Moving within a scene is a chore. You can travel anywhere on the map most of the time, but will only have one location that has an action. Which location? The game rarely tells you. How do you solve puzzle "x"? Don't rely on the game to tell you. I could tell you about the game-crippling bug that...well, you'll find out for yourself. There's a fix, but I guess finding it is half the fun. Some of the cut scenes, which can be skipped, but not replayed, will have important information. You won't be able to understand it, though. Some of the room transitions are jarring (in the library - "What have you found?"). The voice acting is stiff. Some sound effects are grating. NPC interactions are like talking to animatronic roadkill.

So do I recommend it? Heck yeah. The story is great-ish. Standard Lovecraftian fare. But the real charm lies in the quirky flaws that remind us of a simpler time - the early 2000's. The hair animations alone are worth the price of admission. Sometimes another character's arm will seem to be coming out of their ear. The dialogue has the level of quality as a small town newspaper. It gets the point across, but how much alcohol and caffeine went into it?

If the game is within your "Suffering Is Enjoyment" budget, then buy it. Just make sure you a: forget about the bug fix, because replaying half the game is fun, and b: load up the walkthrough on your phone. You may not need it, but you'll want it.

I am genuinely baffled by my conflicting feelings over this "Lovecraftian" adventure game. Okay, Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness is nothing miraculous. It's old, it's clunky, full of bugs with irritable animations... yet still manages to set an eerie enough atmosphere to drive your perception skills to its limits. For that account only, it is not possible to recommend this game to anyone. Even if one is to set aside the fact that the game is raddled with bugs, it would still be an acquired taste forced down your throat.

It's year 1927 in rickety village of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island. A silent afternoon is abruptly interrupted for young William Stanton by his friend, Edgar Wycherley. Edgar seems off, panicked and fearful. He entrusts William an odd pyramid shaped relic and asks for him to protect it, even from Edgar himself at all costs. Then, Edgar takes off as oddly as he appeared before William's door. Minutes later, Doctor Egleton, Wycherley's family doctor visits William to inform that Edgar hasn't been himself lately, consumed by his studies of archeology and asks William to inform him immediately if Edgar is to be contacted. After these strange visits, William decides to visit Edgar himself and learn more about these "studies" of Edgar's in hopes of aiding his friend. That's how young and avid William Stanton gets himself into an interplanar mess centering a quite specific book of occult: Necronomicon.

So far, so good. The story is interesting to begin with, weaved with mummies, strange disappearances, long deceased ancestors, sigils and summoning of spirits. Yet is the presentation of the story fulfilling and satisfying as the game progresses? That, I'd like to vote as abstaining. There is a great amount of lore thrown around for us to monitor and take note, but they are not processed as elegantly as possible in my opinion. Anecdotes keep coming to us without any time for us to digest any kind of on-goings. On that part, it is bad construction for a story revelation.

The game hailing from 2001, graphics are nothing extraordinary, a bit clucky and plastic even for character models. Aside oddly shaped characters, the basic environment presents a creepy yet dull atmosphere suitable for any gothic setting, yet it doesn't actually deliver the Lovecraftian elegance that one would be waiting. Voice acting is neat, with accents of the original time period, but without the option of a subtitle, and much information for you to pursue hidden in cinematic dialogues - without an option to record spoken information in game - ends up being a complete obstacle for progression. You have to play this game with pen and paper + earphones if you'd like to make something out of the story.

We are already used to the linear gameplay for an adventure game, but Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness takes this part a bit more seriously than it should. One of the main problems for this game, if you ask me, is that you are expected to complete one solemn action at a time, and unless you discover and accomplish that specific action, nothing progresses. You are allowed to explore on your own; it just won't do any good. That's why everything turns into an "action hunt" on a wide map for you to figure out quickly.

Puzzles are another issue altogether. They are quite obscure even with the collectible information, asking you to run through a series of spiritual and occult references - most of them are authentic, by the way: kudos on that part - to figure out your next step. They are never easy and demand that you take notes in every step of your game. I'd love that if the lore that we use for puzzles would be at least somewhat relevant to the plotline that we are pursuing... It is mostly not. Oh, and remember "Old Ones" concept that we were so excited about, because, I don't know, this is a LOVECRAFTIAN game? It really doesn't deliver at all.

Combined with a series of common bugs that would make the game impossible to finish without an exe. copy of an old retail cd - it is possible to reach one in the guide section of community - Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness ends up being a lame adventure game with some cool references thrown around. If you are a fan of Lovecraftian literature, sure, you can try. But even then, I'd doubt that you'd enjoy it much. I tried so hard to like this game but even as a Lovecraft fan myself, I sadly did not.

Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page here - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!

This is a hard game to recommend to some people. I actually liked the animation, though it is admittedly clunky. I also enjoyed the music plus I am a huge fan of Lovecraft and anything (well almost anything) based on his writing. That said this game has some very cool 'Lovecraft" moments and is based upon the story "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". The game play issues with the game are the problems towards the end where you cannot get an important piece from an alchemist set you find earlier in the game; it is EXTREMELY frustrating. Also it is point and click game with short cut aways. However with that said, I think people are being too hard on the game. If you have no experience in reading Lovecraft this probably is not the game for you. It is not especially violent or typical of most games that are popular right now, slow and lots of reading/puzzles but with a very well done creepy feel. It doesn't have super flashy graphics as only a few people actually designed and made it. But I still enjoyed it and was quite happy once the bug with the case was ammeliorated by using the link provided above in another review. All that said, if you're not a hard core Lovecraft fan you might not like it. 8/10

This game is made from Lovecraft's story and still not good as novel but that's not mean this game is bad. The atmosphere of this game is powerful. It making me feel nervous and scary at all time. But if you expect this game will have scaring jump scenes like Thai movies, well, it's not have kind of that. Graphic is acceptable for PS1 standard like Resident Evil 1. The camera and cursor is terrible, you have to look carefully when you want to find something to progress your game. Thanks goodness that the story is linear so you don't have to worry that you'll missed some story of a game.

Features two MAJOR bugs that prevent actually playing this properly, or at all. One of the largest curscenes is missing, and close to the end a menu is disabled that you need to access to get a key and progress with the game. Contacted the developers several times, but it appears they don't want to know. DO NOT BUY.

What could have been a fun, notalgic release on steam is unfortunately hampered by some serious issues. This port is poorly done and sections of the story are missing. The best cutscene in the game is cut out and you are thrust ahead in the story with no idea what just happened. A game breaking bug makes the game impossible to complete a little later on when you can't access an important part of your inventory. As of yet there has been no word on a potential patch of fix for these issues and because of this I cannot reccomend the game.

This game cannot not be finished, because of a bug that was not in the original disc version. The publisher doesn't care for fixing it, instead they just gave out a save game for download that puts you at some place behind the broken part so you miss an important part of the story.

They show on the shop page screenshots of the HD iOS version, while the PC version they actually sell here still looks exactly like the original game from 2001. Also I didn't see anything about this alleged "Updates in this new version of Necronomicon".

Normal thinking people would call this version of that game simply a fraud and Valve shouldn't allow to sell it on Steam.
Better just watch a Let's Play of it (of the original disc version) instead of wasting any money.

Update: I've found a fix for the problem with the missing video sequences and the missing briefcase, check out this forum post for more information. Buy the game if you really want to and know how to two juggle with two files (wich is really not that dificult actually).
My rating stays the same as there is still no official fix, although it's actually that simple. Also the problem with the technically seen faked screenshots and the missing addtional content stays that way too.

Edit: I have isolated the files containing the missing cutscenes, from when you complete the puzzle to "waking up in a room with edgar" they are contained at the end of my playthrough here: http://youtu.be/zYzzKiaMocU?t=31m (it will already skip to where the cutscene is in the video, you don't have to go through the playthrough to find it)
------
I am sad to be writing a negative review for this game, but first I will give it the praise that it is due.

It is a very enjoyable game to play, classic point-and-click with a wonderfully creepy atmosphere. The puzzles are challenging, and interesting. It is a great hommage to the style of lovecraft stories, and very enjoyable to play. It is certainly worth playing, and I'm glad that I have done so. I do think it's important to note this.

That being said, the game is incompletable. As others has said there is a massive, leathal bug. A very large, and important cutscene, one that shapes the entire game, and gives the player direction in what to do next (as well as a huge part of the story, and reward for completing the puzzle which came before it) is missing. Also inventory issues, and not being able to access some items leaves the game incompletable from very close to the end.

I do understand that meridian have offered their 'solution' which is to download a save game - which means still missing out on that long cutscene, as well as not completing a puzzle. Now that is no solution at all, it's basically a 'level skip cheat' It seems to be as though the developers really do not care about fixing this for the players.

It's an honest shame, because while the game is enjoyable - I would really not recommend anyone buying it. At least not until the developers actually care enough to fix this bug - and it is a bug no matter how much they want to deny that.

tl;dr: Don't buy this game until they have fixed the MAJOR errors in it.
Otherwise is really is a great game.

I played this game back when it was on PS1, had a blast always getting decked by the angry house keeper after 20 mins of gameplay and forgetting to save... This game is a proper classic point a click puzzler like Myst but base on the works of HP Lovecraft.

The game it's self offers classic puzzles and traditional point and click adventuring so the game it's self is not the reason why i'm not recommending this game to you.

The reason why I wont recommend this game to you is because it has some colossal bugs in it that Meridian4 have point blank refused to fix ( http://steamcommunity.com/app/302390/discussions/0/46476691431080576/#p3 )

Luckly I bought this during a flash sale at 75% off so I'm not totally miffed off at loosing £1.20 but the fact Meridian4 just dosn't seem to care, or to actually ensure this game is finishable to say the least before relesing a digital version is like being slapped in the face with a dick the same way EA did with the orange box on PS3.

The two major issues are:
A very important cut scene that explains pretty much a whole deal of the plot is missing.
You can't access some items required for you to progress on the game, also it takes away the ability to use the map to fast travel to other places, you're esentially fucked.

They have suggested ways to try and fix this (run in compatability mode ect.) but they do not work the game it's self is fundementally bugged, and it needs sorting.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME UNTIL THEY FIX IT.

There is in the mean time a fix for this if you put this save in the folder where the game data is.
download link: http://support.anuman.net/necronomicon

There's very few times in my life I actually feel the need to write a review, I generally let things speak for themselves. However, this game is the biggest brain suck I have ever come across and I felt the dying need to alert people to the waste of time and pennies they will experience if they buy this game. I could forgive the tired animations if it weren't for the dreadfully boring gameplay. As someone who is a big fan of adventure gaming, I am generally quite a patient person. However, this game forces you into such a linear pathway (only one action becomes available at any given time and you have to search through the game to find something that has become clickable) that I feel the problem solving has turned from an exercise of logic to a "search for the button" quest. Most actions that become executable wind up turning into a eyeball-tearingly long monolog from some dreadfully acted character that is supposed to advance the storyline but leaves you wondering where the heck the last half hour just went. Major fail guys, don't bother, even if you can get this game cheap.

UPDATE: I've gotten this link from Meridian4 support team
http://support.anuman.net/necronomicon

there is a save file you can download that fixes the "brief case" bug at the last part of the game where you cannot access your alchemy kit.

that said, a great portion of my review below is still relevant!.

===================================================


I have never written a review before. Thats how strongly I feel about this. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FINISH IT.

It would be a great game if
1. You could actually finish it.
2. the cut scenes that are important to the plot acutally worked
3. there were meaningful clues to what you need to do next.
4. YOU COULD ACTUALLY FINISH IT!

You know what you should do? Buy a game called Darkness Within: Pursuit of Loath Nolder (and theres a part 2 as well)
those 2 games are exactly what you expect from a Lovecraft point and click adventure. THIS GAME IS A RIP-OFF.

Whats that? You've seen videos on youtube that look decent? Well, thats because those videos are showing you the half-way decent Playstation version of the game.

I am a veteran of the horror point/click genre. I enjoy solving obscure puzzles and thinking about the game for hours and hours.. i had to use UHS walkthrough and eventually youtube videos just to get to the part of the game where... uh.. you CAN'T FINISH IT.

So don't waste your money. Its a pity b/c there is a real potential here, if you could acutally finish the game, and the cutscenes were put back in it would be "ok".

I hope this helps.

Big disappointment. Early on I was enjoying the hokey old-fashioned ghosty atmosphere, but towards the end the game became all puzzles that were without any enjoyment value at all. One long part of the game actually has you looking through a library for books. Seriously, what could be more boring than looking through a library for books... on a computer game? Who in the world thought that would be a good idea? Then right at the end there was a flaw in my inventory that prevented me from going any further, so that much of my effort was ultimately wasted. Instead I watched the end of it on youtube, and really, the end is just awful. You may as well have the main character wake up and "it was all just a dream." It's that bad. There's no conclusion whatsoever. The first half of this game is decent, the rest is just painful.

Totally Borked!

This version seems to be missing cutscenes and some puzzles from back when it was on PS1

And I have encountered a game-breaking bug that will not let me continue!

Not impressed!!!

A good old point-and-click adventure mystery type game with Lovecraftian themes. I don't know how long it is but it's been fun so far. The only problem I have is with the dialogue... there are no subtitles and because of the accents some of the people are seriously hard to understand if you're hard of hearing or bad at slurred American accents so it is advised that if you are about to talk to anybody SAVE your game. You might be able to figure some things out by logic or just clicking around but sometimes they do give you hints that save you time. It's a good practirse to save all the time anyway if not have multiple save files. PS - I loved the part with the guy that gets angry at you for ringing the doorbell. Naturally, I kept doing it to see how far the game dialogue would go and the guy bashed me to death haha. The graphics are pretty ordinary but it's probably to be expected for such an old game, and it's from a relatively unknown developer. Not that I'm the font of knowledge for devs but Anuman? Seems to be from France. Never heard of them until I downloaded this game.