On a long car ride not too long ago, I was thinking about some really old games I used to play. Yeah, I know I could easily rave about Wasteland, Dungeon Keeper, or Maniac Mansion, but I’ve written about all those before. So instead, I decided to discuss a number of games this months that I haven’t played or thought about for years.

Let’s start with an old PC game. “Dark Earth” is a game few people will remember. It was set a few hundred years in the future, after meteorites struck the Earth, and the resultant dust clouds left the planet shrouded in darkness. The few openings in the clouds are for some reason permanent and fixed, and cities (called “Stallites”) have been built in these rare patches of light, as monsters live in the darkness.

You play the game as Arkhan, a city guard. Dark Earth is a third-person adventure game with action combat elements. The engine isn’t unlike that of Resident Evil, except that it’s not survival horror and most weapons in the game are melee weapons.

Early in the game, Arkhan is contaminated by a poison which slowly begins to turn him into a creature of darkness. Along with your life meter, you have a darkness mete. You can likewise toggle Arkhan’s mood from “light” to “dark”, which affects his conversations and certain other actions in various ways.

It’s been so long since I played the game that I don’t remember much. Mainly, I remember enjoying the game, I remember that there was a dancer in a bar who looked like a prostitute on some serious drugs, and I remember the game of “Yong”, a variant of Othello which I found challenging and very fun.

I enjoyed Dark Earth, and I guess I’d call it a “keeper”. I’ve got an original over-the-counter copy here, but if you don’t and you’d like to try it, it’s available on some abandonware sites. (link)