Last Half of Darkness - Society of the Serpent Moon

Excellent story rich game with an exciting and thrilling plot and puzzles.

kein schlechtes spiel

Wow, this really was a great spooky adventure. It's been greatly improved compared to its predecessor titles and this time in 2.5D! Apart from the graphical overhaul the gameplay has also been polished more and employs better game design solutions. Since the developer was so generous and included a few earlier games of the franchise for free, I gave them a shot before playing Society of the Serpent Moon and actually finished one of them, Shadows of the Servants, but only barely. It was a good story but it was overshadowed by the clunky UI, less-than-convenient navigation system, but worst of all the unbalanced sound mixing. The usually quiet game would suddenly throw you jump scares that were so loud you could hear the distortion in the audio track which happens when you raise the volume levels so high the audio loses quality. This put me off big time and I didn't even want to play the other two extra games. But in Society all those problems have been taken care of and it really was a pleasure to play. There are some loose ends but nothing major, overall the story and the suspense keeps you interested just enough that you want to keep playing. It's dark, spooky and doesn't want to perforate your eardrums - just the way I like it.

Минус уши

Last Half of Darkness - Society of the Serpent Moon is a classical P&Q horror-adventure which is created in the old-school style from 90's and early 00's. Horribly spooky atmosphere, thrilling story line and relatively easy puzzles will surely bring you some positive vibes and experience. Another chapter of the Last Half of Darkness awaits...

The first one has been done in 1989. Three years before Alone in The Dark and Darkseed. Bill Fisher is a pioneer. This one is hardly puzzled..

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I finished this game a few months ago and recall enjoying the puzzles and atmosphere. It reminds me of The Black Mirror (2003) and Blade Runner, but it's a bit more on the cheesy territory. Unlike its predecessors, which were 1st-person P&C adventure games, this installment shifts to a 3rd-person perspective. A notable addition to the gameplay includes the protagonist offering commentary when interacting with items, which previous games lacked. The main character's voice is hilarious; I'm not sure if it's intentional or just bad voice acting. There are numerous jumpscares, but they're more likely to make you laugh than frighten you. Overall, that covers my thoughts on the game.

It is really hard for me to put into words why I like games of this sort so much, but the fact is I *love* them. Last Half of Darkness is a perfect example the genre: spooky atmosphere, silly dialogue, interesting puzzles, quirky characters, and an intriguing mystery. To be clear, it is not perfect. This game runs on an ancient engine (you can't alt+tab without crashing the game) and the game stutters to a crawl any time there's an "effect" in a scene (bugs flying around a lightpost, water dripping, etc.) Some of the dialogue and voice acting is a little goofy, but for whatever reason, it just makes the game all the more endearing. If you've played this type of game before, you'll know what to expect: explore an area, interrogate characters, pick up items, use items to unlock doors/solve puzzles/whatever. The mystery is engaging and makes you want to solve it (a crucial part of any mystery game) and the storyline is surprisingly complex. Without spoiling anything, you play as a detective trying to find his missing fiancee (or maybe girlfriend? the game switches back and forth). As you investigate the strange town, you uncover a conspiracy involving a secret society and maybe something paranormal? All in all, it's a fun but flawed game, where the flaws make the game better. Give it a try, you'll enjoy it.

Spooky stuff, but feels a bit old - especially the animations and voice acting. All in all, not the horror point & click I thought it would be, but an okay experience.