The Dark Prophecy Nintendo Switch Review

If you were born back in the 16-bit computer era and can remember classic point-n-click adventure games from LucasArts then this is for you. If you owned a Amiga then probably the one nearly everyone had in there collection was the Monkey Island series. Over the years that has been a few titles using the ScumVM style with probably the most noticeable being Thimbleweed Park. Now Ratalaika Games released an indie title called The Dark Prophecy which has been inspired from the great titles. Let us look below to see if it can hold up in today gaming.

Game Time

To make a great point-n-click you need a few ingredients which are humour and a fun tale to tell. Then take the inspiration from classics like Monkey Island and Broken sword and you have a resemblance of a fun point-n-click. The Dark Prophecy captures the late 80’s early 90’s perfectly as the 2D visuals are accurate and gives a fun, retro feel when you load it up. Unfortunately, this is where the nostalgia feeling ends.

Easy Challenge

You take control of a medieval boy called Jacob, who must go on an adventure to find Merlin and give him an important message. The magical obstacles that stand in your way are boring. You also find yourself having to outsmart guards, trolls and cast a few spells along the way. You have the standard point-n-click navigation options of ‘walk to’, ‘talk to’, ‘use’ and ‘look at’. The puzzles are not too difficult to work out and advance and were often weak and had no logic to how you work them out.

The dialogues are limited and you never get a real feel for any of the characters as they are emotionless. The game is also very short. There is about an hour of gameplay and when the game ends, it ends sharply and you don’t get a feel of completion because of this. You won’t even see the ending coming which is not very good in a game that has so much potential.

Visuals

Yes, the graphics are beautiful and the soundtrack adds atmosphere and it just feels like this is all the game has going for it. The game had a few technical issues as well as grammar errors, which might have been a translation issue or something. I died at one point in the game and the game over scene was in a foreign language and at times the popups would not align with the puzzle and often the character asks for the item required to complete a task before you see the task.

Final Thoughts

The Dark Prophecy is a game that from descriptions seems very promising. But the reality is that the game feels very amateurish with many issues and inconsistencies that the gameplay feels broken. Also, the shortness of the game and the way the game ends is a major negative and makes you feel short-changed playing it. Sadly this retro inspired game has more negatives than positive to recommend it as a serious purchase.