Old-school PC gamers may remember the obscure 1995 first-person psychological horror adventure title The Dark Eye. Developed by Inscape and published by Time Warner Interactive Entertainment, the game has now seemingly appeared on Steam under a new title for a February 15 release, courtesy of GMedia.
Now titled Edgar Allan Poe’s Interactive Horror: 1995 Edition, the game is a point-and-click affair that adapts three of Poe’s stories—”The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “Berenice”—which the player can player can experience from the perspectives of both murderer and victim. The game uses a mix of stop motion animation, 3D graphics and FMV, coupled with surreal imagery and an unorthodox interface.
What’s more, author William S. Burroughs voiced the character of Edwin in the game, as well as provided voiceovers for two slide-show sequences illustrating two of Poe’s works in “The Masque of the Red Death” and the poem “Annabel Lee”. Set to a score by Thomas Dolby, the game is genuinely creepy.
Gameplay in Interactive Horror is similar to Myst, where along with puzzle-solving, the game waits for the player to find the next hotspot or location on the screen, after which the game plays a new video to advance the plot. As such, you’ll be clicking through surreal environments, examining objects, and triggering cutscenes and monologues that “reveal each character’s descent into madness.”
What makes this upcoming release of Interactive Horror so curious is the fact that, much like many of these older titles, rights issues have prevented the games from being re-released on modern platforms. It’s especially true in the case of The Dark Eye, since neither Time Warner Interactive or Inscape exist anymore.
Adding more intrigue to this whole situation is the fact that Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick (who has made it his mission to track down and resurrect these older titles) stated that he’s been trying to track down the rights for The Dark Eye “for almost a decade.” Not only that, but GMedia has seemingly popped up out of nowhere, having no other titles to speak of.
The game’s press kit does reveal a bit about the company, with their goal of restoring “high-concept intellectual properties, ensuring their resonance within the contemporary global marketplace.” In other words, preserving obscure titles for modern audiences. The kit also explains why GMedia changed the name of the game for this release, stating the decision was made due to the “current global trademark landscape.” Namely, it appears that some rights issues were still problematic.
Nevertheless, rescuing The Dark Eye from obscurity is a welcome sight (no pun intended), particularly for fans of this era of gaming.
Big thanks to Gamesradar+ for the additional info.
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