una Crysta, the ninth moon of the Cepheus-6 star system, is no place for a party. Home to a sizable mining colony, Luna Crysta has garnered a notorious reputation in the years since the Brave Hope Corp. staked its first claim and handed mining tools to a small group of indigenous Cepheids.
As was common back in the days of prospecting on Earth, the Luna Crysta colony known as Brave Hope is overrun by treacherous miners, greedy bureaucrats and corrupt security personnel. Brave Hope is also targeted by a renegade group of suspected terrorist Cepheids, who refuse to work alongside the new inhabitants of their home world. Visitors to this rock quickly realize that living and working here is not for the faint of heart.
Assuming the role of young Jake Wright, players are whisked to Luna Crysta aboard an interplanetary shuttle. Jake's uncle Jacob, who had staked a claim on the Cepheus-6 moon, is dead--apparently killed through self-inflicted measures. Aboard the shuttle, clutching the inheritance of Uncle Jacob's mining claim, young Jake reflects on the life of his favorite relative. This suicide does not make sense. Uncle Jacob was a dreamer and a survivor, a guy who was quick to move on to the next adventure at the slightest suggestion of trouble. Why suicide? That's what players of Dark Side of the Moon have to find out.
The game is played from a first-person perspective that uses Southpeak Interactive's patented Video Reality system, which melds live-action shots with computer graphics to create the convincing illusion of reality. Because of the advanced video technology employed in the development of this title, players will truly feel like they have go-anywhere, 360-degree freedom in this uniquely crafted alien environment. Unfortunately, this means they'll also have to change Dark Side's six disks frequently, a maddeningly repetitive task.
Good story, but the pace is too slow
Although Dark Side of the Moon plays out in a first-person viewpoint, gamers who are veterans of other first-person action-adventure games (Thief, Half-Life, Shogo, Unreal) should be prepared for a major pacing adjustment. Dark Side of the Moon is an incredibly slow, even tedious, computer game. Adventure game fans will be pleased to learn that this lethargic pace has little to do with its content, however. Technology is the culprit here. If a player is required to travel from one level to the next on any of the moon's numerous elevators or secret passages--a frequent activity--it invariably leads to a time-consuming, atmosphere-shattering disk swap. And the frequent use of video means gamers must suffer grainy images loaded into a tiny display window, not to mention plenty of video and audio hiccups.
Dark Side of the Moon's pulpy science fiction story, while not quite in the realm of Philip K. Dick or William Gibson, is agreeable nonetheless. Throughout Jake's quest for the truth, players will be treated to a host of well-written scenes between amusingly cliched characters. The actors' performances in the game are much better than expected. Live-action adventure games are notorious for providing lame, justifiably underexposed actors with an opportunity to strut their stuff. However, the casting department behind this title had a lot of success with their auditions.
The user interface for the game is one of its best elements. The game is accessible, easy to navigate and boasts an intuitive mouse-click inventory system; first-time players will find there is no need to even browse through the paltry instruction pamphlet. Readers should not be misled, however, Dark Side of the Moon is far from a simple challenge. The game is long and fraught with dangers, the puzzles are complex (sometimes overly so) and the rewards, like the nifty mine car ride, are worth it. Players shouldn't be surprised by the fact that they keep going in spite of the game's cumbersome trappings.
