Review of The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav by diego

I never thought I’d say this but the weakest part of this game is on the technical side - “casual” animation just doesn’t bode well with the glory-esque backgrounds and epic setting. The other drawback is the often limited movement - even though linearity isn’t the bad thing per se in an adventure, much of the time you feel like moving through a “tunnel” - do this and then proceed to the next set of couple of screens. There’re exceptions to this, particularly at the beginning in town, and in, what I’ve found to be one of the strongest adventure chapter in recent years - the Fairy world - it’s brilliantly designed, accompanied by imaginative puzzles.

The finale could have used more challenge, as they decided to put the hardest puzzle right before it - which is a brilliant logic puzzle (there could have been more of these) with a well-thought red herrings.

I’ve found voices to be pretty good - Geron does sound like a complete idiot with a missed voice dynamic on couple of occasions, but overall - Geron’s and other voices are done with great care. Music needs no praise, as it would be welcomed in any fantasy movie blockbuster.

All in all, the game lacks a bit here and there and it’s hard to call it an instant classic, and is probably slightly weaker than The Whispered World, but it has SOUL! Can’t wait to see Geron again in action and what they’ll make of Memoria.

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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Easy