The Arkhill Darkness is a fantasy combat RPG by Jason
Barrett. You have been dispatched to lift the Darkness and save the town of
Arkhill.
This entry has ambition, and it works hard to include the
RPG staples you'd expect in a quest to banish an ancient darkness from a fantasy
realm. However, more work was needed to simplify the experience for the player.
For example, using a healing potion requires you to open the
inventory screen, click on the potion to get a description that says you can
drink it, and clicking again to actually drink. It seemed like I was only able
to buy two potions at a time, while I was regularly in situations where I could
have used four or five.
Most of The Arkhill Darkness involves grinding: fight
monsters, collect gold, use gold to get better equipment and fight more
monsters. You can buy either a sword or an axe to help in combat, but buying
one prevents you from buying the other. I never got a chance to learn how the
two weapons were different (or how they were different from punching or
kicking).
In my experience, it's very difficult to program a combat system with Twine that manages to be interesting and fun.
I did notice that substantial effort was put into adding
variety for this entry. The hero's quest takes place in stages, investigating
new locations and searching for things like missing keys and potion
ingredients. Several different patrons visit the tavern, and each one has
multiple conversation responses.
The text formatting was appropriate for the story, with white
letters on a black background creating a suitable atmosphere for a town
shrouded in darkness. However, the presentation felt cramped on the screen.
Different layout choices might have made the menus and
exploration options easier to understand — font colors change to indicate magic
and combat effects, but it was confusing to have the same blue font for
clickable links and inert magical objects.
Overall, a lot of creative work went into The Arkhill Darkness, but it
didn't take itself too seriously. Jokes reference source material ranging from
Princess Bride to Super Mario Brothers. (Mercifully, I don't think I noticed
anyone mentioning how they took an arrow in the knee.)
Artwork from Donald Conrad:
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