Today, I was planning to take a look back at L.A. Noire but, due to last night’s storms, I lost power right as I was about to start composing my thoughts. The power has since come back but, rather than do a rush job on one of my favorite games, I’m going to hold off on posting about L.A. Noire until tomorrow or Wednesday.
Instead, for today, I’ll recommend The Last Half of Darkness, a haunted house game that can be played at the Internet Archive. In The Last Half of Darkness, you are searching the home of your late aunt. Your aunt was a voodoo witch and you stand to inherit her considerable estate if you can finish the potions that she was working on and also solve the mystery of her death. To do that, you are going to have to go through and search her home. The problem is that you are not alone. Open the right door and you will find the secret to returning life to the dead. Open the wrong closet or cabinet and prepare to meet your fate at the fangs of a snake or the hands of an angry ghost.
The Last Half of Darkness is a challenging game that is also a lot of fun, assuming that you can get the hang of the game’s point-and-click interface. Instead of typing out your commands, you click on a list of options that are on the right side of the screen. You then have to click on the picture of whatever object you want to pick up or direction you want to head. It took me a while to get used to it but, once I did, it barely bothered me.
This is a good game, full of wit and atmosphere and puzzles that require some concentration but which are not impossible to solve. For those of you like me who sometimes need to cheat to win a game, here’s a helpful walk-through.
The game itself can be played by clicking here.
