Line #19 VideoGame/LastHalfOfDarkness


1	A series of PC horror adventure games from [=WRF=] Studios. Themes of voodoo and vampirism, spooky swamps, assorted creepy-crawlies, ruins, and dilapidated mansions are common to all games in the series, set in a "Black World" of gypsy curses and malignant shadow-spirits.
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3	Most games in the series are traditional ''Myst''-style point-and-click, whereas the original 1989 version is a picture-enhanced text-based scenario, and ''Society of the Serpent Moon'' employs a 3-D avatar protagonist. In a throwback to the early days of PC gaming, ''Last Half of Darkness'' [=CD=]-packs incorporate printed supplements that are necessary to decode in-game clues.
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5	Entries in the series include:
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7	* ''Last Half of Darkness'' (1989)
8	* ''Last Half of Darkness II'' (1992)
9	* ''Last Half of Darkness III'' (1993)
10	* ''Shadows of the Servants'' (2005)
11	* ''Beyond the Spirit's Eye'' (2008)
12	* ''Tomb of Zojir'' (2010)
13	* ''Society of the Serpent Moon'' (2011)
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15	The last four games are now available as a bundle on Steam, modified to eliminate the need for printed supplements.
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18	!!Tropes used include:
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20	* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: Bruce's shady nightclub, the Blue Iguana, in ''Society''.
21	* AndShowItToYou: Happens to you in the 1989 original if [[spoiler: you piss off the dark figure with the ax]].
22	%%* BadassLongcoat: Billy Black.
23	* BatScare: Several examples in the games, often involving cockroaches.
24	* BeastInTheBuilding: If you open a filing cabinet in the secret lab, the result of one of your aunt's experiments (a huge snake) kills you.
25	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Tia's wish for revenge only made things worse for Shadowcrest.
26	* TheBigEasy: ''Servants'' is set in a mansion at the edge of a creepy "Black World"-infested New Orleans.
27	* BodyInABreadbox: Billy finds a woman's corpse in a storage locker. You ''hallucinate'' finding one in a wardrobe in ''Tomb''.
28	%%* BorrowedBiometricBypass: A finger severed from one of Marcos's victims.
29	%%* CreepyCemetery: Several in the various games.
30	%%* CreepyChild: The little boy (?) in the Mardi Gras devil-costume.
31	%%* CreepyCrows: Several, including one that steals the Eye from the old swamp witch in ''Tomb''.
32	%%* DemBones: The Guardians in ''Spirit's Eye'' and ''Tomb''.
33	* DrivenToSuicide: Marcos tried to hang himself when he realized what he'd become [[spoiler: but Tia's wish made the rope break]].
34	* EmptyPilesOfClothing: All that's left of [[spoiler: Sashia's entourage of masked undead women]].
35	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: In Last Half of Darkness, death can happen in the following ways, each to the PC speaker rendition of a funeral march:
36	** If you open a coffin, a zombie inside tears you apart.
37	** If you annoy a hooded figure with an axe, he holds up your heart.
38	** If you try to take a caretaker's lantern, he buries you in the hole he is digging.
39	** If you open a filing cabinet, the result of one of your aunt's experiments (a huge snake) turns you into a human pincushion.
40	** If you try to sneak past a pair of ghost twin children, one of them stabs you to death, "enraged by the presence of an adult".
41	** If you try to sneak past a huge dog, he rips your arm off.
42	* EvilIsNotAToy: [[spoiler:Madame Ze]] instigated the horror in Shadowcrest so she could claim the Eye of Acareous and take control of its protecting spirits, but Tia sics the Guardians on her instead.
43	* FortuneTeller: Two gypsy mystics provide clues in ''Tomb'', and an ''automaton'' fortune-teller in a coin-operated booth does so in ''Servants'' and ''Spirit's Eye''.
44	* FromBeyondTheFourthWall:
45	** The [=DVD=] editions use in-case supplemental documents as part of the scenario, and the later games even use markings on ''the disk itself'' as one of their clues.
46	** [[spoiler: Also, ''Shadows of the Servants'''s MindScrew ending reveals that Mira "summoned" the protagonist and others to the mansion by ''putting the video game on the market''.]]
47	* GhostTown: Shadowcrest, the town from ''Spirit's Eye'', is almost totally deserted, for good reason. The city streets of ''Society'' aren't exactly deserted, but an alarming percentage of the locals whom Billy encounters are already dead [[spoiler: or get murdered soon after]].
48	%%* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The Guardians and the old witch.
49	* HaveANiceDeath: Dying in the second game makes you hear a weird "Good-bye! Hahahahahahahaha!"
50	%%* HauntedHouse: Plenty
51	%%* HotGypsyWoman: The younger fortune-teller in ''Tomb''.
52	* InteractiveFiction: The 1989 original is a hybrid of text-based and point-and-click, with a menu to select commands.
53	* IntrepidReporter: Wendy in ''Society'' got herself kidnapped while investigating a story.
54	* ItWontTurnOff: The faucets in ''Last Half of Darkness'' can be turned on, but attempting to turn them off gives the message "the water won't shut off".
55	%%* LooksLikeOrlok: Marcos from ''Spirit's Eye''
56	%%* MacGuffin: The Eye of Acareous
57	* MagicAntidote: You whip one up to treat yourself for snakebite in ''Tomb'', and Billy finds some already-made in ''Society''.
58	* MagicalRomani: The young fortune-teller in ''Tomb'' dresses in stereotypical "gypsy" clothes, although it's never explicitly stated that she's Romani. Tia claims that the letter-tile puzzle from ''Spirit's Eye'' is a ritual device used by Romani magic-practitioners.
59	* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Madame Ze set Marcos up to find the Eye of Acareous and unleash the curse, then tricks you into retrieving it so she can claim control over the Guardians.]]
60	%%* MouthStitchedShut: Tia manifests like this in ''Spirit's Eye''.
61	%%* NeckLift: Sashia does it to Billy via telekinesis when he confronts her in ''Society''.
62	* OrificeEvacuation: In the opening cinematic for ''Society'', the shadow of a snake emerging from the mouth of a female figure is seen.
63	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: There's a ''monkey'' infected with vampirism in ''Shadows of the Servants''. In ''Society'', Sashia is said to be "a witch, a vampire, and a snake" all in one.
64	%%* PointAndClickGame
65	* ProphetEyes: Tia's eyes are pure white. Madame Ze's are white in ''Spirit's Eye''; in ''Tomb'', the improving graphics show that hers have pale blue sclera around white irises.
66	* PsychicStrangle: Sashia does this to Billy when they finally meet face to face.
67	* RaisingTheSteaks: A skeletal fish snaps at you from the fountain in ''Spirit's Eye''.
68	* RecordedSplicedConversation: Billy from ''Society'' splices together some sound-clips from Wendy's laptop to fake a call from Bruce, drawing the bartender of the Blue Iguana away from his post.
69	* RedEyesTakeWarning: ''Tomb'' plays it straight with the wolf, but subverts it with the elderly gypsy. The junkyard dog and vipers in ''Serpent Moon'' also. [[spoiler: Also Wendy at the end.]]
70	%%* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Plenty of snakes, especially in ''Society''.
71	* RollercoasterMine: Averted; the mine cart ride in ''Spirit's Eye'' isn't particularly fast, although it ''is'' creepy.
72	%%* ScaryScorpions: There's one in the young swamp witch's house in ''Tomb''.
73	%%* SchmuckBait: ''"Come closer..."''
74	* SealedEvilInACan: The thieves who stole the gemstones from the ''Tomb of Zojir'' unleashed some pretty nasty supernatural threats into the world.
75	* ShellGame: Win three rounds of one in ''Servants'' to get a spooky hint from the man in the black hat.
76	%%* SpidersAreScary
77	* TheStarscream: In ''Society'', Bruce works for Sashia, but has been collecting the means to destroy her behind her back.
78	* StolenGoodReturnedBetter: In ''Servants'', a dark creature snatches the seemingly-useless voodoo doll from your inventory. The doll turns up later in another room, and [[spoiler: you can now remove its head to extract a key from inside]].
79	%%* SundialWaypoint: ''Moon'' dial, actually.
80	* SwallowTheKey: In ''Servants'', the doctor swallowed the key to a strongbox before she died. [[spoiler: You can't open the box containing the ashes from her cremation, but can put it in the fireplace so everything ''except'' the key will be destroyed.]]
81	%%* SwampsAreEvil
82	* TheWallsHaveEyes: A creepy box with an animated eye on each side appears in ''Spirit's Eye'', as does a weird trinket of finger-bones surrounding an animated eye. In ''Tomb'', there's a ring with a living eye in the middle.

Context VideoGame / LastHalfOfDarkness