Andy is just a normal boy, his dog Whisky loves him, his teacher despises him, but what really gives him the shivers is the dark. Whilst observing an eclipse one summer afternoon Whisky is dragged by a strange force away from him into an infernal spiral down to the depths of darkness.
Andy must now overcome his phobia and board his flying machine (made from skateboards and antennas) and try to rescue Whisky from the Heart of Darkness. The Master of Darkness is not too impressed with his servants who have brought him a dog instead of the boy he wanted and his anger thunders throughout his world making all the spectres, winged devils, demons and all other creatures within stand to attention.
This is where you come in. In this 2D platformer (a bit of a rarity in these days of 3D games) you take control of Andy and have him climb, run, swing and swim through over 176 locations within eight puzzle and creature-infested worlds. The first thing you will notice about Heart of Darkness are the lush, sumptuous graphics. The creatures and Andy's movements are extremely fluid and the backgrounds are not unlike what you would see in a Disney cartoon. This is all helped along with atmospheric music and some realistic sound effects.
But while Heart of Darkness might seem just like every other 2D platformer ever released it does have some unconventional attributes. There are no power-ups to find, there are no health packs or extra weapons (you only have a plasma cannon and your "ordinary powers", there is nothing to give you extra lives either, primarily because you have an infinite amount of them. Whilst this might sound like fun it can have the effect of turning the game into one of simple trial and error. Heart of Darkness is still an excellent game and breathtaking to look at. If you were a fan of Flash- back or Another World then you will love this.
Graphics: 94%
Sound: 92%
Gameplay: 91%
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Top 10 sellers This week's 10 top-selling PC CD- ROM games at Virgin Megastore are: 1) Final Fantasy 7 - £34.99
2) Unreal - £34.99
3) Commando - Behind Enemy Lines - £34.99
4) World Cup 98 - £34.99
5) Conflict Freespace - £34.99
6) Premier Manager 98 - £19.99
7) Lula - £19.99
8) Quake 2 - £29.99
9) X-Com Interceptor - £34.99
10) Ultimate Strategy Archive - £24.99