Dark Earth (video game)



"Will you bring light back to Dark Earth ?"

Dark Earth is a post-apocalyptic action-adventure game for the PC, released in 1997, which spawed its own RPG circa 2003. It was from the French game development company Kalisto Entertainment, which went out of business in 2002.

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Said apocalypse caused by a bunch of meteorites hiting the earth, conveniently hitting major cities first (sounds familiar ?) and causing a huge cloud of dust and ashes to clog the sky, preventing the sunlight from ever reaching the ground. Save for a couple of sacred spots, called stalites, where the last survivors of the human race, the walkers, built huge cities in the glory of the Sun God.

The player takes the role of Arkhan, a guardian of fire, who gets infected with a dark disease after preventing the assassination of the great priestess Lori. The disease most obvious effect is to turn Arkhan into an ugly as sin monster. It's then up to him to uncover to truth behind the priestess assassination despite having a face that now looks like it fell from the ugly tree and hit every branches on the way down.

This video game provides examples of:
 * After the End: Did I mentioned it was a post-apocalyptic game?
 * Badass: Even before being infected with the dark disease, Arkham was more than a decent fighter. The curse made him even stronger and granted him the ability to kill almost any foe in one blow (however, this mighty blow worsen the progression of the disease quite a bit).
 * Cursed with Awesome: Even though the dark disease disfigured Arkham, it still made him stronger and definitly more intimidating as the disease progresses.
 * The Dark Side: If Arkhan let's the dark disease progress too much, he will become even more monster like and gain one or two feet in height and a decent share of muscle mass.
 * Jekyll and Hyde: The player can shift the hero from light to dark behavior by pressing Tab. This makes Arkhan goes from nice guy mode to absolute Ax Crazy.
 * Jerkass: When in dark behavior mode, Arkham can be quite a jerkass when he speaks to other characters ("Hi wheely" when talking to a guy in a wheel chair or "You look pretty stupid in that cage" when speaking to a prisonner).
 * Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Guns still exist in this world, but they are rare and so are the ammo. If the player is in a pinch, or just for the heck of it, he can shoot the ennemies who almost always have melee weapons.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Arkhan's girlfriend is kinda hot.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: If the player wants to, he can kill pretty much all his friends.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: If the player wants to, he can kill pretty much all his friends.