Dark Seed II

***Dark Seed II*** (sometimes written ***Darkseed II***) is a psychological horror point-and-click adventure game released by Cyberdreams in 1995. It is a sequel to 1992's *Dark Seed*. It features the continued adventures of Mike Dawson as he travels between the Normal World and the Dark World, with the locale moving from California to his hometown of Crowley, Texas. Dawson soon finds out that the Ancients have returned, and have created a monster, known as the Behemoth, to destroy his world.

Like its predecessor, surrealist artist H.R. Giger was brought in to provide artwork for the Dark World.

## Development

### Pre-Production

Since the successful release of *Dark Seed*, many fans had spoken of a desire to see more adventures with Dawson and the Giger-inspired Dark World. Since Mike Dawson, the previous game's creator, had left the company, Cyberdreams hired David Mullich to produce a sequel. Mullich had already worked on psychological adventure games such as *The Prisoner*, as well as the other Cyberdreams hit, *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream*. Mullich was also a Giger fan, and had been one since high school. When Mullich was brought in, creating a sequel to *Dark Seed* was at the top of his to-do list. Mullich later recalled that he was given a copy of the game to look at it, and concluded: "While I loved the artwork, there was no story to it. That's what I decided to concentrate on for the sequel."

At the suggestion of a friend, Mullich phoned Raymond Benson, asking him to write and design the sequel. Benson, who had been laid off from MicroProse in 1993 and was still out of work, immediately accepted. Benson worked directly with Mullich, whom he described as "a great guy to work with." In writing the script, Benson developed the Normal World of Dawson's life, creating a plot that was a murder mystery set in a quirky "David Lynchian" small town. In fact, Benson admitted that he was "highly influenced by the work of David Lynch at the time," in particularly Lynch's show *Twin Peaks,* and hence he left much explanation for the ambiguous parts to the player's own personal interpretation. Mullich agreed that it ended up being more Lynch than Lovecraft, but it was "perfectly suited" with the company's success for "dark psychological themes". Benson worked for three months out of his home, writing "script, puzzles, dialogue... everything the Cyberdreams team needed to create the game." Mullich later recalled the experience:

> He'd bounce ideas off me, and I'd approve or make suggestions... We had a couple of battles. Some days he left the phone muttering and screaming, but he'd call back a few hours later with something terrific. He delivered around 750 pages of design documents to me in January 1994...
>
>

Giger was brought on again to provide the artwork for the Dark World, and worked directly with Mullich. Unlike the predecessor, which used already existing artwork, Giger created original artwork specifically for this game. In fact, he requested that the game "included images that had recently been haunting him". (The Behemoth, which is fought at the end of the game, is seen by some as a departure from Giger's other work. Benson said he couldn't recall if Giger worked on it, or it was an in-house artist.) Among these new artwork included shaft pieces that eventually became the Underworld segments, as well as a meat hook that would be used to take Mike Dawson to the Hall of Death.

Since by this point in development, Benson had gone on to work on other projects, Cyberdreams enlisted science fiction author John Shirley as consultant on how to fit Giger's visuals into the story. Shirley also contributed additional ideas for fleshing out the Dark World - Mullich estimated that he came up with around a dozen ideas, which included adding more mystery to the carnival segments. Cyberdreams also brought in Keith Herber, who had helped edit the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, to perfect the in-game dialogue.

### Production

Cyberdreams turned to the Canadian company Desiny Software Productions to implement the game design. Two programmers and six artists worked on the project. Whereas *Dark Seed* had used a VGA graphics mode (640 x 350 pixels, 16 colors), Destiny went a step further and used the more advanced SVGA graphics mode (640 x 480 pixels, 256 colors). This gave the sequel a much more refined and advanced look than its predecessor. Live models were photographed with a high speed camera while moving. The photographs were then scanned into a digital form, and played images back as animations. Many character models were actually Destiny staff members. Mike Dawson, the designer of the original *Dark Seed*, was no longer at Cyberdreams, and could not contribute as the lead character. However, Chris Gilbert, a 3D artist and animator at Destiny, was seen as a "dead ringer" for Dawson, and was used in his stead.

For the Normal World scenes, Cyberdreams hired Jeff Hilbers to do the backgrounds. Hilbers had previously worked with Mullich when both were employed by the Walt Disney Company.

For the music, Cyberdreams hired Mark Morgan, a television and film composer who had previously done music for *The Stand* mini-series.

Several months into development, Mullich - along with Cyberdreams art director Peter Delgado and Destiny artist Gregg Haggman, visited Giger's home in Switzerland to show him an early version of the game. Mullich later recalled that Giger wanted to change the gameplay into another direction: "He wanted to know if we could turn it into a game where the player climbed up a series of catwalks inside a pyramid, and when he got to the top, he would find himself in another pyramid, with the game being a succession of pyramids." This didn't suit well with the team, since fans of the original *Dark Seed* would be expecting another adventure game. Mullich eventually compromised by telling both Giger and his agent (and ex-wife) that they could have the character walk around on catwalks within the Dark World, while continuing to display Giger's artwork in the background. This pleased them both.

The final product featured a game with around 75 prerendered 3D locations, as well as 40 characters to interact with.

The box design for the game featured Giger's 1978 piece "Illuminatus I". It showcases a woman wearing a safety pin for glasses, with the sharp end of the pin also piercing her cheek. The game was set to be distributed in North America through MGM Interactive.

## Game Narrative (Spoilers)

After experiencing a mental breakdown following the events of *Dark Seed*, Dawson goes to live with his mother in his hometown of Crowley, Texas. Dawson discovers that many in the town, including Sheriff Butler, believe he is guilty of murdering Rita Scanlon, an old fling from high school. One of the few Crowley residents assisting him and giving him advice is Jack, a motorcycle riding greaser. At the same time, he learns that the Ancients have returned, and enslaved the Dark Worlders. On top of this, Dawson learns that the Ancients have created a creature called the Behemoth, who will destroy all of mankind if he were to ever leave the Dark World.

Dawson sets about switching between the two worlds (similar to *Dark Seed*) in order to solve the murder mystery, as well as stop the Ancients' plans. He soon discovers that the two narratives are interwoven, and that his Dark World counterpart is attempting to kill him. Over the course of his investigation, Dawson learns that many in the town have dark secrets of their own. Rita, his former love, was having numerous affairs with men of the town, including Butler and the mayor. The local mortician secretly enjoys the bodies of female victims.

Dawson eventually obtains a blade from the Keeper of the Sword, and enters the Dark World Mirror Maze to defeat it. After defeating it, Dawson is congratulated by the Keeper of the Scrolls, only to be awakened by Jack. Dawson finds his psychologist dead, with Jack being the killer. Dawson realizes too late that Jack is his Dark World counterpart, and is promptly killed. Sheriff Butler enters, declaring it a murder and suicide. Jack wishes Dawson farewell, and speeds off on his motorcycle in the Dark World.

Much of the ending, such as whether or not Dawson dreamed all this up, or if Jack and other characters are in fact real, is left ambiguous. (See Benson's comments above.)

## Release

The game was released for the PC in December of 1995, and was later released for the Macintosh in 1996. In 1997, it would be released for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, albeit only in Japan. Later, in 1998, *Dark Seed II* was released together with *Time Gate: Knight's Chase* for the PC through Infogrames Europe SA. It initially carried a retail sales price of $69.95.

## Reception

*Dark Seed II* received less glowing reviews than its predecessor. *Computer Game World* said Giger's illustrations were the best part of the game, and suggested players "rent a copy of *Aliens* at your local video store instead." *Online Gaming Review* also praised Giger's work, but gave it a score of 4/10 and said "for the rest of us gamers out there, who want a challenging, interesting, engrossing game, Darkseed 2 just doesn't deliver." *PC Player Germany* gave it a score of 42/100. *Quandary* gave the game 2.5/5 stars, saying that it was "an improvement on its predecessor, but, sadly, this is largely due to the overall technological improvement in the development and look of the game rather than to an intrinsic qualitative leap in the area of gameplay." The reviewer added: "Perhaps it's simply that the Dark World never seemed 'real' to me; it never came to life, but remained an alien backdrop to a story that failed to hold my interest." *Adventure Classic Gaming* gave the game 3/5 stars, lamenting, "*Dark Seed II* fails to rise above the original and bring the horror of Giger’s fantasy world successfully onto the computer screen."

Mullich later recalled that "one reviewer privately told our marketing director that I should be fired." Mullich also stated that the many negative reviews for *Dark Seed II* were odd to him, given that he personally found it to be a better work than his other, more popular production *I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream*. Mullich also said that the poor response to the game might have been because he made the wrong choice in casting the voice actor for Mike Dawson, which he said was too depressing for players.

Not all reviews were negative - some ranged from positive to somewhat lukewarm. *Score* gave it a score of 8/10, while *PC Player Brazil* gave it 4/5 stars. *GameSpot* gave it a rating of 6.8 ("Fair") and said "the real fun of this game isn't in the find-and-use adventure mechanics, which are still pretty standard, but in the sheer nasty-mindedness of it". *Mac Gamer* gave it a score of 76%, with the only criticism being lodged against the "irritating", repetitive music, which the reviewer turned off after a few minutes of playing.

## Legacy

While not having as much love sent its way as its predecessor, the game does have its fanbase. For example, on Moby Games, ***Dark Seed II*** actually has a higher average user score (4.09) than *Dark Seed* (3.61).

Funnily enough, much of the fanbase seems to come at laughing at Mike Dawson's complete incompetency. TV Tropes, for example, is filled with lists of how often Dawson will state the obvious, or seemingly not get simple facts that are plain to everyone except him - especially his complete and utter inability to understand that Rita never really liked him. Fans have even created memes centered around his complete inability to win at any of the carnival games, despite only one of them being rigged... even being forced to use Dark World technology because of how bad he is. Many more fans readily quote and reference the infamous "Here Mike, this will explain everything" scene.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Dark Seed II* manual, pg. 24
2. ↑ *Dark Seed II: The Official Strategy Guide*, pg. 168-169
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 https://lparchive.org/Darkseed-2/Bonus/
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Dark Seed II: The Official Strategy Guide*, pg. 169
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 *Dark Seed II* manual, pg. 25
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *Dark Seed II: The Official Strategy Guide*, pg. 170
7. ↑ *Dark Seed II: The Official Strategy Guide*, pg. 171
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 *Dark Seed II* manual, pg. 26
9. ↑ https://davidmullich.com/2014/05/05/memories-of-h-r-giger/
10. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-seed-ii
11. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-seed-ii/release-info
12. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/game/limited-games-darkseed-ii-time-gate-knights-chase
13. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/game/win3x/dark-seed-ii/adblurbs
14. ↑ *Computer Gaming World,* April, 1996. Quoted from: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-seed-ii/mobyrank
15. ↑ *Online Gaming Review*, December, 1995. Quoted from: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-seed-ii/mobyrank
16. ↑ *PC Player Germany*, February, 1996. Quoted from: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-seed-ii/mobyrank
17. ↑ *Quandary,* August, 1996. Quoted from: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-seed-ii/mobyrank
18. ↑ *Adventure Classic Gaming*, October, 1997. Quoted from: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-seed-ii/mobyrank
19. ↑ https://davidmullich.com/2016/08/08/getting-a-bad-review-is-no-fun/
20. ↑ https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/dark-seed-ii-review/1900-2538544/
21. ↑ *Mac Gamer*, 1996. Quoted from: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-seed-ii/mobyrank
22. ↑ https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/dark-seed-series
23. ↑ https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Funny/DarkSeedII