My Classic Game review of Cybermage Darklight Awakening:
Cybermage: Darklight Awakening is a little known release designed by D.W. Bradley (of Wizardry fame) and published by Origin Systems (which was later bought out by EA).
Nostalgia is a funny thing especially when it comes to entertainment value. The first game I ever bought was Cybermage: Darklight Awakening – I remember seeing it advertised on the back of one of those Marvel/DC Amalgam comic books that came about in 1995/96. I remember reading the ad with its promises of a game that was more like a First Person Comic Book where you could interact with the world and inhabitants instead of just shooting at them like in Doom and I was hooked – I needed to play this game.
I eventually bought it in 1997 from a Wal-Mart with some birthday money and when I brought it home to install and play – it took forever to get it working in Dos. But eventually it ran and the opening cutscene filled the screen as I was pulled into the Cyberpunk world. I can remember thinking how awesome the graphics were and was amazed at the size of the levels and the tasks which needed to be carried out to beat them. Unfortunately about half-way through the game my computer crashed and the new computer wouldn’t run Cybermage no matter how hard I tried to get it working.
Fast forward almost 15 years and I am digging through my old game collection and find the Cybermage disc – a quick search online and I find out it is completely stable and running using the Dos emulator DosBox.
After the cutscene loads up and I am into the gameplay a number of things cross my mind. First off – graphically this game hasn’t aged well – at all. At the time it was released it could bring many modern systems to their knees – but now it was hard not to notice the weak character animation (particularly funny when an NPC is talking to you and kind of just walks in place), pixilated textures, and terrible control design.
When viewed taking in all the advancements that have developed for video game entertainment in the years since it’s release it is hard to even consider spending time on this title. However I was determined to beat this game and plowed on through all 11 missions.
The steep learning curve for the control design is second only to the original System Shock. However this game was released before mouse-look became the standard for PC FPS games. This means that the keyboard is used for most everything and there are a lot of keys to remember. However after the first level I was reorientated and having fun with this game again.
Because despite the ugly graphics, tile-based level design, 2.5d sprites, and ancient sound design – Cybermage is still fun to play. It predates ideas that were praised in Goldeneye, and Half-Life a few years later. Ideas like mission objectives, interactive NPCs, and integrated plot lines. It may have been forgotten as games like Quake and Duke Nukem 3d took the spotlight in the mid nineties – but there is something to be said for a FPS game that had you infiltrating corporate buildings, flying cars, and taking part in large scale battles with hundreds of friendly and enemy NPCs that came out in 1995.
As far as the storyline goes – the setting is classic 80s/90s cyberpunk with all the inherent trappings regarding predicting future technology that turned out to look more dated than the real technology that is out at present. You play as the reanimated corpse of somebody who stopped an assassination on a mutant cat person in the year 2044. When you awaken out of your regeneration chamber you find yourself in a hidden base that is under attack and are given very little time to reorientate to your surroundings as you escape. As you move through the storyline you’ll encounter many different characters who help you on your quest to destroy the evil overlord Necrom. At times I couldn’t help but laugh at the cheesy writing and dialog but for the most part the setting works and it is fun to watch the story unfold as you play. Something interesting to note is that at one point in the game you can hear a NewsCast in the city about how SarCorp and Trioptimum are fighting over some issue on Titan – connecting the game very lightly to the System Shock universe.
Cybermage is a very difficult game that gets progressively more difficult as you move towards the conclusion. It tosses more larger scale battles at you and the levels get big to the point where it is not only easy to get lost – it is inevitable. Especially the second last level which took me nearly 2 days to beat.
Fortunately the cheesy setting, decent shooting mechanics, and surprisingly good level design (especially during the middle of the game which has you taking missions in a rather large city) make this game worth tracking down if you are a retro gamer. However this is one of those games that unlike DooM will most likely scare away any new gamers with in seconds of the opening cutscene.
1995 Rating – 8/10
2011 Rating – 5.5/10
Average – 6.3/10
I will have more reviews up in a while but that's it for now!!