Simon and Schuster Darkened Skye Racing Review

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Price Paid:  $15.00 from Babbage's

Summary:
One has to hand it to the developers for giving us our money's worth by creating a big game that takes a long time to play. Sixteen days of pretty solid play, in my case.

The main reason the game takes so long, however, is that it's insanely difficult and you're constantly dying, so you fight the same battles over and over again until you get through them without dying.

The other reason is that you spend an awful lot of time just standing and waiting for your health to auto-replenish. (I timed it - just under 4 mins. to go from near-death to full health.) So it's take out a couple of baddies, wait for your health to replenish, go after a couple more, rinse and repeat. Oh, and save constantly. Thank God, the enemies don't respawn; once they're dead, they're dead. Except for the vampires near the end, but you do get a spell that kills them permanently.

The insane difficulty stems, as the previous reviewer noted, from the fact that ALL the enemies deal you at least 3X the damge that you deal to them. This isn't just insane, it's downright absurd.

Which is really a shame because the game has a lot going for it - good graphics, decent sound, good music, a nice sense of humor - but the difficulty pretty much drains most of the "fun" out of it. It becomes, at best, a chore and, at worst, an exercise in frustration.

But, if you're looking for a REALLY challenging game game, this might be just your cup of tea.

Be warned! I couldn't get the trainer to work. Well, actually, the trainer worked: using the Windows key to get out of the game (Alt+Tab wouldn't do it for me) to turn on the trainer, when returning to the game, all mouse function was lost. Even though I was invincible, I couldn't use the mouse to turn or, more importantly, swing my weapon or cast a spell. I tried this on 2 different machines with the same results; even swapped my USB LED mouse for a plain old PS/2 standard mouse, still wouldn't work. So, I guess I should myself a big pat on the back for actually completing the game on my own. Didn't feel much satisfaction however - I was just relieved that it was finally over.

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Price Paid:  $14.00 from Babbage's

Summary:
As everyone seeing this probably knows, Darkened Skye's plot revolves around Skittles.. yes.. the little candies. At first this can be off-putting, making the game seem as laden with product endorsements as an Austin Powers movie. But, over time, you get past this. Skye journeys through lands based on Skittles commercials to collect prism pieces of a magical amulet. The game is cute, and breaks the wall between player and game much in the way that Ferris Buller's Day Off broke the wall between movie character and viewer. But, while the game has its moments, the glibness gets old and tiresome. You find yourself preparing to interact with an item, thinking "Okay, what lame quip is she about to dish out now?" All in all, the game is worth playing (see additional sections), but not worth paying full price for.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Price Paid:  $24.00 from Office Depot

Summary:
Darkened Skye is a Tomb Raider like adventure based on a popular candy. Its fun, easy on the nerves and quick to learn. It's not a game to take itself seriously.