Heart of Darkness (game)

Heart of Darkness is a video game by Amazing Studios and released by Interplay for PC, PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. It is the first game to have its score recorded by an orchestra.

Plot

The game follows Andy, a regular kid who hates his teacher, loves his dog, and is afraid of the dark. One day, after some eerie foreshadowing at school by his teacher, Andy and his dog Whiskey go to the local park to watch a solar eclipse. However, Whiskey disappears during the eclipse.

Thinking that that Whiskey had been kidnapped and the eclipse had something to do with it, Andy rushes to his treehouse. Inside, he has childhood "inventions" of rayguns and spaceships. He jumps inside his ship, and actually blasts off into another world.

On arrival, Andy finds that wherever he is is completely shut off from the light by a large cloud. He flies for a few seconds until bumping into a strange winged skeleton, coincidentally the same one with his dog in a sack. Andy takes no notice of this, however, as he is careening towards the ground. He lands in the middle of a canyon, where he escapes his ship before it explodes. And if matters can't get any worse, his ray gun is eaten by a large monster.

Meanwhile, Whiskey is brought to a strange creature named Servant. Servant, a pink blob with low self-esteem, serves the Master of Darkness, a demonic creature who controls the Darklands and is the origin of the large cloud. Servant intends to warm up to the Master with Andy as a gift, but when they both discover they have Whiskey instead, Servant prepares for pain. However, the monster that ate the ray gun appears and reveals that Andy is in the Darklands.

Andy, who has been exploring the Darklands, discovers a strange, winged creature being tortured by flying demons. Andy frees him by exposing the demons to light, which is one of the ways the evil creatures roaming the darklands can be killed. The creature introduces himself as Amigo. And pickes up Andy to be flown to safety. Unfortunately, they are attacked by winged demons on the way, and Andy is dropped into a lake.

Andy lands right next to a green, glowing rock. He touches it, and is gifted with mysterious powers. He can now shoot green orbs out of his hands. While this can be used on enemies, it can also turn seeds into trees and back again. andy navigates his way out of the lake and subsequent cave. Amigo finds Andy again, and takes him to his home.

Amigo lives on an upside-down island above the cloud. The island is populated with other Amigo-like creatures. The creatures are nice but have a hard life, due to the evil above them (remember, the island is upside-down!) and a shortage of food. Andy fixes the food problem by turning an apple into an apple tree, and the creatures are impressed. Andy explains his story to the creatures, who tell him he is safest with them, as the evil cannot attack them.

The evil attacks them. Andy fights his way to the bottom of the island, where he falls to the Darklands. Andy finally meets up with Amigo and his crew, who are worried that they are getting tired. The creatures cannot touch ground, or else they turn into the winged demons. Andy then has an idea: why not use the magic rock?

Andy goes back to the lake (which is now dried out) to bring ther rock up to the surface. Once he does so, he and Amigo are able to fight to the Master's lair. Amigo and his friends keep fighting from the outside, while Andy enters. Andy is subsequently captured by Servant and reunited with Whiskey, but then escapes.

Servant got to the magic rock just after Andy did. He took the rock to the Master. Because Servant touched the rock, he was given powers. For the first time in his life, Servant had powers. Just the concept to him was amazing. Then, the Maaster destroyed the rock, and Servant's powers were gone. This made Servant mad. Servant now wants revenge.

Andy loses his powers once the magic rock is destroyed. He sneaks around the castle, until he falls into the mouth of the monster that ate his raygun. A couple seconds later, the monster explodes thanks to a plasma gun.

Andy meets Servant again. Servant tells Andy that he can defeat the Master by putting the magic rock back together. Andy goes to retrieve the scattered pieces, and finds all but one. To their dismay, they find that the last piece is right in front of the Master, on a walkway leading right to the middle of a vortex of clouds below them (this is the source of the clouds above the Darklands). As Andy leaves, Whiskey reappears, looking for his boy. With Andy out of sight, Servant pushes Whiskey into the vortex.

Andy makes his way to the piece of rock, destroying hordes of Shadows to get there. Amigo and friends tie up Servant, and prepare to send the rock to Andy. As Andy grabs the final piece, the rock is lowered. The Master rushes toward Andy, but is too late. Andy jumps onto the rock and puts the final piece in place. The result throws Andy back at the walkway, and he hangs for dear life on the ledge. The Master, whose platform has been destroyed, is hanging onto Andy's feet for dear life. The rock falls into the vortex, and causes the lair to melt into lava. The cloud disappears, and Andy and Master fall. Andy falls inside the master, and into The Heart of Darkness.

In a pitch black room, Andy whacks around at shadows, not knowing exactly where he is. Then, a door opens. He had been whacking around the treehouse the whole time. Was it all in his imagination? Andy goes to bed, and scares Whiskey with a shadow. Andy then turns off his light and goes to sleep. He has conquered his fear of the dark.

In the Darklands, Andy's ship is pulled up by Amigo and his crew. The fool around with the wreckage, and discover a small radio. They turn it on, and hear classical music. The credits roll.