The game Gauntlet should not have been missed by anyone in the 80s, as it was a huge hit in the arcades and was ported to all known home computers. Into the Eagle's Nest is therefore, at first glance, just another clone that wanted to participate in the ongoing success of slaying enemies from a bird's eye perspective, of course. But without the various attempts to surpass the original, the evolution of computer games would not be as diverse as it actually is.
The story of one of the unsung heroes of computer game design begins here: David Lester. His company, Impressions, made a name for itself in the mid-90s with some popular strategy games (mainly the Lords of the Realm and Caesar series). Though when that happened, most people who had followed their history up until that point were actually surprised, as in previous years, reception of their releases had been almost universally negative, so that it was actually surprising that they survived financially. Yes, better keep your expectations down for Merchant Colony.
Interactive movies… you might say that if you have played one of them, you have played them all. From the humble beginnings with pixelated miniature slide shows up to the fullscreen full motion video titles, all of them have one thing in common: A shallow plot combined with bad acting, interspersed by obscure and out of nowhere puzzles. The game we are going to discuss today, Black Dahlia, tried its best to leave this reputation behind by turning things up to eleven, with really high production values and an even somewhat creative story.