Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

Linger in Darkness – a $2.99 PSN “interactive art” download – hit the PlayStation Store last week, and I took the plunge to see just what it’s all about. After all, I already own the ridiculously anemic fishbowl screensaver Aquatopia and the compellingly pretty screensaver Tori-Emaki (which we gave some positive chatter back in March), so why not give Linger in Darkness a try. After all, it does have this impressive promo video stumping for it:

Plus, I had $3.02 remaining in my PSN wallet.

The official word on Linger in Darkness is that it is not a game. They have to stress this because, well, it looks like it might be a game. Actually, I’m going to call it a game anyway. It certainly falls under a broad definition of the word, in that there are parts where you must perform certain actions in order for the experience to continue. Game enough for me.

The other official word is that Linger in Darkness comes to us from “the demoscene.” Now, if you’re like me and never heard of “the demoscene,” you’ll probably get annoyed at how the official documentation goes to absurd lengths to explain “the demoscene” and convince you of its importance. Succinctly put, “the demoscene” refers to organized efforts to create tech demos for various computers, operating systems and other pieces of equipment. “The demoscene” has apparently existed for twenty years or so, as programmers and hackers traded files back and forth showing off technical eye candy.

Fine, great, but what exactly does Linger in Darkness do? And what can you do to it?

If you watched that video, you have about as much idea as I, a Linger in Darkness Owner, do. There is a dystopian environment that uses the same color palette as arthouse fan-faves ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. There is a roaming, possibly evil, cloud of shadow. A basset hound paddles through the air and probably dies. There is a cat. And a Giger-esque Tiki god steampunk thing with octopus arms.

That’s about all I can say about the plot. Clearly, there is one. But in six minutes and thirty seconds (yes, that’s how long the game runs; there’s a meter at the bottom of the screen), you should probably expect that more questions would be raised than answered.

The basic structure is that you will watch one segment of the game, and you will be prompted to use the PlayStation controller in some specific fashion. If you do not perform it perfectly, the game rewinds that scene and you get another shot. There are five segments, each containing particular necessary controller inputs. For example, you may have to shake the Dual Shock 3 at a certain point. Or hit the circle button. None of them are difficult to figure out; in fact, the game pretty much shows you what to do when you pause the scene (which causes a very pleasing deceleration to both the video and audio, by the way). You’ll be pausing a lot because from there you can roll forwards or backwards in time, which is a good way to find exactly which shot the game wants you to act upon. The pause menu also lets you save screenshots to your PS3.

There are a handful of actions you can take that are merely for show. Whenever the shadow cloud appears onscreen, holding up and/or down on the d-pad makes it furiously rotate. Which is a neat idea, although I feel like there should be more actions like that, so you might actually feel like you’re truly interacting with the film as it unspools. As it stands, that kind of interplay is frustratingly limited. The Sixaxis controls are definitely the clunkiest part of the game. At several points you can rotate the controller to rotate something onscreen, but it’s super-sensitive and non-intuitive.

All the stuff with the basset hound and cat and Tikipus is head-scratchingly bizarre, but it all looks fabulous. There’s some really nice graphic design and texture work here, which fits with the raison d’etre of a demoscene project.

At only $2.99, Linger in Darkness is an impulse grab that will not provide much playtime… but the good news is that the game has sixteen PlayStation Trophies to grab. And they are easy ones, at that. Like, drive-through-a-gas-station-in-Burnout Paradise easy. Basically, I think I just paid three dollars for a pretentious indie short that jumped my Trophy count. Sort of like the Burger King Xbox games, but with less grease.

My biggest problem with Linger in Darkness is that it comes pre-packaged with an ugly hype pile of empty promises. Once you get past all the obnoxious demoscene stuff (we’re gamers; we know from tech demos!), then you’re told to EXPLORE and DISCOVER THE UNEXPECTED. As the segments play, in most shots you have control over the camera so you can pan around and see OUTSIDE THE FRAME. That’s fine, but when I pan around, I just see more of the same stuff. Something unexpected would be, say, Eva Longoria making me an omelette. Not just the rest of the city.

This UNEXPECTED stuff must be the hidden shout-outs to various organized demoscene groups that you’ve never heard of. Scattered throughout the scenes are highly obvious plaques, each dedicated to one of these established demoscene clubs. You can collect them, sort of. Finding all ten of these nets you the majority of the available trophies.

So how much is +16 on a trophy board worth to you? Three bucks? Plus a mostly entertaining art film that will be fodder for a great discussion at your next hashish party? Then check out Linger in Darkness.

Linger in Darkness was released October 2008 (NA) for PS3 via PSN.

Picture source: PlayStation.Blog