Neither pure action nor pure adventure, Darkened Skye simply fails to deliver, but it doesn't really sink the ship.
STORY: A young girl named Skye is puzzled when confronted with her destiny. Bored and worried that her fate is to be a simple shepherd, things turn upside down when she uncovers the fact that she must defeat Necroth, a tyrant who has enslaved the lands, outlawed magic, and forbade the use of bright and strong colours. Skye rises to the challenge, and swears to find the five prisms which hold the key to the planet's restoration. You even get to have a smart-alek sidekick, the lil' gargoyle named Draak.
From the first moments of the introduction, you'll notice that Darkened Skye simply doesn't take itself seriously. The fact that the magic in this game takes the form of Skittles (basically the M&M candies) is proof enough. The game wishes to be a tribute/parody to all the classic RPG/Adventure games that were released in the 90s, and sometimes the lines you'll get to hear from the characters are pretty funny. Other times dialogue seems stale though.
GRAPHICS:(note that this game was played on a LCD TV, where low-res games look worse in LCD than CRT)
The game's heroine looks decent, but the environment fails to deliver. It does the job in creating a medieval setting, but most of the time I felt like I was playing a PSX game. And in today's standards, this is simply not good enough. The monsters in the game have a serious tone in their design, but they are not detailed enough as well.
MUSIC / SOUND:
The music of the game was a let-down. Aside from a 2-3 good clips, most clips were causing me to turn down the volume after a while. Some pipe organs were getting really annoying in the Bonelands stage for instance.
The sound was satisfactory. Not Dolby Surround-wise of course, but it did get the job done.
GAMEPLAY:
There is some diversity in the way you want to handle Skye. Whether you want her to be a butt-kicking gal or a magic-wielder, there are quite a few ways to have your way. Combat isn't deep, but it contains many interesting ways to defeat your enemies. Do you want to freeze or burn your opponents? Fight them from afar, or close and personal? More weapons would be nice to see though. As well as a bow. There are plenty of magic spells though.
You won't spend your entire time fighting in Darkened Skye. There are quite a few puzzles (ACTUAL puzzles, not find-the-key puzzles, although there are some of that too) that may make you scratch your head. It was a nice touch, but maybe I'm being too generous after having played so many console games who consider press-the-button-to-turn-the-lights-on a puzzle.
The sprite collision as well as the camera needed some work, since you'll find yourself losing from bad targeting many times. There are many times where enemies will gang up on you without warning, finishing you off in seconds. Thankfully, the game has a save game feature at any time, which makes it easy to adapt in any situation and change your strategy accordingly.
OVERALL: Having said all that, I must say while I played Darkened Skye to the end, I really can't recommend it to anyone, rather than a die-hard arcade-adventurer. The storyline is simplistic, the characters are not special, the game itself plain and mediocre. It's not a bad game, but it's not a good one either. Rent it first, before you buy.