H.R. Giger was very pleased with the original Dark Seed and although it's hard to be sure why, he could only be happier with this weirder, darker sequel (set in the decidedly Lynchian burg of Crowley, Texas). While using the same digitized sprites, Dark Seed II sports vastly better looking full-color, photorealistic environments---no longer must players search for two-pixel-wide inventory items in monochrome environments---which make the gradual intrusion of Giger's biomechanical nightmares even more stark and horrible. Again, Mike Dawson must navigate between the human world and the Dark World, which co-exist in radically different but noticeably parallel forms, but this time the agents of the Dark World have murdered Mike's high-school sweetheart and pinned the crime on the hapless loser (this guy should really look into working with another game company).
The real fun of this game isn't in the find-and-use adventure mechanics, which are still pretty standard, but in the sheer nasty-mindedness of it: some of the psychological sequences are certain to give the sensitive gamer nightmares; the music is high-quality and spooky; creepy innuendoes abound (such as the jerk-hole medical examiner who can be seen furiously making out with an assistant behind the pebbled glass in the morgue is a good example); anybody who fancied Blue Velvet a good first-date movie should have a real ball with DSII. Even the end-of-game epiphany (which the marginally disturbed gamer can see coming from the half-way point) is no less awful for having been predictable. More valuable as an indication of what can be summoned from the game experience---not to mention a showcase of some truly ghastly art---Dark Seed II is a worthwhile endeavor. Better yet, give it someone sensitive and squeamish as a Christmas gift.
