It's short, it's strange, it's frightening, and it's highly underrated.
There are 3 main "games" based on his short stories, "The Tell Tale Heart," "A Cask of Amontillado" and "Berenice." The second in that list being my favourite because that is also my favourite story by him. There are also hidden copies of some of his poems, such as "The Masque of The Red Death," "Annabelle Lee" and "The Raven." Those aren't playable, but are still made enjoyable by interesting, if not disturbing, visuals as well as an eerie narration by William S. Burroughs... Wait a minute... WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, READING EDGAR ALLEN POE!!!??! HOLY CRAP! THAT'S EFFIN' AWESOME! What genius thought of this?
Something that makes the stories a bit more interesting is the fact that you must play them from both perspectives, the victim and the victimizer. Ever wondered what it was like to be the old man with the vulture eye? Well, now you can know. This makes up for the lack of narration in these sections, although the dialogue is true to the stories.
Speaking of dialogue, the voice acting is very good, and even in the less entertaining "Main story" (more about that later) its strong, especially the aforementioned William S. Burrough's as Uncle Edwin. William's creepy and eccentric voice fits Uncle Edwin perfectly. The others fill their jobs very well too, Fortunatos screams of help, despair, and reassurance are haunting from behind the infamous brick wall and chain, but Burroughs steals the show. The sound effects are just as sharp and crisp, and add a thin layer of atmosphere, with some exception (Mentioned later.)
The game is also incredibly... creepy. Not just because of Poe's genius, or the aforementioned ability to play as both sides as well (Clausterphobics might not like playing as Fortunato in "The Cask of Amontillado"), but because the characters have an inhuman, and disturbing look. Most of them are eyeless dolls (Though some characters are given eyes where appropriate, like the old man with the Vulture eye.) with lips that never move and other strange looks upon them, thanks to an impressive art style. One of the scariest moments in the game for me was in "The Tell Tale Heart," playing as the young man. As the cops search the Old Mans room, there are constant inwards shots of the already scary looking cops, and you can feel your awful heart pounding just as hard as the old mans infamous undead beat.
Despite all these good points, the game is far from perfect. There are many problems, which I will delve into next.
There's another story going on, but its one of the games weaker points. There is never any explanation why you have those strange dreams, and with little info on yourself or the other characters, its hard to bite into what could've been a decent tribute story.
The graphics, in 2009, are a mixed bag. While the clay character models are just as eerie, strange, and even at times scary as they were back in 1995, there is little animation, and at times the animation even resorts to fading pixels moving about the screen. The environments are clearer than other games like this of the time such as Phantasmagoria, and have a crisp and clear view, although if you don't set your screen to a low resolution you'll be peering into a tiny box inside of a larger black box.
Another problem is it is short and easy. The game takes a non-linear path, but once you've played through each story twice and done the fairly simple tasks during the concurrent story, the game is over. The difficulty may depend on two things: How well you know your Poe, and how hardened an adventure game veteran you are. If neither of these apply, you might get lost and confused. However, if either or both of those apply, like to someone like myself, the game is a total cakewalk. Poe veterans know how the story ends, so they'll quickly know where to look and what to do. While some of the games charm lies in how close to the stories the game is, this is also one of its downfalls because character motions and actions are as verbatim as the plot. Hardened adventure game players will also find the puzzles a bit on the simple side, even ones who have never heard of Poe.
Another negative deals with an aspect of the sound design. While the voices and sound effects are neat, there is a total lack of music which works against the game, and the few atmospheric effects are either annoying or they work against themselves. Playing as the young man in a tell tale heart, you will hear these constant metal echoes which are annoying. When you enter "nightmare mode" you will hear people whispering, but its not creepy, its cheap. Its one of the few things that works against the otherwise freaky atmosphere.
If you can look past these flaws, and find a cheap copy somewhere and enjoy the stories of Edgar Allen, pick up the Dark Eye. It is an underrated game that deserves more attention than it gets.