Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle Horror Games Review

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Title: Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle
Format: CD-ROM
Score:
Platform: Windows 98
Publisher: Got Game
Hits: 49

Review of Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle

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Comments for Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle

• Posted on 2009-08-18
  Great Adventure Game
  
  This game became one of my favorite 'adventure games'. I like to keep my reviews condensed. It did run a little short, especially in comparison to Black Mirror. It was spooky, but very good, and worth while. It is a short sweet game, somewhat like Dark Fall. I do wonder why these games are getting short, and less cost-effective.
  There should be not too much trouble playing it through, It may get a little tricky now and then, but fairly straight forward in a fitted space frame. You will need very little help from internet sites like: Walkthrough, hintlines, and uhs.
  I would fully recommend this game as a good run in the genre. One of my favorites.
  
  
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• Posted on 2009-04-14
  OK, Could have been better
  
  Barrow Hill is a first person point-and-click adventure mystery centered around an ancient barrow in Cornwall. The story is: your car breaks down on the road so you must walk to a gas station/cafe/motel where you discover that something bad has happened and it's up to you to set things right. This involves wandering around investigating several sites, picking up everything that isn't nailed down, learning the mythology of the area, and determining what needs to be done in order to stop the bad things that are happening. It is very important, after moving to a new spot, to look in all four directions and scan and examine each entire screen before moving on. The puzzles are logical and there are clues everywhere, so it's a good idea to make notes unless you don't mind going back to some places one or more times to get some information you forgot. Having the background story unfold by reading notes scattered here and there was a good effect.
  
  As far as the atmosphere goes, I didn't find this game to be the least bit scary, except for a couple of "boo" moments. In fact, most of the time I couldn't really hear anything except footsteps or rustling. The one thing that really bugged me was the lady on the radio. Besides being a blatant rip-off the Stevie Wayne radio show in John Carpenter's "The Fog" (sometimes word for word), the woman was just down-right irritating. The phone calls to/from her are basically pointless and you never actually meet her in "person". I think her entire part in this game could have been left out without much effect.
  
  Once you have gotten all the parts you need and set up the site correctly, the game ends rather abruptly. There are two endings: one in which you do something in partcular incorrectly, and one in which you do everything correctly. You never really have any sense of who *you* are, though, or why you're there. Some fore- and back-story on the player character would have been a nice addition.
  
  On the whole, it was an OK game, though way too short in my opinion.
  
  
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• Posted on 2009-04-12
  Simple technology, but fun!
  
  The game is amazing in that it technically primitive by today's standards, but just us much fun as its more technologically advanced counterparts. The world is not true 3D, but rather a collection of images with some fading between them. However the images themselves and the sound track are so artfully done, the experience they create is on par with anything else out there. The story is very cohesive, intriguing and very nicely told. The puzzles are not too challenging, but were fine for me -- I have other things in my life I have to think hard about. This game was, fun, entertaining, but not tiresome.
  
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• Posted on 2009-04-05
  It's Dark Fall 1.5
  
  This is a game very similar to Dark Fall: The Journal. It is a little better, but has the same sort of small physical area to work in. And it is always dark. It is, as noted, a reasonably non-linear game. Confusingly, you can get different endings, and if you don't do things just right it isn't the right ending. Save your game before you approach the stone circle for the finish. It took me three tries.
  
  I think I will barf if I hear the word "awoken" one more time. You will never hear the words "awake" or "awakened" in this game. One wonders what the author would do with Bach's "Sleepers Awake" - "sleepers awoke"? or maybe "sleepers have awoken"? I have seen this in print, as well, from English authors - what is going on in the Queen's English?
  
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• Posted on 2008-12-13
  Barrow Hill, Curse Of The Ancient Circle
  
  This is a great game that kept me on the edge of my seat great graphics all around spooky game.
  
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