DARK SECRETS OF AFRICA

Africa 1876. The inner continent has yet to be fully explored and still holds incredible treasures to be found, for which only the boldest adventurers dare to search.
    
And still, you wouldn't have hesitated a single second to go on that search. But time is not the only enemy on your travels ...

Game Features:

• 15 different missions
• build your own band of up to 6 characters
• individual attributes for each character
• isometric graphics with fog of war, complex multicolored lighting system, multiple resolutions, weather system with day/night/rain, particle systems for vulcancs, fire, fountains etc
• surround sound system
• fully rendered player gfx

~ from the back of the box

You have to approach the elephant in the room head on when discussing a game like Dark Secrets of Africa, and we're not talking about literal ones like those roaming the continent's jungles. The elephant here is the potentially insensitive portrayal of black Africans during the colonial era. It's a story that portends to be a historical fantasy in the same vein as Indiana Jones or King Solomon's Mines, but there's no getting past the obvious and arguably problematic racial elements.

At its heart, this German-made game is a decent enough real-time RPG with an entertaining if repetitive gameplay loop. You play as Howard Hawk (not to be confused with the infamous film director of Hollywood's golden age) as he travels throughout the continent in the 1870s researching and eventually fighting the Lovecraftian-style god Azag-Thot and its worshippers. The brotherhood of Mardok and followers of Anubis - two factions that are given little depth outside of the manual - aid you in this mission by selling goods and services crucial to your success.

It's this latter element that will perhaps turn a few heads. You will encounter straw-hut villages in the first section of each chapter where the stereotypically-dressed populace will mostly be kind allies offering keen advice and narrative anecdotes. If one of these huts have crates and barrels scattered around its entrance, it will likely be one of two types of shops. One will sell consumables like torches, food, water and medicine in exchange for gems while the other sells labour. You can hire warriors to help in battle, workers to lend their strength in menial tasks and carriers to give you much-needed extra storage space and the essential ability to pitch tents to sleep off your wounds. They cost 30, 20 and 10 gemstones respectively and once the "transaction" is complete, they will follow you perhaps to their deaths.

You can buy consumable items and just-as-consumable slaves at village huts.
The variety on offer will never change.

Basically, these hirelings are slaves in all but name. They are there to suit a mechanical purpose, not for any attempt to add to the already barebones storytelling or even as a commentary on what was historically acceptable at the time. They are black men void of any personality or agency programmed to assist the fictional white lead. Even if they were unambiguously slaves, simply adding their voice to the narrative beyond "I need water" may have led to some interesting conversations both in out of the game, but there was little room in 1999 to have such sensitive and emotionally complex topics in this medium. From a 2023 point of view, this seeming lack of awareness is glaring. Back then, the shallowness on display was more or less the norm.

As a game, however, it is just as shallow yet - dare I say - still fairly enjoyable. Each of the 12 chapters have two main parts; above-ground exploration and below-ground dungeoneering. You will begin each chapter above ground not too far from a village where you can gather resources (and slaves). A good amount of these locations are in the desert, so monitoring you hunger, thirst and energy of all members of your party is just as important as your health. It's all too easy to forget to feed the slaves or overlook your water storage until they are close to dead and figurately miles away from civilisation. Bursts of greenery do offer respite from the harsh conditions but these oasis are few and far between. It's less of an issue if the level takes place in a jungle as all you have to do is hack away at the foliage to gather the berries and bottled water the leaves leave behind.

The screenmode can be changed at will in the options menu to suit the current need (left).
If you're ever lost - and I guarantee you will be at some point - the map is a useful tool (right).

Regardless of where you are in the continent, the place will be fraught with danger. Even without the traps and environmental hazards, bloodthirsty cultists, dangerous beasts and monstrous curses are all waiting for a fight to the death. Combat is just a matter of right-clicking until someone comes out on top, so it's not the most exciting or complex system, but you will eventually learn to cast spells that up the variety at the very least. Sometimes, they will be far more effective than your trusty shotgun or machete, but it still comes down to a war of attrition no matter the tactic used.

Eventually, the map will reveal the entrance to a dungeon. Your allied slaves will not join you beneath the surface so you're on your own, but you can still build a camp fire to rest and regain health. These are little more than mazes to navigate and will likely become tedious during long play sessions. It was here where I found frequent flitting between the resolutions sizes to be most helpful. From a visual perspective, 640x480 looks the nicest with large character sprites just being on the right side of pixelated. Higher resolutions will zoom out the screen allowing you to see more of the playfield at the cost of close-up detail. I recommend not sticking to just one.

The bodies of defeated foes or otherwise benign scenery objects may hold useful items (left).
If you have a carrier, pitch a tent to slowly heal your vitality (right).

It was for this reason alone why I chose to suffer the bugs of running natively on Windows 10 over the slow emulation of DOSBox or PCEm which become unplayable the higher the resolution you go. One inconsequential glitch happens at the beginning of the game, were highlighted information on the graphical interface during the tutorial don't line up unless viewing in 640x480. The only other one is a little more egregious, appearing in every underground dungeons. When exploring the top quarter of a dungeon's map, the lighting effects break making all wall and character textures black. Explore anywhere below this point and it bizarrely looks exactly how it's supposed to. It doesn't affect gameplay in any way, but I did spend too long troubleshooting the issue before resigning to an imperfect but perfectly playable package.

So, my opinion of Dark Secrets of Africa is somewhat conflicted. It's a simple RPG with some not-so-simple ideas breaching the surface. The depiction of race - even if they are predominantly shown as friendly allies - may be a cause for concern, but I feel it's not damaging enough to make for an unworthy gaming experience. For many, the mechanical simplicity will do that all on its own. I do feel it could be the jumping-off point for some considered and respectful conversations outside of the game, but I would've liked to have seen some of that touched upon inside the game too. The uncomplex gameplay loop just doesn't allow much room for it to happen. Were it not for this, it would be an average throw-away title. Because of this, some may want to simply throw it away. I'll leave it for you to decide where it falls.
 

To download the PC game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses DDrawCompat to run on modern systems. Manual included. While fully in English, this game is locked to using the German keyboard layout. Some keys may be out of sync, but it doesn't affect gameplay. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 462 Mb.  Install Size: 686 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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Dark Secrets of Africa is © New Generation Software
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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