DARKLIGHT CONFLICT

Developer

Note this is the saturn intro.

Darklight Conflict is a 50 mission single player space sim for the PC,PS1 and saturn,with
four ship to fly and occasionally a turret to command and with 14 different weapons to fire.
At the start of the game you have a choice of playing the game through the storyline or
just going for an arcade game mode.The story is the usual nonsence in that you have been
kidnapped by aliens to fight in there war.

The mission are the good old kill/protect every thing,where you launch from you mothership
fly to point A shoot then goto point B shoot again,then some times goto point C.The first
nine mission in the game are training ones Although the mission are connected by a story
line,there is not much plot to the game.All you get is a written description of your
objectives,which will tell you which ship you are flying and what weapons you will use,then
off you go,if you make it back you are given a written debrief,score and a password
(no save the game in the PS1 version).If you get killed,you are told what a failure you
are then dumped right back at the start of the game.

Gameplay
The gameplay is pretty much acade where you go in and just shoot every thing that moves,
although shooting you own wing men will end the game.Some of the missile are auto locking
and will give an audio ping when ready to fire,the rest of the weapons are just the aim
and fire type,apart from the cloaking device and tractor beam which have to be turned on
and off.You also have a shield which has to be turned on,it go's off if you take your
finger off the button.Like some of the weapons the shield and after burner uses the
ships energy which can be replenished in the hyperspace section.which is a tunnel which
connected the different sectors of the level.When you enter a gate you fly down this tunnel
and have to avoid the matter/antimatter.
If you use all the energy nothing will happen you just can't use shields/afterburners and
some of the weapons.
You have three views,one from the cockpit and two externally unfortunately the outside
views are not much use as you can not see your instruments or target reticule.The radar is a
perspective flat plane although your ship is not shown you are at the centre of the radar,
other ship are shown as coloured dots with stalks on to show if they are above/below your ship
.One major problem with the radar is if you fly out of range of the gates it is just about
impossible to find your way back to them.
Control of the game is with the standard Dpad,no analog controller,which makes the game
some what harder to play and as some of the mission are very tough,its more by luck that you
pass them.

Graphics
The games graphic are nothing to shout about,space is black with white stars and a few nebular
pics in the backgound and the ship design is basic with some basic texturing.The games main
claim to fame is its lighting effects which are very good.Each of the system has two sun ,one
bright and one no so bright which has the effect of giving the space craft a light and dark
side,also as you fire the weapons they will light up the big ships as they travel over and
impacted on the hulls.The whole look of the space is very atmospheric and is the best feature of
the game.

Sound/music
The music Not bad,but a lot of it sounds the same in the game,standard
sound effects for the weapons ect,and a few in game comments from your instructor.

The whole game seems to out of date,even for 1997 it would have been outdated,the PS1 version
has the feel of being just shovelware,it is not a good conversion from the PC game with its
poor controls and no attempt to use the PS1 features.Even as a simple 3d shooter it not very
good.Although surprisingly I think the lighting effects and the look/feel of space in the PS1
game are better then the PC original.

PC version
The original version of the game and the one to play as it has better graphic and muliplayer.
Also the external view can be used as you can still see your instruments and target reticule,
the game also seems to have a Newtonian flight model.

PC demo of the game.works in D-fend/Dosbox.

http://download.cnet.com/Darklight-Conf ... 07442.html

Sega Saturn
Unknown maybe some one can add to this.

Screen shot Pc version
http://www.mobygames.com/game/darklight ... creenshots