Several of his finest short stories were meaningfully stitched into the game – The Tell-Tale Heart, Berenice and The Cask of Amontillado, and the game plot tying it all borrows elements from such works as The Fall of the House of Usher.

Part of why the drama is so hauntingly effective has to do with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, one of the most prolific and wretchedly unfortunate gothic horror writers there ever was. In a certain sense it’s like walking through a dark, twisted version of a Dali or Picasso painting – the imagery is so surreal, the narrative so dreamlike and the characters so twisted that you can’t help but be fascinated by the weirdness around you. Nothing will jump out of the bushes and scream in your face here, but instead the game panders its more subtle chills through story, evolving characters and a continuous morbid feel. The Dark Eye isn’t what you might call frightening – nor is it really trying to be – but it most definitely strikes a sensitive chord and instills a sense of dread within the player. Faulty as a game, wonderfully surreal as a story.

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