Dark Earth

About Dark Earth

Dark Earth is a post-apocalyptic adventure game with action elements, developed by Kalisto Entertainment and published by MicroProse for Microsoft Windows in 1997. Reviewers were generally positive, with critics commenting on the well thought-out story, milieu, and the impressive visuals, though the combat was criticized. It sold 500,000 copies by 1999.

The game begins with Arkhan awakening from a nightmare in which he has a vision of the Great Cataclysm and sees it foretold that a great darkness will threaten Sparta, which he must fight against. He then goes to see the head of the Guardians of Fire, Provost Dhorkan, who orders him to guard the council chamber door at the Temple of Solaar, while the High Sunseer Lory is holding a meeting. On his way to the Temple, Arkhan overhears his father Rylsadhar, also a Sunseer, telling Lory that he fears a great danger is about to engulf Sparta. He gives Lory something, telling her he doesn't feel safe carrying it himself. Arkhan takes his post, but hears a commotion from within the council room. He bursts in to find the Sunseers under attack by two men, one of whom he kills. The other is about to attack Lory, but Arkhan intervenes, and the man throws something in his face and flees. Lory examines Arkhan and sees that he has been contaminated by "Shankr Archessence."

Arkhan awakens some time later, and is horrified to discover that he has begun to turn into a creature of darkness. A healer, Thanandar, tells him that he is infected with darkness and the only way to save him is a "secret energy from the dawn of time." Thanandar says that Rylsadhar is one of the few people in Sparta who knows where it is located. Arkhan goes to see Rylsadhar, who tells him he is forbidden to bring him to the secret and must break his vows as a Sunseer to do so, but only after getting approval from Dhorkan. Arkhan then sees Kalhi, his wife, who is horrified at what has happened to him and tells him that Dhorkan has taken control of the city, declared martial law, locked the gates, and sent the Guardians of Fire out to search for more attackers.

Arkhan heads to meet his father, but Rylsadhar doesn't arrive, so Arkhan sets out to look for him. He learns that Lory has gone into hiding and that his best friend, and fellow Guardian, Zed, is leading the hunt for more "heretics" in the Lower City. Arkhan then learns that Rylsadhar has disappeared, and the Guardians of Fire have arrested Kalhi. He breaks her out of jail and they head to the Lower City to see their friend, the scavenger Danrys, who tells them that they need to speak to a man named Armal Sadak, the chief scavenger. Sadak tells Arkhan that the people who attacked the Sunseers are a group of thugs known as the Konkalites who live in the sewers. However, they did so on the orders of someone else, although Sadak doesn't know who. He also recommends that Arkhan find Leona, a hermit who lives outside Sparta in the Dark Earth.