The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure

Last updated
The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure
Lost Crown cover.jpg
Developer(s) Darkling Room
Shadow Tor Studios (Special effects)
Publisher(s) Got Game Entertainment (U.S.)
Akella (Russia)
Mamba Games (UK and Europe as of September 2009)
Iceberg Interactive
Designer(s) Jonathan Boakes
Engine Made with Wintermute Engine
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release
  • NA: March 3, 2008
  • EU: July 18, 2008
Genre(s) Third & First-person adventure
Mode(s) Single player

The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure is a British graphic adventure video game released in 2008. The Lost Crown is the third full title to be written and developed by Jonathan Boakes, author of Dark Fall: The Journal and Dark Fall 2: Lights Out . The screenplay follows the adventure of Nigel Danvers, as he experiences the paranormal in his quest to find the fabled Lost Crown of Anglia. The game was followed by The Last Crown: Midnight Horror [1] and The Last Crown: Blackenrock.

Contents

Gameplay

Presented in both first and third-person perspectives, The Lost Crown is a point-and-click game, featuring puzzles, conversations, and inventory based interaction. The game follows the adventure of Nigel Danvers, as he wanders the harbor town of Saxton and the surrounding countryside, armed with a small arsenal of ghost-hunting gadgets. Eventually, after uncovering and exorcising several ghosts, Nigel discovers the whereabouts of a long lost Anglo-Saxon crown; thought to have crowned the king of the region, Ganwulf, back in the sixth century AD. [2]

Plot

Vividly set in the fictional harbor town of Saxton in The Fens of eastern England, The Lost Crown follows the adventures of two young ghost-hunters, Nigel Danvers and Lucy Reubans. Nigel has fled London, following the theft of several documents from his employer, The Hadden Corporation. The documents contain proof of Hadden’s involvement in experiments with paranormal forces, and the existence of ‘chasm ghosts’. Two Hadden agents, Mr. Hare, and Mr. Crow are dispatched to capture Danvers and return the stolen documents.

Nigel takes refuge in Saxton, where he meets local psychology student, Lucy Reubans. Together they set out to solve local mysteries, study paranormal activity and discover the whereabouts of a legendary Anglo-Saxon crown, thought to be buried somewhere in the vicinity around town. Nigel’s presence in the town does not go unnoticed. There are those, alive and dead, that do not wish the crown to be disturbed. [3]

Development

The Lost Crown was written by Jonathan Boakes, between 2005 and late 2007. The story is an exploration of the ‘classic ghost story’, featuring references to many ghost stories read by the author in childhood. Most notably, M. R. James A Warning to the Curious features many influential elements; the seaside setting, the legend of the lost Anglo-Saxon Crown, a greedy archaeologist and the presence of a ghostly guardian, sworn to protect the whereabouts of the crown, even after death. [4]

Other literary influences include J.L.Carr’s A Month in the Country ,[ citation needed ] which features a lonely protagonist camped out in a rural country church, left alone to uncover a secret over the course of an apparently endless, hot summer.

Boakes also joined a group of ‘modern day ghost-hunters’ in order to research the game, following on from paranormal experiments seen in Dark Fall and Dark Fall 2. Known as This Haunted Land, the group are based in Cornwall, England, and share a passion for the paranormal and the use of technology used during investigations. Many of the results gleaned from those experiments have made their way into the game, such as the use of E.M.F meters, Nite-Vision cameras and E.V.P [5]

Many of the scenes were created from photography made in real places in Cornwall, notably the fishing towns of Looe and Polperro.

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [6]

Diehard GameFAN awarded the game its "Best PC game of 2008" award as well as its "Adventure Game of the Year" and "Best Story" awards. [14]

Related Research Articles

Alone in the Dark is a survival horror video game series originally developed by Infogrames. In most of the games, the player controls private investigator Edward Carnby, who goes to investigate a haunted house or town that is full of undead creatures.

John Zaffis is a paranormal researcher born and based in Connecticut, United States. He starred in the SyFy paranormal reality TV show, Haunted Collector, and runs the Paranormal and Demonology Research Society of New England, which he founded in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Atlantic Paranormal Society</span> Investigation group

The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) is an organization that investigates reported paranormal activity. Based in Warwick, Rhode Island, TAPS was founded in 1995 by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. In 2004, the organization itself became the subject of Ghost Hunters, a popular weekly American paranormal reality television series on the Syfy channel. The show ran for eleven seasons on Syfy in the US. The show aired in the UK nine months after the US premier on Living It.

Paranormal television is a genre of reality television that purports to document factual investigations of the paranormal rather than fictional representations seen in traditional narrative films and TV. Over the years, the genre has grown to be a staple of television and even changed the programming focus of networks like the History Channel and the Travel Channel. By highlighting beliefs in topics ranging from Bigfoot to aliens, paranormal television continues to elevate popular interest in the paranormal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occult detective fiction</span> Crossover between mystery and horror fiction

Occult detective fiction is a subgenre of detective fiction that combines the tropes of the main genre with those of supernatural, fantasy and/or horror fiction. Unlike the traditional detective who investigates murder and other common crimes, the occult detective is employed in cases involving ghosts, demons, curses, magic, vampires, undead, monsters and other supernatural elements. Some occult detectives are portrayed as being psychic or in possession of other paranormal or magical powers.

<i>Dark Fall</i> 2002 video game

Dark Fall is a 2002 first-person psychological horror/adventure game developed and independently published for Microsoft Windows by Jonathan Boakes, under the XXv Productions label. After the independent release proved a success, with the game selling well and generating good word-of-mouth, The Adventure Company purchased the rights, releasing it worldwide in 2003 under the title Dark Fall - The Journal. The game was re-released twice in 2009. Firstly, by Boakes' own company, Darkling Room, in a limited "Pins & Needles" edition, and later by Iceberg Interactive, as part of their Adventures in Terror: British Horror Collection. The game was made available on Steam in December 2013.

<i>Dark Fall II: Lights Out</i> 2004 video game

Dark Fall II: Lights Out is a 2004 first-person psychological horror/adventure game developed by British studio XXv Productions and published by The Adventure Company for Microsoft Windows. In 2009, Darkling Room released a director's cut of the game in a limited "Pins & Needles" edition. Later that same year, Iceberg Interactive released the Director's Cut in both a stand-alone edition and as part of Adventures in Terror: British Horror Collection. The original version of the game was made available on Steam in December 2013. Lights Out is an indirect sequel to the 2002 game Dark Fall, telling an unrelated story, although it does feature a recurring minor character. A third Dark Fall game, Dark Fall: Lost Souls, was released in 2009. A fourth entry titled Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil was released in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghost hunting</span> Investigating reportedly haunted locations for ghosts

Ghost hunting is the process of investigating locations that are purportedly haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity.

<i>Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion</i> 2000 video game

Message in a Haunted Mansion is the third installment in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive. The game is available for play on Microsoft Windows platforms as well as Game Boy Advance. It has an ESRB rating of E for moments of mild violence and peril. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and must solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. There are two levels of gameplay: Junior and Senior detective modes. Each mode offers a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, but none of these changes affect the actual plot of the game. The game is loosely based on a book entitled The Message in the Haunted Mansion (1995).

<i>The Cameron Files: Secret at Loch Ness</i> 2001 video game

The Cameron Files: Secret at Loch Ness is an adventure video game released in 2001, developed by Galiléa and published by Wanadoo Edition and DreamCatcher Interactive. It was followed in 2002 by a sequel, The Cameron Files: Pharaoh's Curse.

<i>Ghost Adventures</i> American paranormal reality television show

Ghost Adventures is an American paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally aired on the Sci-Fi Channel on July 25, 2007. The program follows ghost hunters Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley as they investigate locations that are reported to be haunted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zak Bagans</span> American actor

Zachary Alexander Bagans is an American paranormal investigator, actor, television personality, museum operator, and author. He is the principal host of the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures.

<i>Dark Fall: Lost Souls</i> 2009 video game

Dark Fall: Lost Souls is a 2009 first-person psychological horror/adventure game developed by British studio Darkling Room and published by Iceberg Interactive for Microsoft Windows. It was first released for download via Steam and Darkling Room's official website in November 2009. It was subsequently released for retail in Europe in January 2010, and in North America in April. Lost Souls is the third game in the Dark Fall series, following Dark Fall (2002) and Dark Fall II: Lights Out (2004). It tells a story relatively unrelated to either, although it is set in the same location and features several of the supporting characters from the first game.

Jonathan Boakes is an English game designer. He majors in writing adventure/psychological horror games such as the Dark Fall series and The Lost Crown. He is the CEO and founder of Darkling Room.

<i>Ghost in the Sheet</i> 2007 video game

Ghost in the Sheet is a 2007 first-person point-and-click adventure game developed by Cardboard Box Entertainment and released in Germany as S.C.A.R.E.

Elephant Games is a Russian with an office in Yerevan, Armenia casual game developing company founded in 2003. Elephant Games currently produces games for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Android. Most of the company's projects are published by Big Fish Games.

<i>Last Half of Darkness</i> Video game series

Last Half of Darkness is a point and click adventure horror video game franchise that began in 1989 with the DOS "early horror adventure" video game Last Half of Darkness developed by SoftLab Laboratories.

References

  1. "The Last Crown: Blackenrock" Official Website
  2. The Lost crown US Game Manual
  3. "The Lost Crown" Official Website
  4. Darkling Room (April 6, 2014). "Jonathan Boakes: Biography". Darkling Room.
  5. "This Haunted Land: Ghost-hunters & the Paranormal World". This Haunted Land.
  6. 1 2 "The Lost Crown: A Ghost-hunting Adventure for PC Reviews". Metacritic . Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  7. Dante Kleinberg (March 31, 2008). "The Lost Crown: A Ghost-hunting Adventure review". Adventure Gamers . Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  8. Steven Hopper (March 24, 2008). "The Lost Crown: A Ghosthunting Adventure [sic] - PC - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  9. Charles Oneyett (March 24, 2008). "The Lost Crown Review". IGN . Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  10. "The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure". PC Format (218): 114. October 2008.
  11. "The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure". PC Gamer UK : 88. December 2008.
  12. "The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure". PC Gamer : 71. June 2008.
  13. "PC Review: The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure". PC Zone : 77. November 2008.
  14. Alexander Lucard (January 7, 2009). "Diehard GameFAN's 2008 Gaming Awards". Diehard GameFAN. Retrieved January 24, 2009.