Hazen: The Dark Whispers

* [i]Sigh[/i] * Me and the dark side of [b]Steam[/b] again... But well, if you know me at least a little, you know how much I like [b]ARPG[/b]s. Well, I like pretty much all genres (yes, I'm one of those people who like [i]everything[/i] as long as it wants you to press buttons), but there's something about [b]ARPG[/b]s I find especially pleasant. Not as pleasant as point-and-click adventures, but what matters here – I love the genre and I played tons and tons of games in it. Even those barely known by human beings in our part of the Galaxy. Naturally, I didn't want to miss this one. Just because it's an [b]ARPG[/b]. But as long as you're not like me and don't aim for beating each and every [b]ARPG[/b] out there? You shouldn't play this one. Seriously, you consider buying it? Just stop reading and remove it from your cart. It sucks. End of the story. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's take some time and go into some details. First of all – this game is bad. Wait, did I already say that? OK, I did. And still, this game is [i]bad[/i]. But no matter how bad it is, it's not a scam. In other words, it isn't [b]Grind Zones[/b]. Isn't one of those games that were supposed to look OK …

TL;DR : I would rate this game at 3/10, play it ONLY if you want to play ANY RPGs ever released. O.K. I went through this ordeal and actually finished it. Played with a mage. Completed in 9 hours with a lot of useless running around to check things out, out of curiosity. So you could finish it in 7 hours or even less if you don't waste time in (optional) dungeons and follow the main quest, all bosses (even the final one) have simple mechanics, you won't miss 1 level or 2 to beat them. Everything is mediocre to bad : graphics, sounds, settings, level design, very short field of view (fog at 20 meters), extremely weak character customization, very generic scenario (a villain archdemon wants to destroy the world), very generic dialogs ("you are a hero, you must follow the path to the darkest evil and follow the Light from your heart"). A lot of glitches, some bugs (lost interface a couple of times), crashed three times to desktop, you can't alt-tab, mispellt words (e.g. the Archangel's name in quest announcing you defeated the final boss, is Gabriel but text says "Garbriel"). Some finished quests will stay in your log as unfinished. You'll sometimes feel the real "game" is about under…

Hazen: The Dark Whispers, developed by Dagger Games and published by Strategy First, is a fantasy hack-and-slash action RPG that arrived on Steam in 2010 with the ambition of launching an episodic saga. Marketed as the first chapter of a larger series, the game set out to deliver fast-paced combat, character customization, and loot-driven progression within a dark medieval world. However, despite its aspirations, it ultimately remains a standalone release, as subsequent episodes were never produced, leaving The Dark Whispers as a self-contained and somewhat incomplete experience. At its core, Hazen adheres to traditional action RPG conventions. Players guide their character through compact maps filled with undead creatures, demons, and hostile beasts, engaging in real-time combat while collecting weapons, armor, and consumables. The control scheme relies heavily on point-and-click movement and attacks, reminiscent of early 2000s dungeon crawlers. Leveling up allows players to allocate stat points to strengthen combat abilities, and equipment upgrades serve as the primary means of enhancing survivability and damage output. On paper, these systems echo genre staples such as Diablo-s…

UPDATE: march 2025 Sadly, after advancing in the game, it begins to crash to desktop in a couple minutes or whenever you try to save the game. Unplayable for me as it is. --------------------- WHAT FOLLOWS DOESNT APPLY ANYMORE: old, 2022 I positively *loved* this game. Finished it with a happy smile and will always remember it fondly, play it again sometime. Now, the not so fine disclosures and caveats: 1- From Pineville on, some saves can fail to load, *as least for me*, making me load an older save, and try to not quit the game till I arrived at a new place via teleport. Thanks the heaven I *always* backup the saves (when the game keeps only one) of all my games regularly as I play. So in a failure to load I just past over the last save I kept. C:\Users\your user name\Documents\Hazen\Profiles\you player name\saves. 2- Being 67 y.o. and somewhat slow now, I hacked it to death. As you can't use Cheat Engine (alt tab crashes the game), I use free HxD hex editor to look over the savegames in Documents, Hazen ... Save ... (Example, Darkvale.sav). Backup it first!. Found all the Potions and Spell Scrolls and gave me 9900 of each, and gold, gave me 983039. The Scroll of Exp…

What the heck is this garbage? No UI size adjustment option... cursor the size of a gnat. No mouse scroll speed option... gnat moves like a snail... takes lifting my mouse up 4 to 5 times to get it to scroll from 1 side of the screen to the other. And in a game where precision is crucial... No camera controls: AT ALL No key layout control One button to move, one to attack... with no option to change. And the big one: You have to keep R-clicking over, and over, and over, and over again to move. -_- I *tried* to give it a shot... I really did. UI is just too terrible... not even barely functional with scroll speed so low.

Another Action RPG? Why not. yet here are some nitpicks: Mouse pointer movement speed adjustment : false Enemy archers with homing arrows : true General game speed adjustment: false (well, many games portray slow-motion movies, so it is not specific for this game) Playability (in-game movement, interactions, attacking enemies) : below average I do recommend this game, but I also warn you, dear reader, do not set your expectations high, will ya?