Sacred Line Genesis by Sasha Darko
Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
Digital Distribution through
www.sashadarko.com
Review by Michael Crisman
his earlier
I don't know about you,
but I'd be pretty upset if
my sister up and vanished,
leaving me
responsible for running
her failing Eastern
European detective
agency. Fam ily is family, and poor Ellen is
bound and determined not to let her sister
Sarah down, but unfortunately bills are higher than
income, and Ellen's prepared to
hang up the 'For Sale' sign. Until she
receives the
mysterious phone call, that
is.
With no idea who is on the other line, or
why he would call her in particular, Ellen
decides to give this private investigator thing
one last go-around. She agrees to take a
trip into the woods in search of a particular
log cabin. Ellen herself isn't sure why she's
doing it. Maybe it's just hope...hope that her
sister's still alive, hope that this could be the
key to bringing her back home. Oh, Ellen. If
only you'd disconnected the phone line a
day earlier. You wouldn't be in this mess...
Sacred Line is a visual novel for the Sega
MegaDrive/Genesis,
written
and
programmed by Sasha Darko, and based on
Windows
game of the
same
name.
Being a VN, it
doesn't rely on action sequences or sophisticated graphics to get its point across.
It plays much like a Choose Your Own
Adventure story, where your options are
limited to produce a streamlined story where
success is not a guaranteed outcome, and
death lurks around every corner. If you're
not familiar with the genre, it's very much an
acquired taste. Gamers who dig the idea of
immersing themselves in a story without
having to memorize confusing controller
layouts, on the other hand, will feel right at
home.
That said, Sacred Line is most definitely a
straight-up horror game, and not for the
squeamish.
Violence, death and gore
pervade the scenes (at least as well as
Sega's machine can render them), and the
text is filled with descriptions of the sadistic
and grotesque. Early on in the story, Ellen
finds herself wading through a foul river
tainted with blood, excrement and body
parts from what has to be the biggest,
longest, nastiest blood orgy in human
history, and that's one of the tamer bits.
Mature gamers only, please.