which one are you talking about? 1 or 2? Not contradicting just curious =) Your rave review is much a mirror to my feelings of Dark Fall:Lost Souls =)

The first one. I'm currently playing Lost Souls which takes you back to the same area. It's not quite as good as the first I feel because it takes more effort to get anywhere whereas the first game gave you tons of locations from the start and let you uncover more and more. I prefer that approach because it feels more realistic than slowly getting areas opened up to you.

The balance between open v.s. closed areas in adventure games is a hard one. The “closed” approach should prevent by definition the so-called “backtracking”. Backtracking is very annoying in some/most adventure games but in “The Journal” I enjoyed it immensely.
The attention to detail that was mentioned in previous posts, even when, and because of the fact that it has nothing to do with your progress in the main-story, made each visit to the already visited location a treat. To “soak” in the atmosphere of the haunted hotel and post-World War II Britain, and not to play but to live through this game, to get immersed so deeply, for me was something that I have not experienced for a long, long time.
“Dark Fall - The Journal” buries the “pixel-hunting” (the main curse and culprit for the decline of the adventure genre) and brings forth in the spotlight the non-linear and multi-layer narrative and artist/audience interaction that we used to associate with other game genres and art-forms.

I am first-and-foremost an adventure game fan, and this is one of my all-time favorites.

I love Dark Fall, both 1&2 (hated 3). You just got hints of the characters through letters lying around and everything, yet I love the characters. They are so well fleshed out and interesting, and of course the plot is awesome too. There's so many details, both with characters and backstory, I love it. This was also one of the first games that I thought of ghosts, not as zombies trying to kill you, but just confused beings that were ripped violently from this world before their time. These ghosts didn't try to kill you, and I actually fell deeply for them. (I felt the 3rd game ruined the characters; don't get me started).

So yes, I would put "Dark Fall: The Journal" in my Top 5, and "Lights Out" amongst my Top 10 favorite games of all time. I love Jonathan Boakes' other games, besides Dark Fall 3, and yes.

Oh, and Lights Out, I loved too. I didn't feel the characters as deeply as the first one, but I loved exploring the lighthouse, and the giftshop. <3 So full of love for these games.