Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle

by Got Game

Product Features

• First person non-linear point-and-click adventure
• Solve puzzles using real archaeological techniques
• Spellbinding storyline
• Intricately detailed graphics
• Haunting soundtrack

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000088NQB
• Item Weight: 9 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: August 15, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,170 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

The eerie Cornish landscape springs to life in Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle, a haunting mystery adventure game for the PC. A detailed and spellbinding story and organic puzzles are woven through the very fabric of Barrow Hill, leading you to explore well trodden pathways across the land, seek clues in almost forgotten shrines, unearth ancient artifacts, and delve into the Celtic legends which haunt the green lanes of the hill.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great game!, September 1, 2006

By 

Shash "Shash" (Coon Rapids, MN United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle (CD-ROM)

I give this game a 5 star rating - the game was engrossing and logical, but very free - you weren't forced to do A so that B would happen, and then allowed to move on to C. While there were some elements that needed to happen in a certain order, it wasn't the driving force behind this game.

Great graphics, very spooky environment, great audio. I even liked the voice acting.

It reminded me of Myst, in that there is a puzzle to solve, and you are given all the clues you need to solve the puzzle. It wasn't nearly as scary as Scratches, but more along the lines of the Darkfall series.

As an added bonus, there seemed to be no glitches or bugs in the program, and I didn't need any patches to run this on XP. The interface was very easy to use, and it was easy to install and start playing fast.

I hope more adventure games are made like this one, it was great!

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Horror Mystery, November 4, 2006

By 

wysewomon "wysewomon" (Paonia, CO United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle (CD-ROM)

Conrad Morse, a noted Archaeologist, has received permission to excavate the mound at Barrow Hill, a site in Cornwall that has remained undisturbed since its construction in 2500 B.C.E., according to local legends. A mysterious force seems to surround the mound, as former attempts to survey the area have resulted in disapearances. Morse's excavations have drawn the interest of the press as well as aroused the ire of several conservation groups. Matters seem about to come to a head, and on the night of the Autumn Equinox they do--but not in a way that any might have dreamed. That night you--an unnamed character with an unspecified role--are driving down the Barrow Hill road listening to the radio when, shortly after sunset, your car stalls. Behind you, some sort of forcefield prevents you from returning the way you came. Your only choice is to go on, and in the process, solve the mystery of Barrow Hill.

Barrow Hill is a lovely 1st-person slideshow game in the style of the Dark Fall series (no wonder, as Jonathan Boakes and developer Matt Clark are sometime collaborators). The action takes place in a relatively limited area, all in the course of a single night. As your surroundings are mostly deserted, you have to rely on collecting inventory and clues to find out what has happened and heal the breach that is allowing a dark force to run ramampant in the area. MOst of the puzzles involve accessing locked or blocked areas and putting together information.

Despite the dark subject matter and the literal darkness of the screen, I did not find this game quite as spooky as it might have been. Some things startled me, but I never felt personally threatened. Of course, I never encountered the large glowing stone that, by most accounts, is capable of bringing your explorations to an abrupt end. I have heard that these encounters are the result of not having completed tasks in one area before going on to the next, so I think making a logical exploration of central areas before proceeding to peripheral ones may be a lifesaver in this game.

Sounds effect and music are understated. Sometimes you'll hear a spooky chord that seems to herald a momentuous event, only to have nothing really happen. You hear quite a few birds, but don't see many. Voice acting was quite good, however. I especially enjoyed the many amusing commercials you could hear on various radio stations.

Collecting inventory was mainly easy, barring one or two pixel hunts and a few places where I had to get a hint because I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for. Collating information was more complicated, partly because you could not keep the many documents you found during the course of the game. This made taking voluminous notes a necessity. Also, there were a number of red herrings: notes that seemed to have no bearing on the case and items you could interact with that didn't have any purpose. It was easy to get bogged down trying to do something with these items other than pick them up and put them down again. One puzzle seemed unnecessary, because by the time I solved it, I had already figured out what the clues it contained revealed.

I found the ending a little abrupt and disatisfying. Once you solved the final puzzle, things happened very quickly. There was not a lot of time to look around the last area you came to. I also was left wondering about the connections between some of the elements; I wasn't quite sure who were the good guys and who were the bad. A cut scene at the end seemed sort of tacked on.

All in all, I enjoyed this game, which took me maybe 10 hours to complete. It had a level of complexity in the puzzles which I have found lacking in many inventory-based games, and the plot line was engaging and well thought out. My main critique is that I wuld have liked to have seen some of the elements developed more. However, I look forward to more games from Matt Clark and company.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something wicked this way comes..., June 5, 2007

By 

Sarah - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle (CD-ROM)

A barrow is an ancient burial ground, often in the form of mounds of earth or with standing stones such as Stonehenge. England is dotted with these ancient sites, labeled as "tumuli" on maps. In 18th century England, digging up barrows was a favorite hobby of the educated, resulting in damage of the sites.

Cornwall, the southwestern tip of England, has a rich history of barrows. In Barrow Hill, a team of archaeologists is proceeding on a dig of the local barrow that features seven mysterious stones. The barrow has been left undisturbed except for the building of a service station and motel nearby, but once the team begins excavating, an ancient evil is unleashed on the land. The barrow in the game is based on Looe, Cornwall, and features parallel structures such as an ancient pagan well, barrow, swamp and service station.

Creator Matt Clark has put a phenomenal amount of time and energy into doing justice to the barrows and Cornish legends, and as a bonus there is a link to a webpage talking about the history of Cornwall, barrows, and the making of the game (I was expecting something more polished from the blurb on the back of the box). Clark was aided on Barrow Hill by horror master Jonathan Boakes, creator of Dark Fall: The Journal and Dark Fall: Lights Out.

I had difficulties installing this on my Windows XP laptop; I had to try four or five times, as each time I would begin to install, the installer would launch another copy and freeze completely. My perseverance finally paid off, though, and once I'd launched the game, I didn't encounter any bugs, crashes, or freezes.

The game begins with a grainy black-and-white film of you driving along the Cornish country roads as night begins to fall. There is a sense of dread as local radio personality Emma Harry talks about the onset of the Autumn Equinox, and dark clouds race ominously across the sky. Suddenly, your car goes dead, and you're stranded in the middle of a dark forest. But are you alone? There are strange rustles and cries from the bushes, and you're certain that something's watching...

Barrow Hill is a first-person slideshow similar to Myst in format. You advance one screen at a time (no 360-degree panning here), which can be terrifying when you're crashing through the undergrowth with only a weak battery flashlight to light the darkness. The photorealistic graphics are based on thousands of pictures of the Cornish countryside. The architecture of the few featured buildings shines, from the ruins of an ancient chapel to the worn-down service station. Little touches make each screen come to life, and there are innumerable close-ups of objects just for exploration's sake (which can be confusing at first trying to determine if it's a hotspot or not). Also like Myst, you'll soon discover that Barrow Hill is devoid of people other than yourself and one or two secondary characters that you interact with only briefly. Where has everyone gone? What happened to the archaeological team? Why are there idling cars with no occupants?

The sound deserves special mention, as thousands of ambient sounds were recorded in Cornwall to add to the authenticity, including the chirp of the Cornish cricket. The soundtrack is sparse but effective, underscoring moments of danger or discovery. Voice acting is satisfactory, if a bit melodramatic at times.

On your quest, you're aided by several high-tech gadgets, including a cell phone, PDA, GPS, and a metal detector. All of these tools play a part in your quest to restore balance to the barrow. There are plenty of well-scattered clues to the nature of your task, informative background reading in the form of pamphlets, diaries, and mock websites, and many locations to explore.

The puzzles are inventory-based and generally intuitive. You pick up only what you need to aid you on your quest, and once you've used it, it disappears from inventory. The journals and gadgets left behind by the team give you plenty of fodder to consider your next move. You can die, and if you do, you're placed one step before your fatal mishap.

The biggest achievement after the outstanding sound and graphics is the immersive atmosphere of utter dread...although not gory, you constantly feel hunted by the sense that something evil is looking over your shoulder, from creepy voices on disconnected telephones to ominous smoldering piles of ash next to idled vehicles, or the crash of something following you in the pitch-black woods. My only disappointment was in the super-brief ending that didn't seem to resolve much of the detailed storyline that had unfolded throughout the game, but in Barrow Hill it's the journey, not the destination, that counts.