First impressions of The Dark Meadow: The Pact for Tegra 3

While there are a few treasures to unearth on the Tegra Zone, this online showcase for the powerhouse Nvidia chipsets still resembles something of a ghost town.

Each new arrival, therefore, is greeted with marked enthusiasm, but the long-awaited port Phosphor Games's iOS survival horror hit The Dark Meadow has generated the most obvious fervour.

Originally, most of the attention was focused on the game's Tegra 3-enhanced visuals. Latterly, mind, the developer's decision to switch to a freemium pricing model for The Dark Meadow has grabbed all of the virtual headlines, enraging members of its devoted community in the process.

Unlike on iOS, there's no fixed-price version of The Dark Meadow available on the Tegra Zone at the moment. Instead, you have to get your spooky thrills through the freemium The Dark Meadow: The Pact incarnation.

So, the question is: does the promise of souped-up Tegra 3 graphics outweigh the rather disconcerting experience of constantly being asked to pay to play?

The first thing you need to know about The Pact is that it's, more or less, the same game as the original Dark Meadow edition. Graphics-wise, it's easily on a par with the iPad version (built on the ever-reliable Unreal Engine 3).

You still wake up in a derelict hospital with no memory of who you are, how you got there, or why you can only navigate by tapping on glowing circles in the floor.

Movement is fixed, but the first-person controls give you ample opportunity to scour the lavishly detailed scenery for clues about your situation (normally in the form of notes and news clippings) and a surprising amount of loose gold and gems for buying and enhancing your weaponry.

The omniscient, desperately unhinged, narrator - who manages to be both hilariously funny and seriously sinister in the same sentence - still pumps out his musings over the hospital's intercom system, though there are a few jarring moments early on where his voice drops out.

In terms of combat, you're faced with a menagerie of bizarre beasties, who roam the creepy corridors in search of the living. The gesture-based control system is still best described as Infinity Blade-lite, and the fact that you respawn from the very beginning whenever and wherever you meet your maker undeniably grates.

Ghost trick

As a tech demo for just how far mobile gaming has come in the past few years, though, The Dark Meadow: The Pact passes with slying colours.

It's worth downloading just to spend an hour or so pottering around, and marvelling at, the lovingly crafted environments. The use of realistic lighting and shadows to illuminate the otherwise bleak setting is impressive in its own right.

Whether you're willing to stick with it beyond this, mind, depends entirely on how deep your pockets are and how willing you are to empty them out.

Progress in the freemium version hinges predominantly on the RPG-like levelling-up of your powers - every fight you win yields XP, and forking out for better weaponry than the weak blade and sluggish crossbow you start out with soon becomes essential.

Weapons, along with power buffs from enchanted amulets and the essential health packs that save you from yet another respawn, cost Sun Coins - more Sun Coins, in truth, than you can easily acquire by collecting gold during the game.

Before long, then, you are subtly nudged to browse the in-game shop for kit. This process, however, seems as anachronistic as the "Hello, stranger" merchant from Resident Evil 4, and it never fails to drain your enjoyment of the game's intriguing concept and well-developed backstory.

The prices are, on the whole, surprisingly steep. The biggest pack of Sun Coins will set you back an eye-watering £34.99 (though there are much cheaper options), while you're looking at having to shell out a minimum of £10 just to get enough weapons and kit to discover all of The Dark Meadow: The Pact's secrets.

Still, when explaining its new pricing model, Phosphor Games did stress how it takes its "community very seriously, so please let us know what you think!"

So, if you do want a fixed-price Tegra version, you know whom to call.