Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Chaosium Digest Volume 08 Number 02
Chaosium Digest Volume 8, Number 2
Date: Monday, October 10, 1994
Number: 3 of 3
Contents:
Review: Alone in the Dark 1 (Matthias Walder) CALL OF CTHULHU
Review: Alone in the Dark 2 (Larry Barry) CALL OF CTHULHU
Review: Hound of Shadows (Jason Williams) CALL OF CTHULHU
Review: Lurking Horror (Ville Lavonius) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
In this Digest are the Call of Cthulhu Computer game reviews which
have been long promised. Thanks to the people people who submitted
these reviews, for first writing them up, and then patiently waiting
for them to appear while I collected everything together. If anyone
has any other opinions, reviews, etc of these games, feel free to send
them this way. I'd also like to include a review of Shadow of the
Comet in a future issue of the Digest, if anyone is interested in
writing one.
Shannon
--------------------
From: "WALDER" <matthias.walder@medizin.uni-ulm.de>
Subject: Review: Alone in the Dark 1
System: Call of Cthulhu
Short review: PC-Game 'Alone in the Dark', 1992
-----------------------------------------------
Matthias Walder (walder@rzmain.rz.uni-ulm.de) 8/94
Story:
The game is set up in an old house, where the investigator (choice at
the beginning of a female/male one) tries to uncover the secrets of
what happens there. The former owner of the house had hung himself
for unknown reasons.
As soon as the game begins in the upper area of the house, it turns
out that some strange, occult and cthulhoid things are happening.
Players will soon meet Ghouls, Nightgaunts and other Mythos-related
Monsters. And, the classical reality goes more and more down the
drain as you move downwards in the house, trying to get out and
survive!
Game engine - handling:
The game changes between the several views of the rooms. It's both
good and strange that the perspective of the player is always
changing. You see your character walk from forward, behind, above and
below.
With the return-key, you can go into a special inventory/action menu,
where you can use items, choose to open/close something or fight.
At the start of the game several Mythos-related Monsters appear (like
Ghouls, Nightgaunts). Some of the lesser ones can be killed via
combat, which takes place in the normal views. It's sometimes hard to
do it because of the many different views you see. The mightier foes
must be overcome by special actions you do with the several items,
helped by hints that you gain in the game.
And, what would a Cthulhu-related game be without Mythos books? Yes,
they are hiding some hints, but you'll be able to see what happens to
investigators when they dare to read some special mighty, dark, old
foliant!
For players of Call of Cthulhu, I have to say that the game hasn't much
to do with the principles of this RPG...
All in all, I have to say that I like the game very much. It's
sometimes more like watching a movie than playing an actual game.
So take the time around midnight, darken your room and try to stay
alive in this house full of dark corners, hidden cellars and sinister
sounds.
Ratings (IMHO) from 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent):
- graphics : 8
- sound : 9
- gameplay/engine : 8
- story : 9
- Cthulhu relation : 9
Greetings and have much fun! Cthulhu Fthagn! Matthias
--------------------
From: barry@cgs.c4.gmeds.com (Larry Barry)
Subject: Review: Alone in the Dark 2
System: Call of Cthulhu
Alone in the Dark 2
A Review
"You are Detective Edward Carnby, and your reputation as a sleuth
drawn to the dark side has made you famous. Your life has become very
comfortable and while you could ontinue to relax in your plush office,
you yearn for adventure...
"Suddenly, you receive a call for help from an old friend, Ted
Striker. A little girl, Grace Saunders, was recently kidnapped on her
way home from school. This child is the heiress to a vast fortune and
her grieving parents are prepared to pay any rasom demanded. It is
almost certain that she is being held captive in an old mansion known
as Hell's Kitchen, the headquarters of One Eyed Jack, ruthless leader
of underworld crime, and his gang of bootleggers.
"Grabbing your coat as you head out the door, you briefly consider the
dangers ahead of you: bloodthirsty gangsters, murderous pirates and
vicious smugglers. "That little girl needs my help if she's going to
get out alive," you remind yourself as you plunge into the night...
alone and in the dark, again."
Or so states the introduction of I*MOTION's 'Alone in the Dark 2.'
Alone in the Dark 2 (AITD2), is a computer role-playing game for the
PC with a strong Call of Cthulhu feel.
The basic plot is outlined in the introduction above. It seems pretty
mundane, but as most Cthulhu player's know, what starts out to be
mundane doesn't always end that way. Carnby is confronted by all
sorts of puzzles, mazes and monsters. Most of the enemies tend to be
the undead sailors of One Eyed Jacks crew. Carnby confronts these
enemies armed with all sorts of goodies he finds around: Tommy Guns,
Swords, Frying Pans and many more.
In the game, you move a 3-dimesional Carnby around the screen. The
graphics are excellent. The characters grow and shrink as they move
about the screen to give the whole game a good 3-D feel.
The game as a whole has a strong Cthulhu feel. Each screen is 'shot'
at different angles (from above, tilted, sidways, and many classic
horror movie angles) lending to the horror feel. It almost feels like
they story boarded the whole game first. The game includes digitized
sound (if you have a sound card) that greatly enhances the game.
Personally, I like to shut the music off so that I can hear the creepy
sounds better.
I think the best testimony I can give for the Cthulhu/Horror feel this
game gives it the following: My financee was interested in the game,
so I quickly taught her the basic movement functions and actions. I
then proceeded to dim the light. Shortly there after, she actually
let out a screan from genuine fright! She loves the game. It scares
her.
I would highly recommend AITD2 to all Cthulhu gamers out there and
anyone who likes classic horror.
Technical Stuff:
Requires:
An IBM PC 386 DX / 486 recommended
25 Mhz mimimum
2 MB RAM
256 KB EMS
VGA 256-color graphic mode
14 MB Hard disk space
Mouse
Optional:
Sound Blaster (100% Compatible), The Sound Source,
AdLib (and Compatible)
Microsoft WINDOWS 3.1 or hight.
I think there is also a CD-ROM version of this game.
[a Review of Alone in the Dark 2 also appears in the newest White
Wolf, issue #47. take a look if you're interested in seeing some
screen shots of the game.]
--------------------
From: <LCPL=JASON=L=WILLIAMS%G6%1MARDIV@nwsfallbrook3.nwac.sea06.navy.mil>
Subject: Review: Hound of Shadow
System: Call of Cthulhu
This will be kind of quick. I played Hound of Shadow a couple years ago,
so I'm going to give you what I remember.
The Hound of Shadow (ECA I think)
---------------------------------
This was a game put out about 3 or so years ago, the first one I found
to be based on H.P. Lovecraft's writings, Cthulhu to be exact.
Unfortunately, once played, it was not what it proposed to be. It
starts out with an option for either French, English, or German. It
goes on to a mouse-driven character creation done in black and white,
with very Victorian graphics. From what I could tell, it looked like
it was set in Gaslight.
Gameplay is where it hits its downfall. It consists of static black
and white pictures that change every once in a while, while the entire
game (or as far as I got) is a text adventure. You start out in
London? and are set off on your merry way.
Now, for the player who enjoys a good plot, vs great graphics and no
plot, this is a fun game. At least that was my opinion. But then,
this comes from a man who still enjoys 6 year old games. I'm not
exactly sure how true this game is to HPL or the Cthulhu Mythos, but
if you can find this game, and fit the computer gamer I described
above, go ahead and give it a shot. I liked it.
Jason Williams
1st Marine Division
HPL freak
[Frederic Moll also wrote a few things on Hound of Shadow. He said "I
was interested in writing a review about 'Hound of Shadow' but I've
sold my Atari STE on which I played it 2 years ago and lost the notes
I've taken during play. Anyway, I enjoyed this game, with its black
and white graphics, and a fun process for creating characters. It may
seem a little obsolete now, but I would like to see it again on our
moderns PCs (or other computers). The ambiance was well rendered and
very faithful to CoC play. Just as a final note, I've used the
intrigue of this game as a starting scenario for the campaign 'Horror
in the Orient Express'. In fact, it started as an improvisation for
dilettantes in London and ended as an all-night long play."]
--------------------
From: Ville Lavonius <Ville.Lavonius@cs.Helsinki.FI>
Subject: Review: Lurking Horror
System: Call of Cthulhu
Lurking Horror by Infocom (owned by Activision)
Available for most computers
(PC, Mac, Amiga on Lost Treasures of Infocom vol. I)
Infocom, which these days exists only as an Activision label, is most
famous for Zork, the first ever mass-marketed text adventure and their
adaptation of Douglas Adams' Hitch-hiker's guide to the Galaxy. They
went from strength to strength in the early and mid-eighties, amassing
award after award for their imaginative adventure games. Then a bad
business decision forced them under the wing of Activision, and the
creative juices ran dry.
Surprisingly, it took Infocom ten years to branch into horror. Most
other genres of literature had already had the interactivization to
happen, but it took until '87 before horror turned into a text
adventure.
Lurking Horror is a story about a lone student's battle against
otherworldly evil at the GUE Tech (which bears more than a little
resemblance to MIT, where most of Infocom luminaries graduated). The
campus is mostly deserted one gloomy winter night when you're in the
computer lab, finishing up a paper. All of a sudden you're pulled
through the screen into a dream about a black mass. The only friendly
individual present, a hacker, is unable to shed any light on the
mystery and you set off to find out what is going on at the campus.
On your travels you find a sacrifical altar in the tunnels below the
buildings and encounter menaces from a teenaged thief to a winged
beast (hunting horror, anyone?) before finally meeting the evil entity
behind it all. The game is not very difficult, and quite non-linear
at start, so you have multiple avenues for exploration. The Amiga
version had, as an added bonus, some very effective sound effects.
The PC version is sadly silent. The famous Infocom packaging is
present also, as copy protection serves your student ID card, and for
fun there's a brochure for freshmen entering the GUE tech, and a
rubbery plastic centipede. Unfortunately, the Lost Treasures package
was produced with minimal cost, and the material is reproduced only in
B/W (and they left out the creature, too).
The game is not 100% kosher Lovecraft, but contains a fair share of
shambling masses, re-animated hands and other fun. Also, try asking
the characters in the game about Lovecraft...
The old version of the game was relegated to discount bins in software
stores years ago, but you might get lucky and find it. The Lost
Treasures package is a real bargain (20 mostly very good games for the
price of one), but it has become increasingly difficult to find.
[ObPlug: My own debut interactive fiction novel / text adventure,
Field Trip - ARCH689, should enter betatesting in a month or so, and
be published (freeware) "way before christmas". It's a story set on a
Miskatonic University expedition to Jordan, but as to the actual
cthulhoid content, you can never be too sure whether it is real or
just a product of delirium. Sized at around 400k, and available on at
least PC, Mac, Atari, Linux, Suns and others.]
Later,
--
Ville.Lavonius@Helsinki.FI ministry*farside*infocom*biohazard
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/~lavonius/ jyhad*lagavulin*tarantino*spelljammer
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's
Games. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to:
appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The old digests are archived on
ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be
retrieved via FTP.
