The Story of Castlevania: The Adventure

The earlier Castlevania games typically didn’t offer much of story and the same goes for Castlevania: The Adventure the only hit of a storyline is given in the manual.

Count Dracula is far older than anyone imagined, and for as long as he has been in existence he has had one single purpose. To send the world into into darkness and chaos. He has been stopped several times by the Belmont clan., especially Simon Belmont. But before Simon humanity had an other protector in Christopher Belmont, Simon ancestor, who during one dark night stormed Dracula’s castle to rid the world of his evil.

This is the gist of the storyline presented in the manual. There is no in game storyline at all, no dialog, and no other indication why Christopher Belmont is facing the countless horrors of Count Dracula’s castle.

The Visuals and Audio of Castlevania: The Adventure

Considering that Castlevania: The Adventure was made for the Game Boy expectations of beautifully rendered graphics should be set aside. The game is 2D and presented like other Game Boy games in black and white. The background images of each level is so so, border lining dull and boring since you spend the majority of you time running on brick surfaces. Once in a while it shines, like when you are running across a bridge in a huge cave, or when fighting a boss fight. But for the most part I found the visuals uninspiring to the point of just being efficient even compared to other Game Boy games.

Generally the animations of in the game is nice. Especially when Christopher cracks his whip at both enemies and candles alike, however his movement seems to be a bit lacking while jumping since it just looks like he is crouching in mid air.

Castlevania:The Adventure Another fight

The different monsters are quite varying in quality. In the beginning of the game at Stage One you met a creature that form from a drop and it looks quite cool when they emerge. However not all monsters look that nice.

The graphics of the general creatures are acceptable however its not always possible to tell what the are supposed to be or look like, due to the way they have been made.

The music of Castlevania the adventure is on the other hand great. This should come to no surprise to fans of the series since it has been a trademark of it since its start and even though a Game Boy isn’t exactly the best media for music it has been implemented quite well.

The rest of the sound and normal sound effects of the game is fairly unremarkable.

The gameplay of Castlevania: The Adventure

By now it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Castlevania is a 2d action platform game and the same goes for Castlevania: The Adventure. However even considering the early Castlevania games reputation for being ridiculously difficult and frustrating.

Catlevania: The Adventure takes the price but more on that later.

You control Christopher Belmont as he moves from the left to the right or sometimes up and down through Dracula’s castle. Christopher can jump, duck, and slash his whip.

Chrstopher Belmont moves,turns,and jumps slowly so timing is everything

He looses health on contact with monsters or their missiles once all health has depleted Christopher dies.

During the adventure you will find different things from whipping the candles found around Dracula’s castle. The following items can be located:

• Coins (Serve no other purpose is to increase your score)
• Crosses (A Cross makes you invulnerable for a period of time)
• Orb (Orbs upgrade your weapon)
• Boss Orbs (These have a darker color than normal orbs and is only found at the end of a stage)

Christopher’s whip can be upgraded 2 times. When you get the first orb the range of his whip becomes longer and there is a big ball at the end of it. The second upgrade lets you shoot a fireball when you whip letting you damage enemies from afar.

I did notice that the final upgrade didn’t seem to do as much damage as the second upgrade, since some monsters only required 3 hits with the 2. upgrade and 4 with the fireball.

This leads med to why I find Castlevania: The Adventure to be the most frustrating horror game of the entire series:

• For some reason Christopher Belmont is incredible slow in everything he is doing. Being it jumping,turning or walking.
• The platform jumping puzzles requires you to position your Christopher absolutely 100% correct, unless you wish to fall to your death.
• Loosing health results in you loosing your weapon upgrade.
• The whole of stage 3 is spent running away from instant kill spikes.

The Horror Feeling of Castlevania: The Adventure

Well lets be honest Castlevania: The Adventure isn’t a game the provides the greatest scares, well maybe if you are a kid of 10. For my part the only thing thats scary about the game was how unforgiving and frustrating it was.

I will admit that I didn’t complete the game without cheating a little. I played the game on my Nintendo 3DS and I was forced to use its save state function, quite a bit in order to complete it. With my limited platform skills I doubt I would have been able to complete it without doing so.

But despite the frustrations encountered when playing the game. Castlevania: The Adventure is strangely addictive and I am not just saying this because I have masochistic tendencies, but because the game play actually well once you get used to it.

Castlevania: The Adventure isn’t a game, I would recommend, to anyone who wishes to experience the horror of fighting through Count Dracula’s castle. First reason is that there are far better Castlevania games out there which offers more story and creepier music. Second reason is that the they will be less frustrating and more fun. However if you wish to challenge your skill, patience, etc. this game offers the correct challenge.

The Story of Deadlight

In Deadlight a virus infection has spread all over the world. People infected by the virus turn into  the living dead, or shadows as they are called in the game. The story follows Randy, a former park ranger, now one of the few survivors left after the apocalypse, as he travel through the destroyed city of Seattle looking for his wife and daughter. They got separated during the outbreak and now he assumes they are at a safe point found somewhere in the city. But the shadows is not the greatest danger Randy faces, the living is.

The Sound of Deadlight

The sound effects in Deadlight are quite sparse, compared to other horror games. Most of the time the only sounds you will hear is the wind howling through the empty city, the dripping of a broken water pipe, as well as the sounds of the Shadows lurking about, and your own ramblings. The lack of music is a good thing, since it really helps make the entire city feel like a desolate no mans land, where the slightest mistake can mean you death.

There of course sections with music but these area’s are few and far in between and mainly used during some of the games action pieces. Like when Randy is being chased by a chopper and has to escape. These set pieces creates plenty of tension and works pretty well. The cut scenes on the other hand features more music that is present in game, and the music used fits the scenes quite well.

The voice acting is generally very good through the entire game. I was especially impressed by how the main character Randy was voice since he sounded just cold and rough enough around the edges to be a believable survivor in a world like that show in Deadlight.

and the main character Randy is especially well voiced. He sounds just cold enough and rough enough around the edges to be believable. I also think that the over all voice acting is quite good, especially from the main character Randy, who really sound just cold enough and rough enough around the edges to be believable.

The Graphics of Deadlight

However even though Dealight has great sound and a cool story the thing that makes this 2d horror adventure really shine, is its graphics. Deadlight has some of the most moody and effective graphics I have seen. Ever lever is presented in 2d, but you don’t actually feel like you are playing a 2d game since each level in the game offer a tremendous amount of depth. In one level where you are running across a highway you see crashed cars both in front and behind the path Randy is taking across the screen. This feeling of depth is further enhanced by zombies emerging from the background to attack you.

Deadlight: Sneaking Past Living Dangers

There isn’t much coloring in this game since most of the areas of the game is kept in black and white shades. This is something that really helps the game provide the player with feelings of despair and loneliness. There is a great variety in levels and each of these has their own theme.

The way the characters move in this game is another great thing. Randy’s movements look fluid and a the way he is animated makes his movements almost realistic when he climbs around the buildings in the city. The same goes for the shadows, moving half fast yet fairly clumsy, like they are in a trance. Shadows cannot climb, but they can still follow you across a car. Basically they crawl on top the hod of it. Stand up, walk to the end of the hod and fall down on the other side. It is a great looking effect.

The cut scenes in Deadlight are also nicely made. They consist of hand drawn stills images that look like something taken out of a cartoon. It offers a great contrast to the rest of the game since these are typically kept in black, brown and white. The only other color the becomes present is Red to draw blood. I think the cartoon style cut scenes are a refreshing alternative to the full 3d cut scenes that we have grown so used to in games over the last couple of years.

The gameplay of Deadlight

Since Deadlight is a 2d sidescoller the primary task of the game is to get from point a to point b. This is not always as simple a task, as it seems to be, because there might be a number of obstacles in your part. These obstacles could be simple things such as boxes, locked doors, ledges, broken paths, or the even more dangerous kind such as hordes of Shadows that are constantly lumbering about, trying to find more “food” to eat.

Since Randy isn’t immortal and doesn’t have many weapons, confrontation with the shadows should be avoided. To accomplish this Randy can taunt the shadows to come closer to where he is standing so he easily can jump over them and escape. Another way to get the best of the lumbering dead is to use the environment. Such as getting shadows to stand beneath falling objects etc.

However these small “puzzles” where you have to use the environment are few and the “puzzles” presented are often very easy.

Once you start getting weapons in the game confrontation with the shadows stays mostly is the same. It is still preferred to avoid them. The first weapon you get is a fire axe which Randy can use to take down zombies. But swinging the heavy axe requires stamina, which depletes with each swing and killing a zombie depletes it almost completely. This makes the weapon near useless when facing multiple opponents. So should the situation come up, just attempt the cowards solution.

As you progress in the game you also get guns, which makes killing shadows significantly easier. However guns have a downside. They make noise and noise can and will attract other shadows. And if that wasn’t enough this game isn’t a shooter so ammo for your weapons are limited.

Now I have written a lot about the combat of Deadlight and actually it isn’t that big a part of the game, since most of the time you will be climbing and jumping from roof top to roof top in order to get through the city. Most of these jumping puzzles are fairly simple and the game is forgiving enough if you make a mistake. It is actually almost so forgiving that the game at times seem too easy. This is both a good and a bad thing. Bad because it doesn’t feel challenging and good because it keeps the game flowing at a fast pace making it seem more hectic than it really is.

The Horror feeling of Deadlight

WWell honestly Deadlight isn’t a scary horror game, but it doesn’t have to be since it makes up for what it lacks in scares by providing a very moody and almost melodramatic take on the zombie apocalypse theme.

The graphics and the background sounds carry this feeling of loneliness and despair well. From when you start playing to the finish line you are stuck with the feeling that mankind is faced with complete doom and that it is only a matter of time before the few survivors finally give up and decide to use their last bullet on themselves.

This feeling is further enhanced by the tragic yet half predictable storyline of the game. A story line which other reviews has criticized but I actually like it and think it is fitting for a game of this type.

Deadlight is a short game, it can be completed in a few hours of concentrated playing. I think it took me around 5 or 6 hours while I attempted to find everything to find in the game. The short length of the game is a downside since I would have like it to be a little longer, but I also think that had the game been longer it might have gotten tedious.

All in all I think Deadlight is a great game that offers a cool visual experience and a really tragic dark picture of how the world would look after a zombie apocalypse. So if you like zombie games, and wish for something different that just a generic action shooter such as left for dead this is that game to go for.

The Story of The Dark Eye

Now it is difficult to tell anything specific about the story of The Dark Eye for a number of reasons:

• Telling to much will ruin the experience of playing the game.
• You don’t just play 1 story but four different ones and in 3 of these stories you play both the part of victim and offender.

However The Dark Eye revolves around a single unnamed main character, who slowly descends into madness, during a visits to his uncle Edwin. As he experiences nightmare after nightmare, his sanity is slowly taken away from him until a final horrific truth is revealed.

The Graphics and Sound of The Dark Eye

The graphics of the Dark Eye is presented in first person where you move around the your uncles house clicking from screen to screen. Generally the house and the different nightmares are quite beautiful looking. The House looks like it has been neglected for quite some time and most locations in the house are fairly empty except a few location which is important to the main storyline. One such location is the living room on the second floor which holds a sofa, a coffee table and a piano.

The nightmares is a different matter all together, in these the graphics are more varied offering a wider verity of colors and there are more items to view and click, as well as more characters to interact with.

Both the graphics in the house and the nightmares offers the appropriate mood and feels right for a setting which deals with human sanity.

Another thing that helps the games visual is the uniqueness of its characters. Every character in the game is a doll animated using stop motion, and since the character design is special this gives a unique, fairly mysterious, and creepy feeling which actually improves the creepy feeling that the game attempts to bestowes upon the player.

The Dark Eye is a very static game, since there is almost no in game movement from the characters you meet. When it happens you are typically presented with a more or less none interactive cut scene. This is not something the ruins the game however I would have liked that there was a little more animation since it helps the game world come to life.

Sound and music is used quite effectively through the game, both to underline the setting, as well as to underline each characters emotional and mental state. The same goes for the voice acting which is effective and provides just the sense of dread and mystery which one would expect from a story of this type.

All in all both the graphics and the sound of The Dark Eye is great. The voice acting is not the best in the world, but it helps the game and its different settings more than it spoils it.

The Gameplay of The Dark Eye

Calling The Dark Eye a horror “game” might be stretching the concept of gaming a little, since the gameplay of this title is minimalistic.

Basically all you do in the game is click from screen to screen trying to activate key events of the storyline you are playing. These events are simple to activate since it just requires a click on an object and if it has some significance to the storyline you will be given a short cut scene consisting of either some dialog or some kind of internal monologue of the character you are currently playing.

Of course this simple approach isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it will give you the opportunity to focus on experiencing the story instead of solving countless of puzzles along they way. At least that is what it ought to do, sadly that isn’t always the case in The Dark Eye, since finding the key events that makes the story move forward can be quite a chore. It is quite frustrating when you need to pass through a room several times, going through all possible locations not activating anything, and then on you 5th attempt accidentally turn you character in one of the locations and you suddenly found a trigger. The presence of the trigger at specific location was not hinted or indicated in the game at all.

On the good side I can say that the game offers some non linearity since you can complete each nightmare in any order you see fit. However the individual storyline of each nightmare as well as the main storyline is quite linear, and there is only one way to complete them once they are started.

So since the game has been built this way and interaction is limited, I would go as far as labeling this horror game as being more of an interactive movie than an actual game.

The Horror Feeling of The Dark Eye

Even though The Dark Eye feels more like an interactive movie than a game, due to its simplified gameplay, it is still a horror game that offers a chilling experience while you play it. Each separate nightmare which helps plunge our main character further into the depths of madness offers a unique and hair raising experience.

Playing the same nightmare as 2 different characters might not sound that interesting, since the second time around you already know the story, but it actually works quite well, since you get “into the head” of the character you are playing. Besides there is a strange satisfaction in getting to play a character that you just killed in the previous nightmare.

However even if the different stories are great and the gameplay simplistic, The Dark Eye is unfortunately without flaws. One of the biggest ones, as I see it, is its gameplay elements. One should think that a game with such a simple gameplay should be able to make it perfect. But having to franticly click around a room several times only to accidentally turn at the correct moment in order to active a dialog with a character, in an otherwise “empty room”, is frustrating to say the least and in my humble opinion far from perfect.

The Dark Eye is a great horror game or interactive horror story if you like, and its well worth the short time it takes to play it to the end and experience its stories.

The Story of Doom

Doom doesn’t offer much when it comes to in-game story but it does contain a rather simple story line which can be found in a readme file. You are a Marine stationed on Mars as a security officer for the UAC. Something goes terribly wrong and you fellow marines are sent in for the rescue leaving you alone at the base, after sometime you hear gunfire, then screams on the radio, and then silence leaving you as the sole survivor to deal with this threat. The setting and the storyline was reused in Doom 3.

The Sound and Music of Doom

The sound of Doom isn’t the most interesting when compared to games today. Doom has no speech, no ambient sounds and the monster sounds, the sound of gun fire or weapons, and environmental sounds are quite simple and reused for more than one type of weapon or monster. But back in 1993 these sounds where impressive and extremely effective and I have to admit that they still are. The guns sounded as correct as I could have been imagined back when the game came out, and the different doors sounded like one would expect doors to sound in a space station. The sound of monster was and still is satisfying creepy and spooky especially if you cannot find the monster but can hear that it is some where in the vicinity. Effects such as explosions are also done quite well and the death sounds and splattering of exploded zombies are still quite satisfying. But the thing that really helps this old horror game get some of its scary mood is the music. The music in Doom is nothing sort of impressive considering that the game is from 1993. The music is both manages to create a flow in the action as well as helping the game seem even more creepy. All in all I think the sounds and music in Doom is perfect an even though its simple compared to present day games it still manages to be effective at creating a horror mood

The Graphics of Doom

Now Doom has been released for many different platforms and its properly the game which has been ported the most times, and as such there might be differences in the graphics quality from version to version. The levels are nice crafted in 3D and offers some great lightning effects for a game this old. The first room you enter when starting the first level is a great example of this where the room is dark and you have enemies standing in the center where you have one of the three small areas with light in the room.

Doom: The beginning

Furthermore when you combine these dark rooms with all the different corpses you see on the ground in a more or less molested state, it offers a great mood. This effect only gets better as you get further in the game, and eventually get to areas with corpses on stakes, half eaten legs hanging down from ceilings etc. All in all the graphics really help make this game a horror game, and making it creepy and gory. There are however still sections where I feel the graphics could have been more interesting and this is especially when you get to levels in hell. Here the walls are made from Red blocks and basically it looks like all the rest of the levels except for the color. Still all in all the graphics in Doom are impressive when you consider its age, and it is most likely one of the reasons why this game still seem a little spooky today.

The Gameplay of Doom

Well since Doom is one of the first first-person shooter horror games the gameplay is fairly simple. Basically the object of each level is to get from the start point to the exit point of the level. Of course there are obstacles in form of locked doors that requires a specific keycard and a variety of different enemies’ creative enemies that attempt to kill you at almost every turn. In order to combat the different enemies our lone marine has a number of weapons at his disposal

• Hands
• Pistol
• Shotgun
• Chain gun
• Plasma Rifle
• Rocket Launcher
• BFG 9000

Each weapon is different and offers both advantages and disadvantages, for instance the Rocket Launcher has killed me just as may times as it has saved me, since shooting rockets through an open door can be hazardous to your health especially if you are standing too close to the door and it closes before the rocket has gone through it. Most of the weapons sound great except maybe the chain gun which feels like you are running around with a repeater pistol since the sound it make is almost identical. Of course you cannot, well maybe you can if you are better than me, go through Doom without taking a hit. To that end the game offers health packs and armor to help you. There are also a number of power ups which can be found such as mega health which offers 200% health or a backpack which will allow you to carry more ammo for each weapon. Some of these power ups require you to find hidden and secret rooms since they typically aren’t easily accessible. So all in all our sole marine will eventually be well equipped to deal with the dangers he face. All in all the gameplay in Doom is very addictive and fun, and the simplicity of the gameplay makes it a game that’s easy for anyone to pick up.

The Horror feeling of Doom

It has been a long time since I found Doom to be creepy or even scary. Mostly I think this is due to the fact that I played Doom a lot in during my earlier game year, but when I think back to the first time I played it, I remember it as being extremely scary. I remember I got some nasty shocks whenever you activated something and it opened a secret room full of demons that stormed out and attacked you. So yes I still have fond memories when thinking back to the days spent running around the Mars base being scared of the pixelated graphics, the addictive music, and the demon sounds. I remember carefully sneaking around the Moon base trying to anticipate when the next scare would come, and all of the sudden a demon would be up on me and chewing my face off. The gameplay was simple yet complex enough to keep the game interesting even after the first play through. The second time around you would try to locate as many secret rooms as possible. So all in all a very classic horror game that might not scare anyone today, but back then, man this game was creepy

Doom Gameplay

The Story of Resident Evil

After the loss of contact with S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team, who was sent to the outskirts of Raccoon City to investigate a series of strange happenings and murders, ALPHA team is sent in. It quickly becomes apparent for the team that something isn’t like it’s supposed to be when they find BRAVO team’s crashed helicopter. The only other thing they find is a severed hand. While trying to search for more clues ALPHA team is attacked by strange creatures and flees into a nearby mansion.

This is basically the information you get in the intro of the game. The rest of the story is told through cut scenes and by discovering different documents etc. when you travel through the mansion.

The Music and Sound of Resident Evil

Sound in horror games is important and this is thankfully one of the places where Resident Evil really shines. The game switches between using background music in some rooms to using non in others and to switch music depending on what is happening. The music is generally quite creepy and offers the right kind of underlying mood for a game of this type. It basically gets underneath your skin and gives an unsettling feeling and when the sudden shifts in music happen during action scenes you almost jump by surprise. The same goes for locations where there is no background music, here the lack of music builds up tension and you automatically start expecting more horrors than is actually present.

Besides the music you will hear sound of gunfire when shooting enemies, and the sound of your character walking across the floor. All of these sounds work well even though the sounds of steps seem a little hollow, but works. You will of course also be able to hear the different creatures as they walk around moaning, barking etc. The sound of eneimes also helps build up the tension since it’s not always you can see the thing you are up against but you can hear it.

So all in all the sound in Resident Evil is great and really helps bringing the horror into the game.

But, there is always a but!, the voice acting and the dialog in the different cut scenes leaves much to be desired. I would actually go as far as claiming that it is downright the most horrifying part of the entire game. Granted I can’t do better myself but these scenes almost ruin the mood entirely and generally seem comical. Of course many games from 1997 had horrible or bad voice acting and considering the age of the game I find it acceptable if not a little comical .

The Graphics of Resident Evil

Resident Evil follows the classic formula of third person horror games as they were seen in the earlier days. Characters and Monsters in the game are 3D and placed on a satic background with a fixed camera angle. As you move around the camera changes position if you get to the edge of the current view.

The 3d models of the characters look quite nice considering the age of the game, and both the zombies and the other creatures are creepy enough. Especially the Zombie Dogs looks quite creepy with the rib cage showing.

Resident Evil: Dialog in the hall

The different rooms or backgrounds also looks very nice, and offer great deal of detail, as well as a lot of mood. I actually thought that one of the best looking rooms was one of the first rooms you enter which had a statue in the middle. But that is not the only room that looks great mostly all locations offer nice graphics, except maybe the catacombs which you enter later in the game.

The creepiness of a room or a location is further enhanced by the position of the camera which usually has been placed in order to archive the most dramatic effect possible for each location, and most of the time this works quite well but sometime it creates problems but more on that later.

Most of the cut scenes are shown with gameplay graphics but a few, such as the introduction of the very first Zombie offers a short movie clip which is very well done and quite creepy or was when I played it the first time. The graphics are basically nice, effective and gets the job done.

The Gameplay of Resident Evil

Once this horror game starts you have to choose which of the 2 S.T.A.R.S. ALPHA team members you wish to play as. You can choose between Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield. There is a slight difference between the characters. Jill has access to more firepower than Chris at the beginning of the since Jill starts with a gun and Chris only has a knife. There are other more subtle difference such as Jill having lockpicks which gives her easier access to certain rooms, and she has a larger inventory. Chris on the other hand is tougher and can take more punishment from enemies than Jill.

The other small difference is that Jill gets more help from the Berry during her mission where Chris is more or less alone. Other than this there is no difference in story or gameplay between the two characters.

You could say that choosing Jill represents the easy mode and choosing Chris is the hard mode.

Even though people tend to claim that Resident Evil is an action horror game with the main focus on the action part. I would dare to claim otherwise. It is true that there are Zombies and other creatures that will attempt to eat you, but dangerous creatures are also found in games like Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark. Resident Evil is very puzzle orientated horror game, and most of the puzzles require you to find or move different objects to in order to gain access to new areas of the mansion. Some of the more complex puzzles serve to make some of the boss fights easier.

The Puzzles are not overly difficult and they are often fairly logical in nature which means that they are easy enough to solve when you have found the correct hint or item.

The Controls of Resident Evil

The game is played from a 3rd person perspective as you move around the mansion trying to discover what has happened. The controls are acceptable but I still think that they could be better. Since whenever you get in combat all you can do is turn, you cannot move and it wasn’t before resident evil 5 moving while aiming became possible. The second problem with the control is that the character actually turns quite slow, so if you are making a quick escape from an area you will be running into walls etc. while trying to follow the corridor you are in.

However the controls are only a problem in the beginning once you get used these small quirks controlling your character and dodging monster becomes second nature. But even though you might be at one with the controls you are faced with another problem which is the camera angles.

The game uses pre-rendered static backgrounds which has a fixed camera angle. The angle you view the scene in is often positioned so it will give the most dramatic effect possible for the scene and even though this gives a great effect visually it offers a problem when playing the game since it can be hard to determine how far a particular enemy is from you or you can experience a sudden shift in camera angles which causes you to only have a visual of you own character of you can experience while feeling an enemy that a change in angle camera angle in the next scene causes you to run right back at it.

Of course this is also something that you get used to and it’s a minor problem since it all helps bringing out the horror mood of this great horror game and the primary focus of the game isn’t actually the action it is the exploration of the mansion.

Remakes of Resident Evil

Resident Evil was as already mentioned the first game in the series and it has seen 2 different remakes. One which was released for the Nintendo DS as Resident Evil: Deadly Silence and one which was released for GameCube, Wii.

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence

This remake of Resident Evil for Nintendo DS doesn’t offer that much change from the original. The story is the same and the gameplay also stays mostly the same. Deadly Silence features 2 different play modes, classic and Rebirth mode.

Resident Evil Deadly Silence

Classic mode offers the same experience as the original, with the only change being incorporating the use of the Nintendo DS touchscreen. The Rebirth mode on the other hand offers some a game with more monsters, new puzzles and the addition of first person action sequences where you have to fend off incoming monster by slashing them with the knife. This is done by slashing the stylus over the touch screen.

A few other enhancements were made to the gameplay in both modes, such as the ability to make 180-degree turn. But fundamentally it remains the same game.

Resident Evil (Remake)

Resident Evil was released in an enhanced version for Nintendo GameCube and later Wii was has been called Resident Evil: Remake or Resident Evil: Rebirth by fans properly to be able to tell the game apart from the original.

Resident Evil Remake : Fighting a Zombie

This new remake of this great horror game offered lots of improvement. Firstly the dialog was rewritten causing most of the ridicules dialog to disappear. Secondly the graphics where improved significantly. Thirdly new gameplay elements was added in the form of defense items as well as new areas to explorer.

I will not go too much into detail here and now since this remake of this classic horror game will be given a separate review. But if you wish to see the difference between the two games take a look in the video section of this review where we have included the intro for the original as well as the remake.

The Horror feeling of Resident Evil

Let me start by saying that Resident Evil is a still a great game even when played in its original form today 16 years after its initial release. It is game that offers survival horror with a capital S. The game might not have broken any new ground, the voice acting might have been horrendous (Which by the way is the case) but it’s still a classic and a great horror game, that will be able to scare players.

When I first played Resident Evil it was the PC version and together with a friend. We would take turns at controlling the character during our investigation of the mansion and even when we were just looking at the other one playing we would still be totally captivated by the story and the action. Of course we held each other with the puzzles and we both had plenty of fun and scares. I remember when we first entered the corridor where the dogs jump out through the display both of us shirked like a couple of girls. We played that game the whole night not being able to let go and go to sleep before we had finished it.

My second time through the game was recently and for some reason I remembered most of the locations and some of the puzzles from the previous time. Which made the game a little less scary but it still managed to be spooky and a little scary since I didn’t remember everything.

Basically what I am trying to say is that Resident Evil is a great horror game, and it’s the game that started this long running series and even though better Resident Evil games has been released later this is a game that any horror fan ought to play at least just for nostalgia.

Resident Evil Intro

Resident Evil (Remake) Intro

The Story of F.E.A.R.

In F.E.A.R. you take on the role of an unnamed character called “Point Man” who is a newly introduced member to the F.E.A.R unit (First Encounter Assault Recon). This special unit is tasked with dealing with, and I assume also covering up, paranormal threats.

When a experiment involving an army of mind controlled clones goes wrong, and their test subjects suddenly turn on their developers, the F.E.A.R. unit is called in to deal with the threat.

The Sound of F.E.A.R.

The music in the game is great, it  switches between being spooky or hectic depending on whats going on around your. If you get into a heavy gunfight, you might be present with a hectic adrenalin pumping score , and when running through the slower areas of the game, the music underlines the spooky feeling which the game is trying to instill.

The sound of the gun fights works great, and once it gets hectic, you will hear gun fire from your own guns, as well as the wizzel of bullets as the fly by you hitting the wall gives a satisfying clunk once they hit.

Besides the music and the sound during gunfights you will also hear the internal chatting of the clones as the walk around the compound looking for you. This you will also hear during gunfights, where the clones will utter different tactical commands to each other, such as “He is trying to flank” or similar. They might even express something which can be intrepid as being fear when you surprise them, which is a part I don’t quite think is logical since they are mind controlled clones, and the only difference between them and robots is that they are made of flesh.

Anyway the sound is great. Everything from gun fire to music fits almost perfectly into the individual scenes, and the voice acting is generally very good and the bad gay sounds quite creepy.

The Graphics of F.E.A.R.

When F.E.A.R. came out if offered some very nice and fairly effective graphics, I am not sure if they where top of the line but it was close. The different levels offered a variety of indoor and outdoor environments  with some areas shrouded in darkness and others lit up. You will when you play the game see the usual amount of rooms which either have flickering lights or is completely shrouded in darkness as is expected of a horror game. The lightning is well done and offers a great effect as you walk into the different rooms. I particularly remember one room which had closed blinds in front of a great window, and entering the room after a gun fight and seeing the light from the hallway shine through the half ruined blinds looked great.

Another thing to notice in this game which wasn’t seen very often at the time is that you character is fully modeled. You are not just a bobbing head running around. If you look down you actually have feet and a body. Which was great but also resulted in higher graphics performance required.

Mostly the areas you are in looks great, though some of the outside areas might seem a little boring in the beginning since it seems like you are spending your time running around empty container yard, but further in the game the areas both inside and outside gets more interesting.

F.E.A.R. : How did I miss at that range

However it is not so much the graphics of the surroundings the impressed me when I first played this horror game. It is actually the graphics during gun fights, especially the hectic ones. During these fights bullets are flying everywhere , and stray bullets that hits walls will result in parts of the wall being ruined, causing a cloud of dust to burst from the spot that was hit. This can in close quarter combat result in an entire room being covered in it. Of course the clouds dissipates over time, and even though there might be a little too much at times it still made me feel like I was playing through a movie.

Using “point mans” special power to slows time down a little also create a great graphical effect as you run toward and dodge rockets and bullets in order to get in close and do a jump kick on an opponent. Combat basically looks great in this game.

Gameplay of F.E.A.R.

Well since F.E.A.R. is a first person shooter horror game, the main thing you will be doing in this game is running around and shooting people and “things” while attempting to reach your current mission objective. Combat is primarily against the army of clones but at the later stages in the game other more creative enemies also appear such as ghost looking shadows as well as special cloaked unites which are a little creepy.

Combat is such a central part of this horror game, that it sometimes distracts from the horror. However the good news is that Combat is a very satisfying experience in this game. The firefights are hectic and at times quite panicking since the enemies you face are quite smart and attempt to use cover as well as simple tactics such as flanking you, or attempting to get behind you when they out number you. You basically have to act fast or you might be faced with certain death.

However in order to make this fast paced combat easier and cooler “point man” has an extra ability that heightens his reflexes, which in game terms means that you enter a slow-mo mode where you run slower but turn and look at normal speed. This helps making aiming at enemies significantly easier and you will able to dodge enemy bullets as they come flying toward you. Since the enemies are fairly good you will be using slow-mo a lot. The slow-mo ability depletes when being used and when used up you cannot enter slow-mo mode until it has refilled again. Thankfully you ability recharges when you don’t use it and it doesn’t take that long, but it still can be quite catastrophic being forced out of slow-mo mode in the middle of dodging a bullet storm from 3 clones as well as rockets from a Mech.

The Structure of F.E.A.R.

This was my second or third playthrough of this horror game and I noticed something funny about the games build up. For the majority of the game, except a few exceptions, the game’s two main elements the horror and the combat has been clearly separated. The combat offers danger and the possibility of being killed, while the horror segments only offer more storyline and very very seldom offer any form of danger to your character. Furthermore just before each horror element, all combat dies out, and you are left wandering the badly lit corridors and rooms by yourself for a quite while before the horror segment kicks in. These switches works in the beginning but since F.E.A.R. is a lengthy game eventually this way of preparing the different horror elements result in them becoming a fairly dull experience because you can interpret when they will occur.

Toward the end of the game the two elements gets woven better together and you start to experience quicker switches between the two elements but they still end up feeling like 2 separate parts of the same game that never really meet in order to make a whole until the very end.

The Horror feeling of F.E.A.R.

When I played F.E.A.R. the first time, right after it came out. I was totally captivated by the game and its story and I thought it was very scary. But my recent play through of this horror game, actually made me wonder what it was that scared me so, since this second time around didn’t offer that much. I actually blame the structure of the game for this since before each spooky element there is a certain inactivity around you character which sort of hints that something out of the ordinary is going to happen and this almost ruins. Still the little girl is creepy when she appears but it doesn’t quite have the same effect, when you are expecting it.

Anyway the central part of the game isn’t the horror its just a setting and as such it works fine. The central and most important aspect of F.E.A.R. is the action and these parts works well both during the first and second play through of the game.

I guess the difference in the way I feel from the first to the second play through of the game is not that unique, since I know the story or at least the parts I remember and even though its a couple of years since I played the game the first time I still remembered huge parts of the game. So even though I am whining a little about the game being boring and not that scary keep in mind that when I first played the game it was one of the coolest horror games I had played that year.

Even though I found the story very very scary during the first time I played the game. My initial opinion of the game was that the action and not the horror was the main reason to play this game. I thought the story was good and the ending offered enough of a spooky cliffhanger to be interesting. Now after my recent play through of the game I still feel that the horror is a minor part of the game. OH yes it has a horror story, but the main thing in this game is the action and the action is however great.

F.E.A.R. Trailer

The Story of Resident Evil: Survivor

The outbreak of the T-virus that happened in Racoon City wasn’t unique, a similar incident happened on the Umbrella corporation controlled island of Sheena. As you are attempting to flee the island by chopper when an explosion causes you to loose control of it an it crashes.

Waking up after the crash you have no memory of who you are nor what you where doing on the island in the first place. You wake up near the crash site having to fend for yourself in a world filled with Zombies and worse things. You now have to find a way to escape this infernal island as well as find out who you are and what your purpose here on was.

The Graphics of Resident Evil: Survivor

Resident Evil: Survivor offers first person graphics, with 3rd person movie like cut scenes. The first person graphics lack some detail but they are effective in setting the mood. The coloring of the different areas are mostly greyish, with occasional objects being coloured differently, such as wooden tables and chairs, slot machines and grass.

The fairly dull colouring might not make the game look fantastic, but it really helps give the whole game a feeling of hopelessness, decay and despair, which in the end actually works toward the games advantage in my opinion.

Resident Evil: Survivor Getting Attacked by Dogs

The same goes for the monsters in the game and they look quite creepy even-though they might lack the same detail as seen in present horror games, they still manage to provide a creepy vibe. Zombies look like zombies, with their their face half eaten away, undead dogs run around with a open ribcages etc. All the details are there. The only creatures that I felt that failed to look creepy in this horror game was the “Licker” which looked more like a red locust than the actually creepy monster with an exposed brain like it did in Resident Evil 2.

The Sound of Resident Evil:  Survivor

The sound effects in this horror game is a little of a mixed bag in my opinion. Lets start with the voice acting, which I find to on almost the same level as the voice acting seen in Resident Evil. Well okay maybe I am not fair here its a little better but not much. The Guns sounds are there too but the magnum doesn’t sound that different from the gun you get in the beginning, only gun sound that actually feels a little powerful is the shotgun which I felt had the correct sound.

Other than the this the music in the game is acceptable, especially during some of the many dramiatic cutscenes there is in this Resident horror game. The sound background music and ambient like, wind sound which is present during most of the game actually helps build up quite a lot of tension when playing the game, and is perhaps one of the games most effect sound feature.

The Game: Resident Evil: Survivor

When I first played Resident Evil: Survivor I expected the game to be an arcade shooter with little to no interaction other than shooting hordes of incoming zombies and monsters. Thankfully the game did not live up to my expatiations.

The game is controlled from a first person view point, where you can move your character by using the d-pad. Pressing square while moving up causes you to run. Items are picked up automatically by passing over them or facing them in the case where the item is located on a table or similar. The different items and journals you have picked up can be accessed in the inventory screen by pressing the start button.

Once you encounter Zombies or other dangerous creatures you press the right button to aim and use x to shoot. The default weapon you have equipped is a pistol for which you have unlimited ammo and it is needed. Of course you will find different and more powerful weapons as you proceed in the game. Among those you will find a shotgun, a grande launcher as well as the well used magnum pistol. Each of these extra weapons has a limited amount of ammo and you will have to scavange it during play.The fact that only the pistol has unlimited ammo automatically turns it into your primary weapon when facing lesser eneimes or enemies which are harder to hit in order to save your more powerful weapons for bosses and other more powerful encounters.

Of non weapon items that the character can find, you have the usual assortment of keys and the Resident Evil trademark healing plants (green), anti pioson plant(red), and the potensy plant(blue). Each plant offers a limited effeckt which is enough in the beginning but later mixing the plants together becomes a nessecity. Inventory is like the earlier resident evil game limited to 8 items.

The game features no save function or password function, so there is no way of turning off the game and stop unless you want to start over from scratch. This is something that I don’t like since its not always you want to play for a total of 2 – 4 hours depening on how good you are.

The horror feeling of Resident Evil: Survivor

Well I actually think that Resident Evil: Survivor offers a great horror feeling. The game both has the typical jump scares as well as an intriguing story. As you progress in the game the story gets more and more twisted and the different research notes and journals you find along the way offers enough creepyness to make the game scary.

But other than the shooting and a little exploration the game doesn’t offer much in the way of diversity or puzzles. Actually the closest you get to a puzzle is to find the right item which you can hardly miss and finding the correct location where it is used. Even though this might seem a little simplistic it is actually just enough to make the whole game engaging.

Resident Evil: Survivor is a short game, it can be completed pretty fast and there is no possibility to save during the game. I think the first I played through this game I spent around 2 hours completing it.

The short length might be a downside in some peoples opinion but the fact that you cannot save or end the game before you have finished it makes it an okay length in my opinion. Besides had the game been any long it would have lost lot of the horror feeling.

All in all an okay horror game which can be played more than once if you wish to experience alle the different paths through the game.

Resident Evil: Survivor Intro

The Story of Thief: Deadly Shadows

Working for the keepers doing their dirty work, Garrett leans of a prophecy involving a coming Dark Age, Intent on solving the puzzle of the prophecy Garrett leans of another book containing information about the Dark Age and seeks it out. However all is not as it seems with the keepers since there might be a traitor in their midst.

This quote from the intro helps set mood as well as give an idea of the storyline:

Cry, Brethren, for the Betrayer is Come. Your Hands will be Crippled, and you will Perish as the Wretched Outcast in the Bleak Unwritten. And you will know the face of the Destroyer

- Recovered text from The Prophecitus, missing for 132 years

Game Intro Quote

The Music and Sound of Thief: Deadly Shadows

The music and sound of Thief: Deadly Shadows is great and almost perfectly integrated with each other. As you sneak around some nobleman’s fantastic mansion, you will hear your own feet as you step on the different types of floors. Wooden floors will make a soft thud like noise, and the harder the floor the more noise you will make, and the worst is defiantly metal plated floors which if you move too fast will make a clanking noise. It is however not only your steps that are heard, you will hear the steps of the guards subsiding into the distance or getting closer to you position as they move around on patrols. As guards close on your position you are warned by a short damped musical score that announces their coming, and all through the missions you will hear a subdued musical score which follows the mood of the different graphical settings.

Using Garrett’s items is also quite satisfying as using water arrows on a torch gives a satisfying little clink as the tip breaks followed by a whiz of the dying torch. Noise Arrows  send out a noise similar to fireworks, basically everything is satisfying.

The same goes for the in game voice acting which also plays a very central part of the game, since a great deal of the story is told through things you over hear during you heists. Standing still in the shadows listing to a drunk guard ramble on about the  how he has been mistreated by his lord and finally mentioning information about a key or similar obejct is a quite satisfying feeling.

The Graphics of Thief: Deadly Shadows

I like it. That’s it… Thief: Deadly Shadows is a dark game that takes place in the middle of the night – every day. The game can be played from both a first person perspecitve and a third person. I preferred the first person since I felt it as being more challenging and it captured me more.  The graphics are pretty enough for its time, but it weren’t any revolution either. The different areas of the city and the locations where nicely made. The lightning and the over all mood of the graphics really helped bringing this fantasy world that mixes some of the late middle ages with the Victorian era as well as some pulp future steam technology to life.

Thief: Deadly Shadows – City overview

Of course there was some graphical errors from time to time where guards would get captured in walls and I always thought the guards was a little to bendy when knocked out by the black jack. But overall I think the game looked great, and it was properly mostly the lightning, guards would carry torches and when they entered the room their light source would alert you to there presence etc.

However the graphics is not really the important factor of Thief: Deadly Shadows – the gameplay is.

The Gameplay of Thief: Deadly Shadows

• Blackjack: Properly the item that you will use the most since it can knock out unaware individuals.
• Dagger: This is the replacement for the sword Garrett carried in the first 2 games. Best use back stab which kills living opponents.
• Arrows: The arrows is the most important part of Garrett’s arsenal. A number of different ones are avalible:
  • Water Arrows: Use to turn off light sources
  • Broadheaded Arrows: Used for killing
  • Fire Arrows: Can light tourches and kill undead
  • Gas Arrows: Arrows that creats a gas cloud which puts opponants to sleep
  • Moss Arrows: Make less noise when walking by shooting these on the floor
  • Noisemaker Arrow: Lure guards away
• Flashbomb: Make a quit get away as people are blinded, or use the on the undead
• Health Potion: Restores a little of your health if you have had a bad encounter
• Explosive Mine: Well proximity mine would have been more precise blows up if someone gets too close
• Oil Flask: Make slippery traps so people fall down stairs
• Gas Bomb: Works similar to Gas arrows put creates a bigger cloud
• Holy Water: Undead don’t much like this

The horror feeling of Thief: Deadly Shadows

Thief: Deadly Shadows might not feature the same amount of “horror” as other games of the genre, but what it has it does good. The few missions where you creep around in the spookier areas of the game, gets even scarier due to the nature of the game since your nerves are on edge even when robbing a normal house with a few guards, stealing from the living dead becomes an extremely tense experience.

The mood and atmosphere of Thief: Deadly Shadows and The Thief series in general for that matter is really dark and it sometimes makes the living guards seem even scarier than they are and the situation more intense, than the living dead does in other games.

It’s the originality in this game, the unique stealthy maneuvers you have to plan, the plot of the story and a good fun that makes it all work so damn good. Thief: Deadly Shadows is an absolute must play game and now would be a perfect time to do so as we are waiting for Thief 4*.

*  Thief 4 was announced back in 2009. Today there haven’t been anything new on the horizon but it surely must come soon.

Thief: Deadly Shadows

Story of Last Half of Darkness II

Well there wasn’t much story in the original Last Half of Darkness and the sequel follows this trend by continuing where the story ended in the original. The short version of the story is this:

You wake up in a strange house and have no idea of how you got there. The girl you just saved is gone, leaving you all alone.

The Graphics and Sound of Last Half of Darkness II

This the second game in the trilogy features improved graphics. The first noticeable thing is that the interface has gotten a face lift, now each section of the screen is separated by a grey border with green vines on it. The second thing that you will notice is that the game uses more different colors, gone is the only black and blue imagery. The fact that different colors has been used in the different rooms is both a positive but also a negative thing. For instance one of the first special rooms in the dungeon has been held i a red hue, which gives it a surprising amount of mood. However the dungeon in it self has been kept in gray and light gray colors which after you have been lost in the maze for a while becomes amazingly dull.

However I still think that, all in all, Last Half of Darkness II offers some nice graphics I just think its a shame that so much of the game takes place in the maze which is the part where the graphical presentation is the most boring.

Last Half of Darkness II: Maze

The sound of Last Half of Darkness II is almost a rudimentary as that of the original. It is still limited to an intro melody, as well tune that plays when you get killed. Besides the few music scores the game also features limited speech, such someone saying “goodbye” when you die as well as the title be read out aloud in the beginning. The game also offer more sound in game like moaning and laughter, though its not something that actually improves much on the experience.

The Gameplay of Last Half of Darkness II

The Last Half of Darkness II uses the same engine as the original first game, so its played the exact same way. The simple a quick version of how to play game is choose your action, then choose what to use your action on. Moving around from screen to screen is accomplished by clicking the exits available in the exit box. The main difference between the 2 games in the game experience, where Last half of Darkness was interesting and a little intriguing, the sequel manages to be full of frustration due to the beginning maze in which you can spend a lot of time, and once you get out of the maze the game is almost over and depending on how fast you can solve the maze and the final 2 – 3 puzzles the game could take you anything from 20 minutes to 2 hours to complete.

The Horror feeling of Last Half of Darkness II

Well the second part of The Last Half of Darkness series, doesn’t offer nearly as many potentially interesting or spooky/mysterious moments as the first. Both games suffers from age and are no longer scary. However I do think that Last half of Darkness II even with the “improved” colored graphics is a worse game than its predecessor since in the first game you at least didn’t have to spend 80 % of the game running around in maze and getting killed by a dog. Once through the maze the game picks up some of the charm it lost in the beginning and even manages to offer a mini game in the form of a black jack competition you have to win. But in my opinion it’s too little too late, since the game is almost done at this point.

Last Half of Darkness II features a number of instant death situations, like in the first game, but unlike the first game the instant death situations gets frustrating very quickly due to lack of progress with the maze in the beginning.

I would recommend Last Half of Darkness II only for nostalgia and if you really want to complete the whole series, since this second part, in my opinion, is far inferior to the first part.