Waxworks

I didn't know of this game until I stumbled on a video of its death scenes on YouTube, and was fairly surprised how graphic they were. Shortly after, I found GOG and discovered that it was for sale here - given the very reasonable prices and no DRM, I decided to have a go at a new-old game for a while. The game starts you off letting you pick which of four sections to solve in any order you choose, each set in a different time period playing past members of your family with a different nemesis to confront; your evil twin at the time. The story is slightly junky and is more of an excuse to go for the split time-periods and situations, which are actually very cool and a great idea employed quite well, so it's easily forgiven. The way the game has been split up allows for some good creativity and experimentation in the game, with each section playing quite differently to the last. The Pyramid waxwork is very trap and puzzle based, the Victorian work is based around avoiding confrontations, the Graveyard being the opposite and very combat heavy with the Mines waxwork playing like a point and click Resident Evil game, complete with ammo depreivation. The Victorian waxwork is based around the premise that your evil twin of the time was Jack the Ripper, which I thought was a very nice touch and gave that scenario a lot of atmosphere. The graphics are fine for the era, with the odd rough part but are mostly clear and moody. The death scenes especially are very graphical and probably gain more power than they otherwise have because of their graphical style, especially in the mines where the ways to die are exceedingly grisly. Sounds are few and far between but are pretty good, however the music gets repetitive and the instrumentation is very low-fi and harsh. While this is great for the death scenes it's too much for the general play and will probably get the volume-down treatment. The Graveyard and the Pyramid especially are most at fault for this. It's really a shame as it's arguably the only fly in the stylistic ointment of the game. Gameplay is where the game is truly unique. The first person viewpont and the point-and-click adventure style works well here, and it shows that there was a good amount of thought put into the game flow. The puzzles are logical and dont need leaps of mental faith ("try every combination" syndrome) as infamously seen in point-and-click games from time to time, but the exploration element brought on by the first person element means that the puzzles are mostly superficial and are based about being to locate all parts of a jigsaw puzzle. Despite this I wasn't lost for what I should be doing or looking for next in the game, and was free of the feeling of frustration brought on by no clear route forward. The way the game is laid out also changes the impact as after each stage your items and stats are reset. This means that the developers were free to experiment with different formulas for basic gameplay as mentioned before, and this kept the game feeling fresh. What didn't work as well was the combat system. The game keeps up an experience counter through each level, which boosts your health and your combat skills slightly as you progress. This would have worked well if there was something for it to worth with. The combat system is a simple affair of repeatedly clicking on the enemy until it dies or you die, which is just not all that compelling, and it is a wasted oppurtunity to make combat more meaningful and worked into the game better than it currently is, where it stands simply as a mildly annoying distraction from your task of locating items and solving puzzles. It's made a sadder fact by the only real experimentation with the system in the Graveyard work, where you can hack off the head and limbs of zombies in any order you wish, and it shows that if a little more work was applied to making combat more involved especially in the Pyramid, then this could have been far better woven into the game. Each section took me about an hour to two hours to complete; length is not a strength in the game but it was very enjoyable experience indeed. All things considered, more than worth the money marred by a combat system in need of improvement and some weak music.

Waxworks is a first person point and click adventure game made by Horrorsoft, known also for the Elvira: Mistress of the Dark games, which are cited as spiritual prequels to this game. As such, the gameplay and graphical style (right up to the grotesque death scenes) is quite similar to the two Elvira games. However, there have been many, many improvements in this game that puts it miles ahead of the Elvira series. For one, the addition of keyboard controls in this game make navigating the mazes much easier than in previous incarnations, where you were forced to use the mouse controls almost exclusively. In addition, the gameplay itself is much smoother and less prone to totally unavoidable deaths. In previous games, there are numerous times where just walking down an unmarked hallway would result in death, whereas for the most part there are marked traps that can be avoided. That is not to say that dying is not an issue here; you WILL die a lot in this game. So much so that you'll probably have to stop and save every few minutes so that you don't lose your progress. As far as general gameplay progression is concerned, it's much more streamlined and your objectives are, for the most part, pretty clear. You're going to run into a lot of items in this game, but when it comes time to actually use them, it's pretty clear exactly what items need to be used when, something the previous titles hadn't quite gotten right. None of the puzzles require needless amounts of trial and error, and don't suffer from "try using *insert random item here* and see if that does something" syndrome like many adventure games do. That is not to say, however, that the game is perfect. One major nitpick is the cumbersome combat system that was implemented in this game. While an improvement over previous titles, it still leaves much to be desired. Battles are still very much hit or miss, and often times you'll find yourself having to reload your last save file because you missed one too many times. Luckily combat is only majorly emphasized during one portion of the game, and is an afterthought during the rest. The way combat usually goes during each portion of the game is that you'll find yourself getting killed a lot early on in a level, only to find yourself overpowered and killing enemies in one hit after a bit of exploring. The worst flaw, and one that keeps the game from excelling, is that there are many ways to actually break the game in such a way that it prevents further progress throughout the game. I actually had to restart entire levels over again (after having spent a good hour or two playing through them the first time) just because something happened (unbeknown to me) that blocked me from going any further. For example, there is one level in which you are traversing a mine overrun by plant-like aliens. Among the many traps, there is a runaway mine cart that you have to stop by dropping a wooden support beam in its tracks. If you don't know that you're supposed to stop to cart and instead run out of its path, the cart will stop at the end of the track, which just so happens to be blocking off the only way out of the mine. In addition to that, if you drop the support beam in the wrong spot, it could possibly block off another hallway, with no way to get around. There are several game-breaking moments throughout the game, and it will happen without warning and often you'll find yourself wandering around not even knowing that there's no way to progress. If it weren't for the above flaws, this game would have definitely gotten a much higher score from me. It's an immersive and interesting game marred by a cumbersome combat system and a few game-breaking errors. Pick it up if you're willing to look past its flaws, you'll find it's actually pretty good.

If you like the specter of death hanging over your head at all times, running from zombies, monsters, egyptians, the police, etc... Then this is definitely the game for you! Gameplay is simple; by era, do whatever your uncle tells you to, be it rescue the princess, kill the vampire, or any other task. Yet the variety of environments keep the game fresh. Be forewarned, though, this game is definitely not for children...it's gory depictions of death either by the main character or anyone that dies make it stand out among the horror genre. DEFINITELY worth every penny.

I never heard of this game before it hit the coming soon list here at GOG. During its time there it created some buzz around the forums and it got me interested. The game has various waxworks each with its own story, enemies, music and style. I really enjoyed the music of the game. It has some catchy tunes that will stay stuck in your mind. The stories are really creepy and the settings also. Even though the graphics are really old they work really well for this game. The enemies and environments look great and the deaths scenes are quite gory. Speaking of enemies, I did not like the combat very much since its mostly by chance that you hit leading to many deaths. On the bright side of combat, the enemies take battle damage showing cuts and sometimes even loose limbs. The game can be very unforgiving since if you do something wrong with an item you have to start the waxwork from the beginning. This can be a bit frustrating. My recommendation for this is to have 2 saves. One in the lobby and one for the waxwork progress. Overall I liked the game and even though it got a bit frustrating at times I wanted to know what happened next. If you want a challenging and creepy game this one is for you.