Posted on: November 22, 2013
TMIMeej
Verified ownerGames: 41 Reviews: 3
Awesomely bad? American horror story?
I remember playing this game soon after it came out. Sierra and Roberta Williams had set out to create the first game (a) with a dramatic horror story for adults and (b) using actors and full motion video technology. Not a total success on either account. The "adult" story is the kind you might encounter in a B horror movie. You play the female half of a young heterosexual couple, a successful writer whose photographer husband pushes the idea that they should move into this big creepy mansion. One look at this place and you'd guess it was haunted, and the previous owner is like part-wicked magician/part-six wives of henry viii/part-serial murderer? What's more, the bad vibes are really affecting your husband (early on I remember joking that the game was really just about a couple with martial problems). Gameplay consists of exploring the mansion with lots of rooms that are inaccessible until later in the story, piecing together the place's history and what's going on. You also make some trips into town where you meet helpful locals. The game starts out slow (and feels like its full of potential), but as more gets revealed things get increasingly cheesy. An irritating feature of gameplay is that it makes liberal use of event flags where you need to do something in particular in order for time to pass and for the story to progress. Sometimes you have no idea what's holding you back, and it might be a matter of like checking the liquor cabinet to see that your husband's been hitting the sauce. As for the actors and the full motion video. Well... there's a reason they don't make games like that anymore. During normal gameplay characters look super-imposed on backdrops. And some of the acting is quite hammy. It's hard to take it too seriously. I'm ragging a lot on this game, but if you like the idea of playing an interactive B horror film (Roberta would hate me calling it an interactive movie) it's worth buying on sale and spending some time with.
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