Realms of the Haunting

Realms of the Haunting (RotH) is a horror first-person shooter with tons of FMV that did NOT suck. It mixed many genres: first-person shooting (a Doom engine!); adventure (use the string with the duck to make a rocket!); stealth; and other puzzles. One of its special features is actually the Full Motion Videos. Many horror games are ruined by cutscene pace, as if the developers were trying to save money/work/disk space by making FMVs as short and direct to the point as possible. Well, not this one (it was 4 CDs)! The FMVs actually t-a-k-e t-h-e-i-r t-i-m-e, which increases tension since you never know what and WHEN something will happen next and scare the heck out of you. And they use the game graphics as backdrops, so it feels cohesive. Also, I like the main character. He REACTS to the scares very much like you would (well, or you hope you would). He is very low key -- not the ultra macho guy that will chomp everything. He isn't ultra-corageous, but he gets used to some of the scary and weird things that happen, just as you do throughout the game, and faces them. Well, not everything is perfect: -- Checkthescreenshots:this is a 96/97 game, and it looked somewhat dated even then. We are talking about pixels the size of your fist, and a Doom engine which is not really 3D (you can't even look up all the way). But,ifyouareaGOGer,youknewthat. -- Because of the varied gameplay, some portion of the game is bound to annoy somebody, be a hard puzzle, a stealth sequence or an intense shooting section (not me -- by the time the hardest parts arrived, I was fully invested in the game). Want another opinion? Check the crap shoot by Richard Cobbett of PC Gamer UK (watch out for some spoilers after the first few paragraphs).

I've never heard of Realms of the Haunting until it was released to GOG. I bought it and played it through last week and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by its depth, well-designed gameplay, and overall quality. The graphics are pretty good for its age and the levels are designed in a clever way. It is apparent that atmosphere always took priority in game design, but other areas didn't suffer for it. In my eyes the visuals of RotH bear a strong resemble to those of Blood. RotH has a captivating story backed by deep lore and interesting (if a little flat) characters. The game would stand pretty well on its own even if it had only one of its two main gameplay components - advanture and shooter, but it has both and they are integrated perfectly. I've never felt that one side was taking over for the other, and for the most part the player is expected to participate in both. The puzzles range from trivial to challenging, and most of them are logical and entertaining. The game's live action cutscenes are well done for the most part, the only exception being the action scenes which could have used better direction/editing in my humble opinion. I liked most performances though, and I could easily maintain my suspension of disbelief throughout the game. A feature that I especially liked about RotH was the large amount of dialog available outside of cutscenes. Most of this dialog happens when the player character(s) examine objects in the game world, or even from inside the inventory. In some instances you can listen to whole conversations between the main characters discussing some of the items you've found on your journey, if you wish to do so. Controls are a bit aged and not very intuitive for today's gamers, but they can be improved via DosBox's key remapping feature and/or a macro software to allow for a more seamless experience. I say Realms of the Haunting is well worth playing. If you like puzzle or adventure games you won't be disappointed.

The first thing that stand out about Realms of the Haunting is the gameplay, an hybrid between a first person shooter and point and click adventure game, very uncanny and certainly ensure an unusual gaming experience. The only down side is that the artificial intelligence of the enemies is very poor and even the stronger creatures simply don't give you any challenge, there are also several mazes where the game don't provide a map, and since all the chambers looks the same its very easy to get stuck in them for hours. While the story is somewhat cliché for a horror game, the protagonist go into a mysterious abandon house and so forth, the actual plot is very good and interesting and manage to capture your attention, the exception is the ending that (without giving any spoilers) is disappointing. It should also note that the cutscences are FMV and they still look rather good now (considering it's a 1996 game) and in contrast to a lot of FMV games the acting quality is quit good.

OK, the graphics are going to be dated now -- it's an old pre-3D accelerator game based on an engine designed for a point-and-click game (Normality, I believe). Just set that aside, or have enough beers that you don't care anymore, and then settle in for a great game. I will always remember the first time I played this game. I'd just worked my way through a series of creepy tunnels and rooms, getting periodically jumped by baddies, and watching creepy cutscenes. I got to the end of a hall, turned the corner and saw a huge, brightly lit, beautiful spa-like chamber. Something very deep in my brain said "it's got to be a trap", and I looked over at my wife and said "I can't do it. I've got to stop. I'm too freaked out." That's a great game... I don't know if it can still do that today or not. And I know that you need to have all the volume levels set right, because part of the mindwarp is that if you're set up right, the music works subtly on your nerves. Then you've got the squish of dead mice underfoot, and other things that just mess with you. I really hope that this GOG release has proper sound. If it suffers from the same problems that Journeyman Project 2 and Outcast have in the sound balance department, it will damage the experience immensely...