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Big expectations, but nothing more | | Urs Schmid from Zurich, Switzerland says (7/Feb/2001): | I've heard about that game some years ago. In those days it was told that there's no possibility to save the game, but that it wouldn't be this important once you've started playing it.
Well... not really true.
It is the story about a well known doctor - also known to be a quiet and peacefull man until he shows up with a real cruel mess after having freaked out in a hospital. You play his daughter Laura who travels to the destination of terror that's being surrounded by the police who seem to have let you enter the place to sort things out. Next thing you see are corpses covering the floor of the hospital, innocent children with holes in their heads and blood spilled all around them.
Well, an interesting start for a Horror game - underlined with dark ambient score which made my expectations grow every second until something like a mirror appeared in front of me. Without any change in the background music (it just happens too fast and unspectacular) I got sucked into this slimy mirror thing and found myself in the dining room of an old house. I expected a horror game, not a phantasy two-dimension-story. Nevertheless, I had planned to play the game throught in one piece 'cause - as mentioned above - you can't save. I expected to find out why...: maybe the story telling requires to be told in one piece, maybe something like a "break" would spoil this short game.
False.
There's a skeleton of a story. The puzzles are no challenge (find a closed door and you can count on it: next item WILL be a key). There is no real story telling in the game. You just pass from one "sector" of the house to another, where you have to solve some puzzles that have no influence in the story itself. It's not about finding out something important about the plot that helps you getting on. A bit like "Island of Dr. Brain" (House of...) It's not like watching a movie, it's like walking (sneaking!!!) around without the possibility to skip the long and the-longer-the-more-boring walking sequences. Sometimes you can hear your father's voice, warning you about some transformation lying ahead of him. ("Laura... soon I will not be the man anymore you used to know. Go back!"). Theses sequences seem to be copied, it's always the same thing with different backgrounds and (a tiny bit) different lines with the same meaning... watch yourself not to fall asleep.
The game's not chilling, but the graphics are great. It could've been better animated, but regarding the game's age... it's probably okay.
I found the idea a good one: calm, no real ACTION and easy telling... only that I would have come up with something really fascinating like a brilliant story.
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