Gothos Review

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            Gothos

Review by Mike PhillipsAugust 2002

Gothos is a little-known gem that slipped under the radar of many an adventure gamer back in 1997. Gamers who have played or heard of it may be wondering if I’m delusional in referring to Gothos as a gem. Well, I am, but that makes little difference in my opinion of this title. Follow my irrational reasoning as why it deserves such a lofty status:

1. Gothos was created with the ’97 version of Macromedia Director and as such utilizes QuickTime, an application that was never intended for use as a game engine.  2. It features FMV sequences in which the acting would make any high-school play seem stellar in comparison.  3. The entire game world is basically a maze.  4. You can die often.  5. The active game screen fills a minuscule section of your monitor, no matter which resolution you run it under.  6. There are dead-ends, with nary a clue as to what you did wrong when one is encountered.  7. Higher quality dialog has been written for porn flicks.  8. Disc swapping abounds.  9. The conversation trees are the main puzzles in the game, yet you have no idea what type of response will be given for a selected option.  10. It flat-out sucks, and that isn’t a play on the vampire theme.

Obviously, Gothos is a parody of adventure games, and a brilliantly fashioned one at that. The designers were true visionaries.  They knew how any second-rate hack with a video camera and software could cash in on the new buzzword of that bygone era … full-motion video! They went about crafting a release that ridiculed said hacks, at times with subtlety, and usually quite blatantly. Humor is very subjective, but trust me on this, if you don’t laugh while playing Gothos, you don’t have a pulse. This happens to be one of the funniest games you’ll ever have the pleasure of playing.

The intro starts with the elder of your coven staring ominously at you. As his lips begin to move, no voice is heard. The voice was poorly filtered, adding bass and echo, and the actor is trying to lip-sync the recorded lines. The outcome is reminiscent of old Japanese ninja flicks dubbed in English. Hilarious stuff!

Usually I avoid spoiling the plot of a game, but Gothos has a paper-thin one, so here goes. In five hundred words or less, and smart money goes on the latter: The lost scrolls of the first blood were unearthed by an archaeologist in the city of Gothos. For some inexplicable reason, if a vampire clan were to acquire these four scrolls, they would have ultimate power. Since you’re the tooth for hire, you must find the scrolls before Gareth can acquire them.  Gareth is the elder of the Gothos coven—must be the president of Local 666 or something like that.

Of course the deceiver stands in your way also, and naturally the deceiver is a being with a black heart that can assume any identity.  Get the feeling that the designers suffer from insomnia and watch far too many B movies? At any rate, your mission is to find the four scrolls and save the world.

Want more to cringe at? How ’bout a Fran Drescher clone? She’s integral to finishing the game, so you have to talk to her. Get your earplugs ready! Perhaps a purple-haired transvestite named Candy Floss floats your boat? I kid you not, she … I mean he …  is there as well. Add a pinch of trailer-trash tourists, a sprig of valley girls, sprinkle it with a whacked-out homeless-the-end-is-near philosopher, and you have the recipe for Gothos. Campy …  yes. Over-the-top … yes. Painful … yes. Hilarious … damn straight! 

On to the basics: It’s a simple point-and-click FMV game. A hot cursor is used and gives obvious clues to interact with objects/people in the game. Saves are unlimited as long as you have the real estate on your hard drive. Saves are under 2 KB each, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Disc one has to be inserted to start the game, then it’s Swap City. Or you can simply view all the videos and sound files directly from the discs if you don’t feel like suffering through saving and loading ad nauseam. Three drink coasters are included … oops, I mean CDs. QuickTime 2.1.2 is used for the game, and it’s a hybrid Mac/PC deal.

The only bug I encountered was while loading a particular saved game. The .mov file for the character at that point wouldn’t load.  However, as long as I didn’t save while standing in front of the art gallery, all was well.

A “Blood Bar” is located on the left of your game screen.  If you let it run dry, you’ll be looking at the game-over screen.  Feeding fills the bar to capacity, but if you happen to bite a few nasties in the game, your bar actually lowers. Another reason to save, and save often.

You have four choices for avatars (game personas), two female and two of the male variety. It really makes no difference which avatar you choose, as all dialogs are the same. Since only two actors speak the voices of the four avatars, and considering the game is viewed in the first-person aspect, most of this becomes moot.

Choosing a female avatar does add a unique twist to the game, though.  In many cases, more than slightly sexually suggestive comments are made toward the female Gothonians in the game.

There are five choices in dialog trees to respond to game characters.  Your avatar’s face changes to reflect which response you choose.  The status of your replies ranges from:

“1. A very positive attitude.  “2. A semi-positive attitude.  “3. A neutral attitude.  “4. A semi-negative attitude.  “5. A very negative attitude.”

On a side note, when the game was released, there was an option to send in some photos of yourself, Aunt Marge, your dog … whatever.  For $15 US or $20 Canadian, those mugs would replace that of the avatar. I can’t possibly imagine how this makes the game more exciting.  If it does, why not tape a mirror onto your monitor? One of life’s mysteries, I guess.

Back to the dialog trees, things get really funky here. You have no idea what will be said when choosing the various faces. It’s basically poke-and-hope. The real problem is, you have to get a particular response from a couple of people in order to complete the game, with the “good” ending that is. No clues are given as to why you need these particular responses; one must simply play the conversations several times over … and over … and over … until you blindly and painfully stumble upon the correct choices. 

Upon looking at the dialog files on the discs, I found one conversation had nine possibilities for replies. Considering there are five options for your avatar at each increment in the conversation, you don’t need an advanced degree in probability theory to understand what a fiasco this can become.

For these reasons, I must award the genius that is Gothos a without hesitation.

Then again, my prescribed medication began to wear off while replaying Gothos. The remote possibility occurred to me that this game wasn’t meant as a parody. What if? … Oh the horror! Nah, couldn’t be … or could it?

In all sincerity, I believe Gothos was an earnest (albeit poor) attempt at achieving game status. If so, it flopped, in grandiose fashion. There are scenes that were intentionally humorous, but the unintentional far outnumber them. No doubt the project sounded intriguing in an alcohol-induced haze at an after-hours club. That may even perhaps explain the attire of the actresses in the game—most appear as though they had just finished a shift in the red-light district.

To be fair, it does appear that a considerable amount of money and time were invested into this, for lack of a better word, game.  Matters not, Gothos bites, and once again that isn’t a play on the vampire theme.

Gothos doesn’t deserve a rating, it deserves something far worse. What’s lower than cornpoop?  Perhaps snake dung in a wagon wheel rut? Anna Nicole Smith’s IQ test results? AOL’s stock value?

Whatever. Snag a copy soon—I guarantee you’ll love this game … as abysmal and vapid as it may be! The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Mindmeld Multimedia (surprise, they seem to be out of the biz) Publisher: Microforum Release Date: 1997

Available for: Macintosh Windows

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System Requirements

Macintosh: 68040 Macintosh or higher (Power Mac recommended) System 7.0 or higher 16-bit color display 8 MB RAM 15 MB hard disk space 2X CD-ROM drive

PC: 486/DX/50 computer or better Windows 95 or higher 8 MB RAM 15 MB free hard disk space CD-ROM drive SVGA graphics (16-bit color or better) Mouse

Where to Find It

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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