Puzz3D Neuschwanstein Bavarian Castle Review

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Puzz3D Neuschwanstein Bavarian Castle

Review by Jen

These Puzz3D games are not adventure games, but puzzle-loving adventure gamers will probably like them. Basically, this is a virtual version of those 3D jigsaw puzzles that we have all seen but probably few of us have tried. My problem with doing any kind of jigsaw puzzle is that they take such a long time to complete, and meanwhile all of the pieces are laying around on the table—this just does not cut the mustard (aren’t you glad I didn’t say “cut the cheese”?) in my house with two young boys running around flailing like mad. This computerized jigsaw puzzle is a perfect solution—the unfinished puzzle is nothing but a file on my computer.

The puzzle pieces are very easy to manipulate, and every time you finish a segment, you can put it in a special gold tray and then either switch views to the construction site and place the completed segment or just stay on the table view and build some more. You can create as many “trays” as you want to carry groups of pieces to another part of the table, sort pieces, etc. You get three different zoom levels and several different table views to aid in completing your building. The whole puzzle-building part was somehow tedious and yet addicting—I found myself glued to my screen for what seemed like a few minutes and surfacing from my reverie only to realize that several hours had passed.

There are three versions of these Puzz3D games: the Bavarian Castle is the home of mad King Ludwig, he of Gabriel Knight 2 fame (spoken like a true adventure gamer, right?) and sponsor of the classical opera composer Richard Wagner. There is also a Victorian Mansion (generic, I guess) and Notre Dame Cathedral (I bet the back story has to do with the ol’ hunchback).

By completing the jigsaw puzzle, you earn a key to enter one or more rooms of the finished castle, depending on the skill level.  You choose one of four skill levels at the beginning of the game, the differences being the number of total pieces and whether your construction site will have a wireframe guide on which to place finished segments. You must complete the hardest level to get the key that will allow you to explore all of the castle, so of course that’s what I did—I would have hated not knowing what I missed had I chosen a lesser path.

I was treated to little video vignettes of the increasingly strained relationship between Wagner and Ludwig as I progressed. These scenes apparently are triggered by how many pieces are left on the table. Also, there are little summaries of the Wagner opera plots (or subplots in the case of the Ring). And on top of that, sometimes you get building tips instead of Wagner/Ludwig stuff, but by the time these tips pop up, you’ve likely already figured it out yourself, so this is not a useful feature. I wound up just ignoring the “book” that contained all of these things and then reviewing it at the end of the puzzle construction phase of the game. Otherwise, it was too distracting.

After the puzzle is completed and you have earned your key, you may use it to enter the castle and explore. There are four standalone puzzles inside for you to find and do as you look around, one of which involves finding and putting together, in another little puzzle, pieces of a sword to slay the Dragon that guards the Ring in a rousing video finale. (No spoilers here; you can read same in the manual.) Another of the puzzles involved putting pieces of music together to duplicate eight snatches from Wagner’s Ring opera, another involved restoring the colors to a painting of Tristan und Isolde, and the last involved rotating pieces of King Ludwig’s unfinished throne to complete it. All of these puzzles were fun, and I was especially proud of myself for completing that music puzzle—I usually stink at those.

In addition to the puzzles and the sword pieces, you find rings that, when clicked, yield up yet more video clips. In these Tristan and Isolde are trying to obtain the Ring so that they no longer have to die at the end of each performance of the opera. One unnerving thing was that the same actor who portrayed King Ludwig in the puzzle-putting-together portion of the game played Tristan in the exploration phase—it took me a while to catch on to who he was supposed to be.

The inside-the-castle segments are beautifully illustrated, and you have the ability to pan 360 degrees on the horizontal plane and look nearly all the way up or down on the vertical.

The acting is totally cheesy, but the costumes are nice. The music is also nice, all Wagner to my unschooled ear, but there is not much of it, usually just a bit here and there as you are moving and then nothing while you’re standing still.

Everything I know about Wagner and Ludwig I learned from video games. Between this and Ring and GK2, I feel ever so edumucated on the subject. (I was waiting for King Ludwig to turn into a werewolf in this game, but it never happened.)

I liked Bavarian Castle enough to seek out the other two versions so I can play them too. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Wrebbit Interactive Publisher: Wrebbit Interactive Release Date: 1999

Available for: MacintoshWindows

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System Requirements

Windows 95/98: Pentium 100 MHz (200 MHz recommended) 16 MB of RAM (24 MB recommended) Microsoft-compatible mouse 45 MB free hard disk space 640×480, 16-bit colors, DirectX certified video driver (1 MB of cache video memory recommended) 2X CD-ROM drive (minimum) Direct Sound compatible sound card Note: Windows 95 virtual memory should be on.

Mac OS: MacOS 7.5 or higher PowerPC 80 MHz (200 MHz recommended) 20 MB of RAM (32 MB recommended) 32 MB free hard disk space 640×480, 16-bit colors video and display 2X CD-ROM drive (minimum)

Where to Find It

Check the Game TZ

      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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