Ripper Review

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Ripper

Review by Jake Quinlan As Told to Skinny MinnieMarch 2002

Ripper is a full-motion video, first-person, point-and-click adventure game.

The year is 2040. It’s a lurid November night here in New York City. There’s a new breed of blade-wielding serial killer splashing blood across the headlines of the Virtual Herald, and you’ve been reading all about him thanks to me, Jake Quinlan. The police are stumped and the public is hooked. Another body, another byline; nothing personal, but I’ve got a job to do.

“You are the writer of words. I am the taker of souls.”  I can still vividly recall that first eerie transmission over my handheld computer. The twisted voice and distorted facial image gloated over the newly eviscerated victim, a poor dry cleaner in the Bowery who was sliced to shreds. “You are my voice.  You will hear from me from time to time, like any true friend.  Maybe you know me, maybe you don’t. Someday you might stare me in the eye, and you’ll know. Yours truly, Ripper.” Why does the confessor pick me to boast to? Is there a chance I really do know him? I’ve met a lot of nutcases in this dank, dismal city, but they’re usually not the ones to fear. It’s the calm, peaceful, gentle souls secretly driven by dark obsessions that are the truly dangerous ones …

This self-proclaimed Jack the Ripper clone is seen by my editor, Ben Dodds, as a story that could carry a paper along for months.  He puts me on it full-time and assigns the lovely junior reporter Catherine Powell to be my assistant. Mixing business and pleasure has never been my forte, but it doesn’t take long for ours to become more than a professional relationship. I only learn how independent Catherine can be and how little I really know of her later, after I find her stricken comatose in her apartment. Was she trying to confront the Ripper herself? It looks that way from the clues in her apartment.

Picking up the threads of Catherine’s secret investigation as she lies in the ICU at Tribeca Medical Center, I vow to avenge her attack and catch this psychopath once and for all. Catherine left many coded clues and cryptic messages for me to sort out, obviously in the event of her unforeseen demise. The puzzles would prevent the Ripper story from getting into the wrong hands too easily, I guess. She was always fond of crystals and astrology and combined these passions with riddling references to the England of the 1800s. Now all I’d have to do was crack the codes and follow the leads and contacts she left behind …

I have my work cut out for me, though, as the Ripper continues to transmit word of his ever-growing list of seemingly unconnected victims. Males and females both elderly and young are disemboweled then abandoned. None are robbed or raped. No point of entry or exit from any crime scene can be determined, nor are any fingerprints left behind. Even the type of slashes from the blades the Ripper uses are hitherto unseen by doctors and hardened detectives alike.  The newer targets are virtual reality web designers and internet gaming aficionados. What connection can they possibly have with a dry cleaner and a cub reporter?

Impeding my progress even more is the apparent lockout attempt by the NYPD detective assigned to the Ripper case, Vincent Magnotta.  Magnotta seems to have an underlying itinerary all his own, which frequently includes damaging or misplacing whatever evidence there is about the Ripper’s victims. After Magnotta leaves a site where a body was found, I conduct my own investigation and gather up jagged clues. A codename emblazoned on a coffee cup that Magnotta “accidentally” smashes at the crime scene later provides a clue to the Ripper, after I piece the damned cup back together again at any rate. My interviews with NY residents who happen to be near later crime scenes when the Ripper strikes sometimes produce new leads, despite constant denial from Magnotta that progress can be made in this case.

When you’ve been covering the NY scene as long as I have, you get the dirt on everybody from lowlife crooks to evidence locker officers. Refreshing peoples’ memories about their own pasts can open up new avenues, but you can make a few new enemies that way too. Hey, if you ever take my place, you can decide whether to remain Mr. Nice Guy or not and see if it takes you anywhere different.  As for me, I’ve got a slasher to find and I’m running out of time …

Touching base with Dr. Burton, the unorthodox surgeon assigned to Catherine’s care in the ICU, is nearly as frustrating as dealing with Magnotta. She too seems secretive and unwilling for much progress to be made in easing Catherine out of her comatose state.  Burton’s staff claims that Burton is the best in her field and capable of rebuilding an unconscious patient’s memories from inside the patient’s brain, thus bringing the patient back to consciousness.  Every time I insist on these memory-building attempts, Dr. Burton mentions potential escalation of damage to Catherine’s emotional state and refuses to do more than monitor Catherine’s current status. How will we ever really see the face of the Ripper if not through the images buried in Catherine’s mind? Maybe I can find someone else to help me with this task …

I eventually sense that there is more than one turbulent story waiting to be uncovered here. Through stealthy break-ins, secret file and access card impounding, bug planting, and general law-breaking behavior, I find that I am right. Trips to a local bar and a smokehouse, as well as to the police station and to the morgue where the Ripper victims are being held, all reveal much—too much actually.  As I get closer to the Ripper, I actually become a suspect in the case in Detective Magnotta’s eyes! How else could I possibly know so much, and how come so many of my recent story contacts keep winding up dead?

I must repair damaged computers from Ripper victims in an effort to piece together their possible links to the serial killer. Some victims were obviously intent, in life, to hide whatever connections they had with the Ripper. Sequestered inventory items must be uncovered from their ingenious hiding places within such seemingly innocuous items as a clock, a bank, and a parlor gaming table to aid me in my quests. A computer hardware magazine later offers assistance once I pick it up. Secret organizations need to be uncovered and infiltrated, and their connections to all suspects investigated.

Gone are the days of yesteryear when the internet was merely a huge cluster of static bulletin boards. Nowadays the web is rife with virtual arenas called “wells,” and everything from nonviolent and violent gaming to banking and industry is done interactively online in these wells through virtual reality helmets and computer equipment. I’ve been pounding the pavements of this city long enough that my gun and shooting skills are well-honed, and these skills serve to help me break in to different web wells and get ever closer to catching the Ripper.

Another suspect I add to my growing list is one of the original and premier virtual reality enthusiasts, Joey Falconetti, aka Falcon Eddie. A renegade from the law, Falconetti’s obsession with all manner of knives, as well as his documented criminal activities, warrant continual surveillance. Much detailed investigation work and password decoding also reveal Falconetti’s connections to many of the victims, as well as to other suspects on my list …

How the undercurrent of secrecy about the Ripper and his methods, as well as his true identity, will finally be discovered looks like it will encompass a string of unique riddles, deadly games, and challenging shootouts. The final Ripper confrontation that I so long for may even occur outside of the confines of normal life, out there in cyberspace, amidst friends and enemies alike.  At least that is how this reporter predicts that the story will finally end, but maybe if you were me, it might be different … The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Take Two Interactive Publisher: Acclaim Released: 1996

Available for: DOS Windows

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

486/50 MHz 2X CD-ROM drive VGA card with 512 K memory, VESA compatible or VESA driver installed (PCI or VLB recommended) 10 MB free hard drive space Sound card (Creative Labs, Media Vision, Gravis Ultrasound); Ripper uses the HMI sound drivers 6.5 MB free extended memory (XMS) Mouse Supports Windows 95

      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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