Shivers Review

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Shivers

Review by Orb (and her son Brando)

Shivers is absolutely the kind of game to be played in the fall, when the days are getting shorter and the nights longer, the air cools off, and the trees start giving the idea they’re going to give it a break for a while, as no one’s going to be looking for any shade for a few months.

Shivers is scary. Okay—Shivers was scary for me. This is the Tim Burton/John Carpenter/Vincent Price of adventure games. Right up my alley. It is designed with an accent on eerie, starting with Sierra’s opening screenshot of its logo as a moon, the castle-like museum looming in front of a purple sky, a wolf howling in the background.

A fun game, I found, to play with my 14-year-old kid. He’s a veteran PSX man himself—his usual idea of a gaming good time is being chased around by zombies in Resident Evil. This makes us a good team. A ghost jumps out at me and I’m startled.  He laughs. Maybe a bit evilly. I land upon a Chinese checkers sliding ball puzzle. He yawns. I laugh evilly. And solve it. Like I said, a good team.

Shivers is what I consider a perfect example of all the right things about adventure gaming. It was produced by Sierra, at the pinnacle of their glory days of adventure gaming publication, and it shows. Released in November 1995, the years do date the design tech but actually not by much, because the game has such style to it and is, well, so darned playable. Roberta Williams, the grand dame of adventure gaming, served as a creative consultant.  It is extremely well put together, each part done excellently to make up a greater whole.

The game plot is well–thought out and contributes to gameplay, rather than hindering it; we’ve all seen some games treat the plot as a red-headed stepchild—not the case here. It is set at the Windlenot Museum, a museum of the unusual and unnatural.  Professor Windlenot, an archeologist, has collected artifacts from all over the world and brought them to his museum. The Professor has disappeared, and evil beings called “Ixupi” have been let loose within the confines of the museum. You must find them and capture them in the containers to which they belong, which have been strewn throughout the museum. In the process, you uncover the Professor’s story as well. One of the jewels of the game is the museum has really been created to be a museum as it purports; there are strange and interesting things all around to look at and read about, and per the notes included with the package, 90 percent is factual, certainly enough to keep my history-buff kid interested. The museum voice-overs, like ethereal docents, have been done to sound like Rod Serling (an interesting choice over Leonard Nimoy—maybe the voice was easier to do). 

The story reveals itself as you play the game, and it is fun and manages to stay interesting despite a number of things to read or collect. One of the best things about how Shivers was made was that it is really hard to get stuck and not find something else to do. There is a wide range of spaces that can be initially explored or gotten into without too much work, making the game completely nonlinear and always moving it forward.

As far as graphics go—hello Dali! There are no melting clocks here, but there might as well be. This is one of the most superb qualities of this game. The design of each room is completely original and intriguing (take it from a graphic artist). The rooms vary wildly in what they contain and their motifs, with the common thread binding them together being the fact that you are in a museum of the unusual. The cursor is done as they all should be.  No pixel-hunting, it changes appropriately for the situation, with not too many changes to remember, and this also includes a pause cursor to let you know that, well, things are just out of your control at the moment.

The ambient music is simply ominous, foreboding. Sometimes it’s unpleasant, which is apparently on purpose. Even the areas where it is played lightly for effect, it still sounds like The Exorcist just before all that stuff started happening. The composer runs the gamut between orchestral and Nine Inch Nails.

The sound effects are incredible and uncomfortable. Screaming and begging is mixed in with the music. Doors open in a properly creaky fashion. Clay pots slide off ledges and sound like …  clay pots. The only boat missed by the game makers sound effects–wise is the fact that you are apparently floating just above the floor because your feet have no sound, the only thing in the game that does not. I mention this as, because of the quality of design, there is the sensation of walking through this museum, crossing a room, etc., so no footfall becomes more noticeable.

The puzzles are wildly different from one to the next, with the only ones having any similarity being the elevator entrance puzzles.  The puzzles themselves in some instances borrow from other puzzles you’ve seen, such as Chinese checkers or duplicating a musical sequence (albeit on a Sumerian lyre), but for the most part they are entirely fresh and, in some instances, fiendish. Some I found difficult enough to slow gameplay down for me, and I am partial to keeping it moving at a nice clip, so I was not happy about that. Ghosts do jump out at you, from random spots throughout the game, and suck a little life essence from you if you’re not careful, like an IRS agent (as which I am always surprised more parents do not dress their children for trick or treat, by the way, as this is the far scariest thing I can think of becoming).

I love Shivers, but I still hate mazes. And I certainly like them even less with a woman screaming for help and howling randomly throughout it. All right, I’ll admit I was looking for a fright, and this certainly did the trick.

The kid gives this an 8 out of 10 on the scare-o-meter, with Resident Evil a 9, and a 10 being the first time he saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the dark. (Yes, I’m that kind of mother.) The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Sierra Publisher: Sierra Release Date: 1995

Available for: MacintoshWindows

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

Mac: Color Macintosh 8 MB free memory System 6.07 or higher CD-ROM drive

PC: 486 SX 33 MHz or faster Win 3.1 or better 8 MB RAM 2x CD-ROM drive 640×480 at 256 colors or better Hard Drive 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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