The Castle Review

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The Castle

Review by Orb

The Castle is a stylized HyperCard-like (it was actually made with SuperCard, a program similar to HyperCard on steroids) point-and-click adventure game that pays homage to Myst while avoiding the clone tag by taking the genre in an entirely different direction.

It is an atmospheric romance/horror/sci-fi mix; while not as detailed as some others of this ilk, limited by the Myst-style graphics mostly popularized several years ago, it stands well on its own. Blueline gets kudos for publishing this genre on the Mac platform, certainly a rarity in this day and age.

The game is played from a first-person perspective and starts off in front of a castle, which actually has the appearance of a large mansion with two turrets. The player finds a cryptic note from “N” stuck into the gate. The N is for Noemi, the main of three characters in the plot who are involved in a lover’s triangle, trapped in a place they don’t understand. The other two characters are Rod, Noemi’s ex-fiance, and Brad, with whom she appears to be in love. (Okay, I admit I found their names exceptionally cheesy, and in the case of Brad, I couldn’t stop thinking about The Rocky Horror Picture Show.)

You must locate Noemi’s diary and then, throughout the game, collect and read the pages to move the plot forward and get clues to solve puzzles. The plot reads like a trashy dime-store romance novel you just can’t put down. Noemi’s beginning chronicle mirrors yours, and the initial question of where you are and what this place is pulls you forward through the game. Rivalry between Rod and Brad becomes clear. This was all too Harlequin Romance novel–esque for me, but the story did move well. The action at times gets a little R-rated—this is definitely not for the kiddies.

Gameplay allows you to get your bearings before you get a clue as to who you are or what you’re doing, which I liked. There was no Encyclopedia Britannica to read and absorb before you start out from the opening location, which a number of games seem to resort to (you’ll have to forgive me, I’m now in the middle of Secrets of the Luxor and almost fell over when I realized how many nasty, dryly written pages I’d have to wade through to find clues get through the first few puzzles). The story is cleverly dished out to you one page at a time, as reward for completing puzzles or correctly moving forward, and as you progress, the pages are found and put into the diary—this also gives clues to the puzzle solutions, mixed seamlessly with the developing story. A nice design touch is that the book will save where you were last so you don’t have to go back through all of the pages, which adds to the gameplay. The game is for the most part linear, moving forward in sequence. Objects to collect are limited to the diary, its pages, a series of keys, gun, and bullets.

The graphics are nicely drawn in a pleasing style, and they add to the overall mood/ambiance and storyline. There are numerous objects throughout the game that are so carefully rendered that they end up being red herrings; in other words, in most games, items you can use are more carefully drawn, and this is often a tip-off. In The Castle, there is quite a bit to look at that you end up not using, which I think is a clever touch.  One drawback is that it must be daytime to enter the house; it would have been fun to see it at night. The interface was designed to be minimal, which is a strong suit to those of us who hate screen clutter.

Nighttime gameplay is especially nice with realistic sound effects and lighting. Daylight sound effects were well-done too, and you really have the sensation of walking through a garden. The music is pretty and haunting, and it works well to set the mood and create atmosphere. There is very little voice acting, and what there is would have been better left out, including an oracle reminiscent of the old Jonny Quest cartoons from the 60s.  But the worst is one of the characters in the end sequence, who sounds like a Swede in a barrel. Wait, Blueline is located in Switzerland—maybe it was a Swede in a barrel!

I should probably advise all you gamers out there struggling with Maze Redundancy Syndrome to take your Dramamine, because this is going to make you sick. Yes, Virginia, there is a maze, replete with graphics that make it hard to discern where you are and which way you just turned. The other bad news I’ll just shove out of the way really fast is that you don’t just go in there once but, at a minimum, over 10 times to perform key actions or find items such as pages or keys. Okay, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, the good news is that it is not an overwhelmingly huge maze, and it’s fairly simple to navigate once you get the hang of it and have all the areas explored and mapped out, but the use of it does, obviously, become a bit redundant and unnecessary.  There is, however, a certain amount of satisfaction during gameplay upon discovering new objects in old places previously explored, including the maze.

Some of the puzzles are intuitive and meld seamlessly with the gameplay, and the rest are “solve it or you aren’t going any further,” straight, old-fashioned puzzles, including one sliding puzzle and one magic square. It seems unusual to me for a game so story-driven to have so many straight puzzles. It seems, in most games with these sorts of puzzles, game designers will resort to a thin “okay, now you’re trapped … figure out the puzzles to get out” scenario such as in Shivers or the Jewels of the Oracle series, and this is a pleasant change in design with The Castle. There is a wine glass puzzle in the salon that is an exact duplicate of the book puzzle in The 11th Hour, with the same solution, which is a weakness in this game.

As far as the gameplay goes, one difficulty I found in design was that you need to change from day to night and vice versa to find items and progress, and although this in itself was a fun twist, the method for changing became quickly redundant and time-consuming, and I felt it was one of the weak points of the game.

Other perks included in the package is a Tidbits file, which contains an After Dark program, desktop pictures, and startup screens. Also available from the publisher’s website is a “Hint Box,” which is a standalone hint application similar to the Universal Hint System (UHS). I found this to be handy, giving just the amount of impetus needed but not too much, and it also keeps track of how often it has been accessed, gently reminding you to solve things yourself. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Blue Line Studios Publisher: Blue Line Studios Release Date: 1998

Available for: Macintosh

Four Fat Chicks Links

WalkthroughPlayer FeedbackInterview with Game Designer

Screenshots

 Click to enlarge   Click to enlarge   Click to enlarge   Click to enlarge Click to enlarge

System Requirements

68020 or newer processor Power PC 90 MHz recommended Hard disk 8 MB available RAM, 10 recommended System 7 or newer 13-inch monitor 256 colors 4X CD-ROM drive

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      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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