Valhalla Classics Episode 1: The Crypt Review

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            Valhalla Classics The Lord of Infinity Episode 1: The Crypt

Review by JenFebruary 2002

The Valhalla Classics are the first part of an ambitious project by a small British company called Vulcan Software. These adventure games were originally released for the Amiga in the mid-1990s, and according to Vulcan they were the first “speech adventures” for that platform. Vulcan Software is using the Valhalla Classics as a tool to show off its online community application, the Vulcan Portal. Download of the Vulcan Portal is free, and it is required to download and play the Valhalla Classics.

As of this writing (February 2002), three of a planned 12 episodes are complete. It looks like the release cycle is about one episode every two months. In the immortal words of the stereotypical playground drug pusher: “The first one’s free,” and subsequent episodes can be purchased for a measly $3.68 each (which fluctuates based on the exchange rate for dollars/pounds).

First, let me talk about the Vulcan Portal. This is an extremely cool little application. Through it, you connect with the Vulcan server(s) and are able to exchange voice mail (yes, that’s right, I did say voice mail) with other community members, talk to Vulcan staff members, and, most important, access the Valhalla downloads.  Check out the screenshots on the right. The various features of the Portal are represented by the buttons on the top row. The guy on the left is Tony, my Vulcan guide. You can choose from several different guides, both male and female. Tony was by far the hunkiest of the lot, one of those swarthy Italian Lotharios that makes me melt.

This is a very small download—the Vulcan site doesn’t specify the size but does state that it takes only seven minutes to download over a 56k modem. And yet it incorporates a speech synthesis program where the “readers” actually don’t sound Swedish! Yes, the cadence and pronunciations are a bit off at times, and the Vulcan people could benefit from a good spell-checker, but overall it is amazing to me how well this works.

The green guy on the right side in the second screenshot is a Lizardian, Scragg, who holds the keys to the downloads. Scragg is not a very nice guy, but he’s funny to make up for it. And cute. I don’t know what it is about them, but green guys really do it for me. Other things that can appear in this rectangle are your own skin (you can either design your own or choose from several presets), the skin of another community member, and part of the Valhalla interface.

Anyway, on to the game. The Crypt is played in a teeny window in the center of the teeny Portal interface. At first this was off-putting, but it turns out you really don’t need it much bigger than that. The graphics are simple, and they are plenty clear enough the way they are. I never had an Amiga—in fact I’ve never even seen an Amiga—and, much to my shame, I am not even sure if it’s a computer or some sort of device that hooks up to your TV. I have, however, tried playing an original Nintendo game on my big-screen TV. Each pixel is about four inches tall.  I’d imagine the original Nintendo’s graphic capabilities are about on par with what was available for Amiga. I’m sure some Amiga nut out there will correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve gotten completely off track here, haven’t I? [Later, much later: My brain is completely filled with Amiga lore galore, so I am no longer an ignoramus on the subject. But keep those cards and letters coming!]

Okay, the nitty gritty—you play as the young prince of Valhalla.  Your uncle killed your father and took over the kingdom, and you are trying to reclaim your birthright. “The Crypt” is a misnomer since the whole episode takes place outside. You have to recover four stones to open up a pathway that you hope will lead you to a final showdown with your evil uncle but really just leads you to a “game over, now buy the next episode.”  Not in so many words, of course …

Gameplay consists of straight inventory puzzles. You find an item in one place, maybe figure out something to do to change it to what you want, or perhaps hold onto it until you find a location where you can plunk it down to make something happen, or maybe you just leave it on the ground since your inventory space is limited to 10 items. If you do have to drop something, you can always go back for it later.

You move the character with your mouse. When you happen upon something interesting, your only options are look, take, and operate.  If you select an inventory item, you can also consume, drop, or insert. Perspective is from high in the sky—you are looking down at the top of the prince’s head. If he has something to say, he will look up at you, just one of several whimsical touches to the game.

You can die in the game, and you only get one save. You never have to fight but you can fall in holes or get trapped in dead ends by going somewhere without yet having the proper inventory item. If you make an injudicious save (like I did once) and this happens, you have to start all over again.

The game world is one giant maze, but don’t let that put you off. You start out with access to very few areas and slowly open up new ones as you solve puzzles. In your progress, you get pretty familiar with the layout and it’s easy to remember where things are. And generally you work only one or two areas of the overall Crypt at one time.

There is no music, and the prince really has very few phrases.  There are a few well-placed sound effects, but mostly you hear a lot of huffing and puffing as the prince runs around to the various locations. (He walks, too, but it’s ever so much slower.)

The Crypt was a lot of fun for me. As I was playing, I was in turn reminded of the original The Legend of Zelda, sans battles, and the more modern Ico for the Playstation 2.  I liked it well enough that I purchased the next two episodes, and I certainly can feature myself playing through the whole set.  It took me about four hours to play through The Crypt, not bad for a free download! If I can get four more hours of quality entertainment for my $3.68, I will consider it money well spent.

All of these Valhalla Classics are leading up to a full 3D episodic adventure game, Valhalla 3D: The Curse of Infinity.  Visit the Vulcan site for a sneak peek. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Vulcan Software Publisher: Vulcan Software Release Date: October 2001

Available for: Windows

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

Windows 95/98/00/ME/XP/CE 5 to 20 MB free hard drive space 133 MHz processor 4 MB RAM Internet connection Sound card 16-bit display DirectX 7.0 or higher Direct 3D-compatible graphics card (optional)

Where to Find It

Vulcan Software

      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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