Ross gets haunted in Realms of the Haunting. Halloween episode! You can buy Realms of the Haunting here if you're interested: af.gog.com/gam... www.accursedfarms.com
"Adam decides this is all bullshit and leaves." I would love for more games to just have the main characters walk out when stuff gets too insane, and then you have to play from a different character's perspective.
Sketchy West117lay eternal darkness, you play over different chapters in different eras some of them just quit while they're ahead while most die horribly or worse
Give Nier: Automata a shot. Out of the (I think?) 26 different endings, about 22 of them are 'joke endings'. Like if you're 'supposed' to go help in a battle, and you decide to turn around and walk away instead, or if you happen to preform a _certain action_ in your home base or something like that.
Some games let you do that as a non standard ending. One of the paper Mario games did. PRey did (although they kill you anyway so boo) Clocktower let you.
@@MxPokirby nier automata doesn't have characters give up and another takes over.... WTF are you talking about? It's yokos standard oh this characters pov oh this characters pov. And those are just joke endings, they're utterly useless. His other games have more genuine alternate universe and endings compared to his lazy efforts in Automata.
@@badbeardbill9956 G-Man: You must report every experience in these alternate realities, Mr. Freeman. To prepare your forces for the future they know not about. Freeman: But thats dumb. What if the Combine find this footage? We'd be giving them the keys to the kingdom, and I like to sleep with my doors locked sir. I'll just say it's game footage, they're led by an old man. He'll be scared and confused and probably use it as punishment, getting our message to the masses.
Fun fact: David Learner, who plays Belial, also was the one inside the robot suit for Marvin the Paranoid Android in the BBC version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
My favorite trivia like this is that the dude who played Jerec in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight also played a villain called Johnny Alucard in a trashy 70s Dracula flick along Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
@@current9300 Holy crap, I know the Dracula one. That movie was freaking hilarious, and Learner was the best part there too. Edit: Oh wait, the Jerec/Alucard guy wasn’t Learner, was it? Point still stands, he basically WAS that movie.
Marc Finn plays Claude Florentine, he also plays Chief Judge in Judge Dread the first movie. Besides David Tuomi (Adam) all the cast have been in multiple roles.
civilCornball It seems to be a reference to this joke Terry Pratchett made: "Light a man a fire and you keep him warm for a day. Light a man _on_ fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life."
Discovery, so many years later: the version on GOG and Steam (which are identical, the Steam version even has the GOG configuration program in the download) are the UK original. The US version was altered to provide difficulty levels and most importantly a way to change the movement controls. It's still not great but it's way more functional with WASD. What the UK runs in is "Hard" in the US; "Normal" cuts monster HP down (two 45 bullets kill the first enemies, for instance) and you find way more ammo--I'm running around with 35 boxes of shotgun rounds in Chapter VIII! If you check PC Gamer Wiki, there's a 'patch' out that changes the UK version to the US version, works fine on the GOG/Steam release.
Actually Ross, I live in New England and I can tell you that extended dimensions are a pretty common occurrence in apple cellars built pre-1912. I'm not exactly sure why they're less common in those built after 1912, but there ya go.
Man this game has so much content in it. It's crazy to think how many almost completely unknown games have such a wealth of ideas and work put into them that will mostly never resurface.
You have to wonder why so many people decided to abandon the past fundamentally when there's something to be learned here...either we're ruled by a tyrant who only cares about his power, or an idiot who's ignorant enough not to give a crap.
Aquillius Ranger No, please, I don't want to talk about the election on this video. That has literally nothing to do with what I said. At least I think that's what you're talking about. If not, then I have no idea what you're saying.
This again? I'm not talking about bullcrap politics cause only the greedy bastards win and I don't care about that...no, I'm talking about our gaming industry in general or people whom think which companies or games should be the new trend...not things that were spoken in the past in order to relieve of the present's problems...still, this applies to alot of topic, maybe even more than the damn politicians.
Dad! I didn't know we both watched Ross! I'm wearing your shirt right now, lol. (By which I mean not one that you own, but one I bought. I wear the one's that you technically own when I'm feeling lonely because I can smell your sweat on them.)
I interpreted the ending as him being institutionalized because he tried to tell people about what happened in that house, and the nurse was Belial torturing him.
First rule of discovering arcane and possibly eldritch secrets; Don't tell anyone what you've learned. Tell "someone", but not just anyone, otherwise you'll end up like Adam.
One thing Ross doesn't mention is that you can listen to Adam's thoughts on important characters and items that change throughout the game. SuperGreatFriend's Walkthrough of this is pretty comprehensive and Mini-boss with the flamethrower and tank-top was the Lord of Fire and constantly talks trash to you.
Honestly, while I'm opposed to selling your game on graphics alone, I believe having high graphics can help some players fill in the blanks or suspend their disbelief. Most people already don't want to try games with bad graphics (by today's standards) and newer games can bridge this gap by using similarities to get the player to accept and fill in the blanks better. Newer graphics have also forced people to make better graphics cards and because of this, we can play old games easily. We're also able to have larger levels and more detailed characters and generally other game design visual techniques as quality of life improvements
Hey Ross, I just started playing this thanks to this video. I have to say I'm so impressed by this game. The amount of dialogue is staggering. I don't remember if you mention this in the video, but examining items and people in the inventory allows you to reflect on them or talk about them with Rebecca and it gives so much more insight about everything (especially puzzles). To anyone considering getting this game, I highly recommend it. There is a ton of FMV and recorded dialogue, a lot of items can be examined or interacted with (even if pointless) and I'm having a blast getting immersed in this so far.
@@NMGardening 6 hours if you're just learning, 30 seconds if you know what you're doing. Gaming in general is a lot like that, you suck at first, then you don't suck. Meanwhile, on the console, tapping the left trigger three times in succession while doing a loop-de-loop and mashing "A" wildly is the way the original developers intended for you to use your special attack FOREVER. Enjoy!
After watching SGF run through this game, I feel I should mention some things about it. A lot of the lore is in the menus. Yeah, I know, playing the game normally, you wouldn't expect to look there for most of the story, but it is there. It also explains why Adam seems to lack a lot of character, its fleshed out primarily in conversations with himself and with Rebecca. I will admit, before she joins your party, a lot of questions go unanswered, but it fits Adam's character quite well, as he doesn't ask to be put in this situation. He questions himself and his motives a lot, and it plays well into the whole "prophecy" vibe, as he doesn't know much why he's here either. And as for the cutscenes ending abruptly, and the shortening of the chapters and overall quality as the story comes along; its theorized that the game's development was cut short due to time and budgeting constraints. Its a shame, because it looks like there was a lot planned for the story and environment, and it explains why there was such a good shell of a game there, but it didn't quite drive the nail home. I think it starts to show once you enter the "fairy-tale realms"; because you're right, they seem highly out of place, and its entirely rushed. Honestly, its a great game, that honestly has better aspects as a point-and-click adventure than it does a first person shooter, but I think that's because that's all the developers could focus on when they started the grind to get the game into a finished state. I know this doesn't excuse the flaws entirely, but it does give some reasoning as to why they're there. I wouldn't know much of this if it weren't for SuperGreatFriend, whose LP of this game explains everything in detail; and he does a really good job of giving insight to the rhyme and reason to the game, and I recommend if you didn't feel quite satisfied with the game, that you look up his videos. He does the game way more justice than it honestly deserves.
It's also worth noting that they cut out over an hour worth of cutscenes from the game for CD space. Or so SGF mentioned in his final video, so the incredibly aprupt and unanswered part where Belial imprisons you likely did have some explanation but sadly we are likely to never know what happened since I haven't heard of this hour of cutscenes being available anywhere. It is such a shame. Now why they chose to cut that bit out I have no bloody clue.
Yeah I heard about that, you see a lot of animators turning to patreon because RU-vid just doesn't provide a good monetization alternative for them. However the community for the Game Dungeons and other videos are great because for the most part they all see the effort that goes into each and every video.
***** Not to mention the fact that you can tell people like Ross are actually passionate about what they put on RU-vid unlike some people who just push out dogshit and/or game RU-vid's algorithms for profit. When creators are actually passionate about their content it conveys respect towards the audience and they tend to return the favor. I never ever get the feeling that Ross takes any shortcuts to make more revenue, although I honestly wouldn't hold it against him if he did every once and a while. As for animators, though, they got completely fucked over. That's why almost all of them left forever ago. Just recently, some have announced they are trying to return to RU-vid by putting out other forms of content and using Patreon. Short animations are absolutely wasted on RU-vid the way it is now.
The only Channels worth watching that put out videos quickly are basically a few of the genuinely good groups since they have more people to produce things. Otherwise it's either a video a month or so, or rapid-fire diarrhea.
I'd love to see Ross take on Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. It has all the highlights he seems to go for: ancient evils (literally Lovecraftian ones in this case), dated but effective graphics, clever mechanics, puzzles, game-breaking bugs, interesting dialogue, and a weird ending. Maybe next Halloween?
ahh speaking of bugs, I got the one where in the cutter missio... you can't see the island, it just looks like empty ocean spread before you. So I'm being yelled at by the captain to shoot the lights. "WHAT FUCKING LIGHTS MAN! ARE YOU MORE CRAZY THEN ME? DO YOU HEAR THE VOICES TOO?!"
@@RKNELIAS It's really obscure, but it was Bungie's first FPS. Their second was its sequel, the Marathon Trilogy. Imagine Doom but better, with things Duke Nukem 3D did but two years earlier. (one year earlier for the swimming in Marathon 2) itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pathways-into-darkness/id617234634?mt=12 alephone.lhowon.org/
Oh I didn't pick up on that, I thought they looked like skin peeling off a guy's hands before I realised they were gloves, but never thought of them being marked.
Unfortunately the version we got here is quite abridged. For example - does Ross know that you can talk about pretty much every item in the game, and some inventory items have ALOT of topics? Explains quite a few questions. Also the psychic chick modifies the topics, adding her own on the things. He has never shown that in the video, so I wonder if he even knows about that. Yes, the human skin gloves were marked, otherwise Belial would have died when given the Shrive. I don't particulary like this review, because Ross spent years being convinced what this game is and when he found out that it isn't the ideal horror game, he was disappointed. He expected to be terrified by it for his halloween video. Yes, it's not a classic horror game (otherwise I wouldn't have ever played it if it was). Do I think it is better not being a copy pasted classic scarejumping piece of shit? Yes, I think it is better that way. (I hate horror movies and games). You are better off thinking of it as a first person / point and click adventure hybrid.
The thing is, that by modern standards this game shouldn't even be considered a horror, because for a lot of today's people it isn't scary. Back then the first two Diablo games were considered horror games! And you can still find them labelled like that even today on the internet!! If you were to play Diablo 1 or 2 expecting to be a horror game and be scary, then wouldn't you be disappointed? But does that mean that the games are bad? Heck no, (pun originally not intended) especially in multiplayer, Diablo 1+2 are grand experiences and great games! It's the disappointment for Ross, which then affects his review, and thus people are deterred to play it! Which is a bit unfair. Yes, it's a bad horror game. But it is a great point and click adventure game (with shooter elements when push comes to shove).
Hi! Me again, another thing I'd just like to mention. When you were talking about that door that "teleported" you and you lost a lot of health, what actually happened was you fell down a trap door right in front of the door. It's quite a drop, which explains the health loss. As for sprinting through it and nothing happening, it's quite obvious you're just running over it with your high speed. I guess I didn't need to mention that, but hey I like typing long comments.
This game is a perfect example of art direction being the thing that makes a game look good. You can have all the fancy lighting and nanite in the world, but this game's various rooms look great especially for the time period.
Oh no, the Internet is wrong on this one. I worked at Gremlin at this time as a tester, and to say (you didn't say, the internet says) this was developed by Gremlin is a massive reach. Used a Gremlin engine, yes. It came in house for about 4 weeks and that was just to make sure you could finish the game, no real testing involved, hardly any bugs found in this short period were fixed, it was, can you finish it? Sort off. Good, lets release. It was one of many games during the 6 years I worked at Gremlin that suddenly out of nowhere came in house to test, got a few tweaks and then they were released. I have no idea why, I wasn't that clued up back then, I just played games and got paid for it. I was a Test manager as well, and yet I still wasn't privy to this information. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. You couldn't question the GOD Tony Crowther, he could do no wrong. If you had a suggestion, or were confused about why the game did X, then you were stupid and didn't understand.
The credits at the end for Quality Assurance. Carl Cavers, was a Director, not a QA manager. He just loved getting his name in games. All the testers in that list were never at Gremlin, Sheffield. Most likely at Interplay.
I don't know if it's been mentioned before, but the people who made this game? They were responsible for 'Potty Pigeon' too. Gremlin Graphics and Gremlin Interactive were the same company.
"Goodness reflects the Light; and evil, bears the seed of all Darkness. These are mirrors of the Soul, the refections of the -mind- _heart_ " Now it's a kingdom hearts game.
"I don't think I've seen anything like this before" It's not exactly a magic staff, but in the remake of Resident Evil 1 there's a derringer with one shot in it that you can't get more ammo for. For a tiny little .22 it does as much damage as the magnum.
@@ghoulsarefree Original RE3 also has the M4, which IIRC doesn't get extra ammo on Hard mode, although this might depend on the version of the game (I've only ever played the PC version).
There's something very 90's-surrealism about this game. The type Vaporwave draws from. Out of all the Game Dungeon games, this is probably the one I want to play for myself the most.
Wait, so it isn't that scary, raises more questions than answers, and then ends anticlimactically? Wow, this game predicted a _lot_ of the tropes used in most popular horror indie-games!
Except for Darkwood, now that's a REAL man's horror game. The kind that leaves you constantly unnerved and about to babble like a baby at most things instead of just being scared of a loud noise and a 3D render popping up
God damn fish doors have been the bane of every gamer's existence since the dawn of time. Remember the age-old golden rule of gaming folks; when you see two fish doors always choose the one on the left. Armed with this arcane and forbidden knowledge you should have no trouble beating any game from now on.
I remember watching this back around Halloween and thinking it looked alright, but ultimately thought it would be a doofy, dumb, not very fun experience. But, being in the mood to play an old DOS adventure point and click, I picked this up for a buck, and wow, it is so much better than the impression I got from this video. The controls surprisingly weren't as hard for me to grasp as the video looked, and so far I've had a pretty nice, atmospheric experience with decent puzzles and good music. The graphics are actually pretty good too, as far as stretchy resolution DOS games go. Thanks Ross, I may have found the game to scratch my DOS itch!
1 programmer, 4 artists. There is your problem. Also, just a tidbit of info: Chris Pepper, which is credited in the game as lead artist also worked on Broken sword: the angel of death, and two doctor who games, all made by Sumo Digital, a company made by former employees of Gremlin Interactive. So if you liked the aesthetics of this game, you probably should check these out. He also worked on a game called soulbringer, which just by the photos looks awful to play, have fun!
Is it just me who imagined the guy getting caught by the police after blowing up this giant ass mansion? Then he's obviously questioned and sentenced to a pshyche ward since who would belive him? "The mansion blew up after I've enterd several dimensions, to find the sword of eternity to save my dad and ultimatley the destruction of the world". That's what I like to belive, however it's most likley all in his head.
["The Chosen: Well of Souls" narrator voice] Goodness reflects the Light; and evil, [awkward pause] bears the seed of all Darkness. These are the mirrors of the Soul, the reflections of the mind. Choose Well...................................."
The puzzles at the end of Phantasmagoria 2 are especially insane. You're in an alien dimension combinding random alien goos with eachother to solve nonsensical puzzles. Fun part? Sometimes when you combine the goos they just kill you.
You know, the night that I watched this I had a nightmare. It was about how my home actually had an abandoned underground complex that I had only just discovered and was exploring. My immediate family had found it afterwards and followed me down, as I found out when I met them. Now, the problem was that since it was long-abandoned, it had a lot of chemical spills and for some reason I didn't trust anyone but me to wander around safely. The rest of the nightmare was me almost-vainly trying to keep them out of unseen-harm's way. During this time, I discovered that we had somehow awoken an evil sorceress. So, I decided that we should get the fuck out and reach minimum safe distance (at least the next state.) However, she had already successfully captured our souls and the souls of my pets who weren't even involved. Because of this, she had the ability to make us see whatever she wanted us to see and could put us into a dream-state at any moment. I still thought my plan was sound, but this power was made apparent both by her gloating and by the fact that even though we started out on foot, we ended up in my mom's minivan. The moment we reached the next state (which then looked like the Heaven area from this game) I received a message via a pop-up window on my eyes. It said that because we had left her sphere of influence, our bodies were now without souls (much akin to a receiver being out of range) and that we were now lost forever. Thankfully, my dream was mostly PG, so it added that my pets turned out fine. Synopsis: Since most of what I saw was in-game cinematics, I must conclude one or more of three things: 1. The game is so very dream-like to begin with that it makes it easier for a dream loosely based off of it to occur. 2. The developers somehow purposefully created the cinematics with subtle patterns with the intent to cause nightmares. This would increase the game's infamy, thereby increasing public awareness of the game, which would lead to more sales. 3. The game does actually imprison your soul the next time you sleep and I am now a soulless being walking the Earth, waiting for the last vestiges of myself to die before I take my final resting place in whatever my Mistress decides.
"You're really taking your life in to your own hands when you start obeying the voices in your head" is a line that far surpasses anything Shakespeare ever puked out.
This just reminds me of those creepastas where it's about a pen that writes on its own using blood but then the story eventually devolves into the character who found the pen killing God
I remember seeing this from ages ago, I think it was in 2008 on RU-vid played by JosefVStalin. It was pretty funny to see him playing through it. Glad to see you reviewing it. I may be off by a few years, but yeah, second viewing. Thanks for the video.
I think what usually makes the "It was all a dream!" endings really unsatisfying is that it more or less invalidates everything we just did, at least leaving it at the explosion still implies "We stopped some big satanic ritual!" rather than this guy having fits again without his medication. Phantasmagoria 2 handled the mundane being interrupted by the supernatural a lot better. Heck if we really were in some crazy guy's head all along, they could've leaned in harder on the psychological horror aspects rather than feeling like a haunted house for parts of it
@@Trynt33 alice and madness returns were very up front about the game being set in the fragile psyche of our protagonists, and as such it doesn't feel as cheap, so yeah, i think you're right on the money in that it invalidates previous struggle
I played this back when it came out. I was 13 when it came out and it was like nothing that I had seen before. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time playing this. 3 CDs for a game. The story, the mystery, a haunted house, the graphics. I was all in. There was nothing like it back then. This was on a totally new scale. Looks funny from a post 2000 perspective. But back then, it was like being inside a mystery movie for the first time. So this has a place in my heart.
If you want a scary FPS with creepy houses and other worldly dimensions, give Clive Barker's Undying a shot. Not as old but I was getting the same kinda vibes from this game.
"Why would he be carrying his prison around his neck?" I never played the game nor know how he acquired the stone, but all I can think of is that, before finding out it was a prison, it probably was offered to him as a powerful talisman and it backfired. Kind of like Sophia Hapgood in Fate of Atlantis, who found that locket that allowed her to communicate with Nur-ab-Sal, not knowing it would eventually take her over and she couldn't get rid of it, unless Indy intervenes. It's a possibility.
That's the most unique and fluid controls I ever saw, I wish every game did this. The cutscenes are enticing and do not drag on. The graphics are impressive even for today, and that low poly mode should be used in every today's game.
i have an idea. how about a game that STARTS as a horror but as you play, you gain power by being so close to demonic shit for so long (you know, be careful not to become a monster and dont stare into the abyss) so then the game slowly takes a turn as you stop saving ppl and start using them to survive by using them as bait and even draining them of there life energy or sacrifice them to perform necromancy all in the name of trying to save yourself! slowly becoming less and less sympathetic as your own soul begins to fade away. in the end you would survive the nightmare and leave the evil place behind but carry with you all that power, knowledge, and a twisted soul, making you wonder if your character might become a monster himself when things finally get quiet...
Or what about a game (and I think I've heard of someone having an idea for the first part of this) where it's an rpg where you _lose_ power over time and become weaker and weaker as you have to go from fighting and besting enemies to fighting them off to completely running away. It would basically genre shift from an action game to a survival horror game to a pure (Amnesia-styled run away) horror game.
see that last idea is cool in concept but the execution would never work. my idea keeps the game in the same genre but just tilts the scales to make it more and more into a psychological piece instead of a strait up horror. shifting genre has always failed because some players will only like 1 of the genre and in the end the game will always be judged as having either a good first half or a good 2nd half and the whole game would be brought down by either being too slow to start or getting too slow in the last half. i get what your trying to do but sadly its never worked and i dont think it ever will.
Damn this is like a core memory unlocked. I played a demo of this way back then. I only remember bits and pieces and was too scared to actually figure it out but I did reach the demos end at least lol. The 90s were something else with the blatant, over the top, unexplained supernatural stuff. There's a certain creative charm to it even if it's immature
The House isn't in New England. It's in Helston Cornwall. In the south west of England. Funnily enough it is actually Celtic land. (The Romans never made it down this far which means the placenames are Celtic and not Latin. This means Helston doesn't translate to Hell Stone but rather 'old court') The only reason I know this is because I think this is the only game set in Cornwall that I know of and that's where I live so it was neat.
@@michaelbatashov2468 Probably the only actors they could get, like how the Martian Gothic devs got screwed over on a voice actor they wanted. Reminder, this stuff used to be a lot harder in the 90s/early 2000s than the resources we have getting actors and voice actors now, there was no Cameo. it's why everyone in Resident Evil 1 was just some random schmuck they got into the recording booth. Only the guy playing Barry Burton being the only one people have been able to track down after 20 years
One of your best videos yet, Ross. You've proven yourself as one of the most consistently funny, entertaining, and engaging channels on RU-vid. Love your content bro
Man...that acting in the first scene with Belial is some good work. By the book, classical acting for an evil character. Whoever that actor is, he's brilliant.
@@-Zakhiel- In my personal experience, I think the best way the "it was all a dream" cliche could work is if the dream has far reaching implications in the waking world. What people hate about dream reveals is the implication that none of it mattered. I reckon if you could convince the audience that it all did matter in the end, it would work out better. For example, the protag going through a soul searching dream journey to become a better person. Kinda like some psychological horrors like Silent Hill 2 or Cry of Fear.
re: 14:06 and games with one-use weapons rivera: the promised land is an rpg whose entire premise is that almost every item is like this, so that's kinda cool
I checked them all on IMDB. Almost all of them had plenty of acting credits (and those who don't at least have some stage credits). The only complete unknown (I couldn't get any info about him) is Adam (David Tuomi).
He also doesn't want the obligation that he feels a patreon account would put on him to keep a regular schedule. You know, like the complete opposite of Spoony.
Yep in Revernant he mentions Kain Alas the PC version is SUPER rare, and hard to run. Two things i've manged to do! Man, that terrible box art looks good on the shelf...such a great game
