E-mail:
Password:
Join GameSpot | Forgot Login | Help
GameSpot Video Games, PC, Wii, PlayStation 2, GameCube, PSP, DS, GBA, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
A General History 1993 - 1997Alone in the DarkThe 7th GuestGabriel Knight: Sins of the FathersPhantasmagoriaResident Evil and the Survival Horror BoomRealms of the HauntingBlood


Realms of the Haunting
Developer: Gremlin Interactive
Publisher: Interplay
Check Latest Prices

Realms of the Haunting served as a fitting conclusion to the early development stage of PC horror gaming. The Gremlin-designed, Interplay-published game emerged with little fanfare at the tail end of 1996, yet managed to become a word-of-mouth sensation. And with good reason. Developers working on the game had obviously been doing their homework, as Realms of the Haunting managed to include the best snippets of all that had gone before. They combined the mature themes of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers with the action elements popularized in Alone in the Dark and the full-motion video seen in The 7th Guest and Phantasmagoria into one stunning whole that entranced just about everyone.

screenshot
FMV sequences were often disturbing in Realms of the Haunting.

The setting is present-day England. You portray Adam Randall, a young man coping with both the recent death of his minister father and strange dreams of a house. After discovering that this building actually exists, Randall journeys to the place...only to be locked in and forced to confront his father's imprisoned soul and an occult secret that involves such horror standbys as the Knights Templar, the Freemasons, and other arcane organizations. Much of this story was established through good use of full-motion video that was limited to expository scenes that moved the plot. It was never allowed to take over the actual game, as in full-blown video efforts like The 7th Guest. This also permitted the scriptwriters to craft a freeform game in which tasks could be completed in just about any order that you desired.

screenshot
Some skeletal opposition to gun down.

Gameplay is depicted from a first-person perspective. You control the protagonist with a standard mouse and keyboard interface that would have been familiar to shooter veterans. Some shooter conventions were retained as well, in that you needed to gun down a number of supernatural opponents to escape the house alive. The game plays out much like a first-person version of Alone in the Dark. Although you have to take a direct role in blasting baddies back to the grave, you also have to collect objects and solve puzzles between the gunplay. Gremlin crafted an intriguing mix of action and riddle in Realms of the Haunting. What's more, it was accessible to all because of options that allowed the user to separately tweak the difficulty of the puzzles and the action. Traditional adventure buffs could just keep action at the easiest setting and concentrate the majority of their efforts on solving the many brainteasers.

screenshot
The mansion is a foreboding place.

Of all the games discussed in the first part of this feature, none stands up today as well as Realms of the Haunting. Game mechanics are second-to-none, and the blend of action and adventure is perfect for modern sensibilities that seem to demand cross-genre titles. Even after almost five years, you can still find it in bargain bins. If you're interested in a true horror classic, do yourself a favor and hunt a copy down.


 

« Previous Page Next: You're soaking in it »