Realms of the Haunting--Most 90s Game Ever?

[axx]

Played this years ago. If you're new to this game don't read the maps and just explore the areas yourself (except for the brains puzzle, I can't remember if there's a map for that area).
There's also a somewhat obscure secret at the beginning of the game - don't pick up the gun on the table in the first area. There will be a gun with 2 clips waiting for you when you descend into the library dungeon.

 

[Harthwain]

Which is a shame, as this very well could have been one of the best games of 1995 had it been release just a year earlier, and I think, it’s arguably a bit of a missing link between Doom and Thief (at least in terms of level design and puzzles, if not all aspects of gameplay). The game world is highly interactable, with lots of objects to click and use. Levels are also sprawling, labyrinthine, and nearly open world. They rarely close off once you finish them, so if you really wanted to you could walk from one end of the game world to the other. Plus, barring a few tedious, late game, mazes and switch throwing, the puzzles are mostly pretty fun and reminded me a bit of a low-tech “Thief.”

Wouldn't The Legacy: Realm of Terror be a better fit (and it came out in 1992)? It's a horror game, you walk around a haunted mansion in first person perspective. Mechanically it is an RPG, but with very strong adventure elements. The interface is point-and-click style. If I were to point out where Realms of the Haunting outshines The Legacy: Realm of Terror it's the visuals (and I am NOT talking about FMV here...) and combat (which, by your own admission, also sucks).

The best part, however, is the plot, which is a completely silly hodge-podge of b-horror films, 90s comic book clichés (there are undertones of 90s Vertigo), and even, in the game’s dimension hoping with a female sidekick, shades of “Dr Who.” Of course, comparing RotH to any of these sources is giving it way too much credit. Its FMV sequences are often leaden and stretch on way too long, suffering from the bad, soap opera, editing technique where the video cuts to super long reaction shots of characters looking pensive after every single thing anyone says. Plus, things get nonsensical fast, and about half way through the game, the FMV sequences mostly just focus on people appearing to tell you what absurd, magical artifact you have to track down next, before disappearing. But, honestly, bad acting, z-grade special effects, and nonsensical plots are the main reason for playing 90s FMV games….so I mean none of this as a criticism.

It all sounds better than it is executed though. Realms of the Haunting has the concept of other realms but it fails capitalizing on that. Partially because the game starts in the haunted mansion, which is very atmospheric and the plot get worse and worse as the time goes by, which further diminishes the potential for what could've been done with these realms and traveling through them. I say Realms of the Haunting should've ended with the initial level and offering but a short glimpse into being the "Dr Who" equivalent (trans-dimensional traveller). An apt idea for a sequel (giving the developers time to think how to make that an interesting activity, and maybe rethinking the horror elements, thereby reinforcing this theme for their first game).

I would also cut down on the story (should've been told across more than a single game) and remove FMV entirely, because it is obvious that FMV wasn't capable of delivering the convincing feeling for the kind of setting their tried to go with their story. Not with the level of costumes they had. I mean, you had a being that was imprisoned and all the angelic iconography (in his very own words "a Host for the Power of Light"), but it turns out Hawk is literally just... some guy in a shirt.

To draw a comparison to another FMV game: Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. If you treat it as B-class movie with some campy action it can be kind of fun, but you can't ever treat it seriously and - again - you are severly limited with what you can do with FMV format. Compare that with Gabriel Knight 1 - it had way more serious atmosphere and allowed for creating a much more convincing supernatural effects (such as the dream about the dragon, for example), because the pixel art wasn't nearly as limiting in terms of creativity or budget.

So, going back to Realms of the Haunting, I think it would serve the plot better to have said plot reduced in scope AND give up the FMV "movie-like" element in favour of voiced pixel art instead. Because FMV isn't really cheap, meaning it would be possible to hire a good artist instead while at the same time reducing the amount of space required to hold the game (which was not insignificant back then). Another point in favour of this solution is that the plot had to be severly chopped down, resulting in serious holes where you wonder whether you accidentally skipped something.

Don't get me wrong, the game has certain charm because of its oddity and ambition, but it could've been handled way better than it was.