Ecstatica (PC) Review

This is a story of an unlikely hero or heroine (depending on whom the player will select in the beginning); a simple nobody that enters a small village just to find some water, only to get trapped there, forced to fight his way through all sorts of monsters; monsters that range from small goblins and gremlins, to gargantuan minotaurs and blood-thirsty werewolves. Now, while no one is likely to be impressed by a "horror" game that's so old, this is actually a pretty dark and gory world, and one that's quite atmospheric despite it being one of the first of its kind… and although it looks ridiculous!

Similar to how Alone in the Dark had extremely low-polygon models for the hero/heroine and monsters, Ecstatica's characters and enemies are made out of ellipses, and move on pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. Unfortunately, while the use of shapes instead of polygons enables more detailed models than before, the result is pretty lame, as everything looks like a distant relative of the Michelin man. Even worse, the backgrounds look subpar, especially when compared to the beautiful, hand-painted world of the older Alone in the Dark.

In other words, this is a terrible victim of its age. Sadly, this becomes even more obvious once you get to control the action. On one hand, the main character can do much more than the protagonists of past survival horror titles ever could. He or she can hide and sneak, pick up all sorts of items, solve puzzles in various ways, swing either of his/her weapons at a foe, and so on. On the other hand, though, all this doesn't mean anything if the controls are so damn awful.

The simple act of moving around is frustrating and hard to get accustomed to, and it's actually possible to activate stuff by accident, as doing several things requires moving close to an object instead of pressing a button or something. The worst thing, however, is by far the fighting, because, while movement is frustrating, getting to battle with a monster is mind-numbingly aggravating - Satan forbid you ever get to do so with more than one foe.

Besides being hard to successfully position the character in the best spot, it's hard to get a feel of the fight and know if you are doing things the right way. The result feels especially awkward on screen, as you will frequently watch the hero dance in front of an enemy like a moron, rarely managing to do any harm. This becomes especially annoying when facing the werewolf - the overpowered enemy that actually stalks you from the very beginning of this hellish odyssey.

Ecstatica's adventure section is far better, as, for all its simplicity, the whole exploration and puzzle-solving involved turns out to be much more enjoyable than fighting. If there's one serious flaw here that would be that many obstacles require a bit too much trial and error, which, given the fact that it's hard to know if something works or not, though, it is not exactly very encouraging thought.

In conclusion, despite its few cons, this is a terrible piece of software. Its relative success managed to pave the way for a far better sequel (although it too was somewhat disappointing), but it instantly got lost when competition finally arrived; competition that was fun, and, most importantly, worked as intended. In other words Resident Evil didn't succeed just because it came later, but because it was a good freaking game!