Nightmare Creatures

You know those moments in movies when the lighting is dark and the music is tense: Someone is usually carrying a weapon and approaching a corner or dark space. Sometimes there are cobwebs. The music gets tenser. You know what is coming. You've seen it a thousand times. You even think it to yourself, "OK, something is going to spring around the corner and startle all the girls in the audience. Don't jump! Here is your chance to prove to the girl beside you at the theatre just how big a man you are. Stay cool. Keep calm." Despite your preparation, when the moment comes and that cat/bad guy/monster/cauliflower or whatever it might be leaps around the corner, you get that adrenaline charge and leap. Maybe you even scream and blow forever your illusion of cool with that girl beside you. The entire game of Nightmare Creatures is a continuous extension of that moment.

The entire atmosphere of this game is creepy. Everything takes place the night of the Great Fine of 1834 in London. It seems that fire was not caused by an overheated stove as is the common story. The truth is much more sinister. Our trusty hero or heroine (you have your choice of two characters) seeks to stem a terrible evil that is being masterminded by one Adam Crowley. This evil involves the unleashing of a terrible virus that changes people into zombies, werewolves, demons and all manner of monsters. The story moves through the dark streets, the dank sewers, and the musty graveyards of rat infested, 19th Century London. It is a dark and stormy evening with thunder and lightning. The areas that must be visited are often confined and coated in cobwebs. Monsters expire in puddles of blood and are forever leaping around corners or smashing through walls to startle the player. The graphics are good and do a fantastic job of conveying the creepy tension of the game, especially the fog and rain effects, as well as the gore and flying body parts.

3D Roaming Action

This is one more free roaming 3D action game. There are far fewer of these games for the N64 then there are for the PlayStation and PC (Thank your lucky stars), which are riddled with mediocre examples of this genre. In fact, Kalisto is guilty of making a number of them. This same Nightmare Creatures was much less good on the PlayStation and The Fifth Element, which used the same engine was decidedly weak. Shooting games in the genre have come of age and can be quite excellent (witness Syphon Filter). Hand to hand combat games don't quite do it for me yet. The characters in Nightmare Creatures use their feet and either a sword or a staff. There are lots of special combos that are gradually introduced throughout the course of the game (Learn them. The final boss can only be hit by four move combos). No one seems to have found a way to get true depth into the fighting and the combat ends up being pure button mashing mayhem. When somebody gets Tekken 3 fighting into a roaming adventure I will love it. For now, I mash buttons and wish for more. This is also a rare Mature rated Nintendo 64 title and is so rated for all of the spattering gore and severed body parts.

Nightmare Creatures also permits less roaming than a lot of games. There are many areas that look like they should be accessible but are not. The smallest box or fence is enough to block your path. This is not Tomb Raider 3 with endless dexterity leaps and puzzles. There is no climbing. Nightmare Creatures is pure run, slash and kick. The 20 levels of the game are mostly the same and have the character trying to get from one end of a linear level to the other. There is the odd lever to pull or jump to manage, but mostly there are lots of monsters to kill. What saves the level design from crushing monotony is the adrenaline meter. The idea is that adrenaline wards off the virus. If the player runs out of adrenaline, the virus begins to work. Killing monsters is a great way to get an adrenaline charge. The player is always rushing in Nightmare Creatures. There is no time to stop and explore the limitations of the level design. One must constantly hurry on to the next monster, and the next, and then on to the end of the level before the adrenaline charge subsides.

Retooled

The big complaint with the PlayStation Nightmare Creatures engine is that it is nearly impossible to turn around. Player characters turn so agonizingly slowly that PlayStation gamers curse, swear and hurl their controllers in annoyance. Kalisto has fixed that problem with the N64 port and the action actually happens quite smoothly and control is quite good. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the camera.

The player has no control over the camera and the default camera work is poor. The character is forever overshooting the camera. This results in sudden flips from looking at your character's back to looking at their front. Suddenly all of the directions are reversed and this leads to frustration. Worse, camera changes very often result in the monsters being off screen. It is infuriating to lose track of a monster and get attacked from behind because the camera has made a bad change and left you staring at the wall. This happens constantly. The developers have pulled a smart move that kept me from flinging my controller in disgust. The player character, for the most part, stays oriented to the enemy that he or she is fighting, so even if you can't see an enemy because of poor camera work, you can still mash buttons and attack them. This doesn't work if the monster gets too far away or if you overshoot them with your button mashing enthusiasm and they get behind you. (This also happens quite regularly.)

Despite the poor camera work and uninspired levels, Nightmare Creatures comes through quite well. The great atmosphere of the game and the pace that the adrenaline meter forces keep the game entertaining. It is as much fun as a night of B-grade horror flicks. This would be a great game to play on a dark and stormy weekend, alone, in the dark.

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