Nightmare Creatures
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| Nightmare Creatures | |
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| Developer(s) | Kalisto Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Release date(s) | 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Survival horror, adventure, platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation, Windows, Nintendo 64, Mobile Phone |
Nightmare Creatures is a 3D action/adventure video game released for the Sony PlayStation and PC in 1997, and Nintendo 64 in 1998. It was published by Activision and developed by Kalisto Entertainment. Upon its release, Nightmare Creatures drew comparisons to Eidos's Tomb Raider and Capcom's Resident Evil.
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[edit] Plot
The story behind Nightmare Creatures draws upon gothic horror elements of the 19th century. The story begins in 1666, when a devil-worshipping cult called the Brotherhood of Hecate were conducting sinister experiments in London so as to take over the city, and then the world. The Brotherhood tried to develop an elixir that would enable them to obtain superhuman powers. However, rather than creating their intended superhumans, they unleash a host of nightmarish creatures instead.
The game takes place during 1834 when London falls victim to several evil occurrences. Monster sightings are reported along with news of people mutating into ungodly creatures, and that the dead are waking from their graves and walking amongst the living. All of London is in a panic and vulnerable to the ghastly schemes of Adam Crowley, a mad scientist and occultist enlisting the help of the Brotherhood. Until, one day when a mysterious book is dropped off at the home of Ignatius Blackward, a priest and occult expert. He soon discovers that the book is the secret diary of Samuel Pepys, who recorded all the nasty doings of the Brotherhood. Knowing he needs help, Ignatius sends off the diary to a renowned American immunologist named Dr. Jean Franciscus of New Orleans, who shows up with his daughter Nadia in tow. The good doctor is promptly murdered and the book stolen. At the funeral, Ignatius and Nadia are approached by a man who gives them a note reading: "Know about Adam Crowley, Brotherhood of Hecate --- HVHJ." On Oct. 17, 1834, Ignatius and Nadia head out to an address listed on the note, hoping to seek out Crowley and to resolve the monstrous activity that grips London.
The game's themes and gameplay are a noteworthy reference to such classics as Castlevania and Alone in the Dark series.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Ignatius Blackward
A servant of God, Ignatius travels the world to fight off all forms of evil. From his many travels he has managed to acquire several exceptional skills, such as being an expert linguist in foreign languages, knowledge in Kabbalist writing as well as occult and shaman rituals. Ignatius is called back to London by a parish in Chelsea who are desperate for his aid in solving the disappearance of certain members of the parish. The parish claim that the disappearances are due to the sudden "monstrous" activity which has swept London recently. Ignatius soon learns that these have been confirmed to be the consequence of the excavations at St. Catherine's Dock, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. One night, a manuscript appears at the door of Ignatius. He discovers that the author is none other than Samuel Pepys, dated 1666, the manuscript details the activities of the Brotherhood of Hecate. One of the passages in the manuscript concerns Ignatius particularly, an arcane spell which enables the user to obtain the power to give life to the inanimate. Having read the manuscript Ignatius sends the journal to a colleague of his, a Dr. Jean Franciscus in New Orleans.
[edit] Dr. Jean Franciscus
A historian with a reputation and an expert on secret societies, Dr. Jean Franciscus receives the jorunal of Pepys and examines it with interest. In the company of his daughter Nadia, the good doctor immediately crosses the Atlantic. Arriving in London, he meets up with Ignatius and begins his inquiries on the Brotherhood of Hecate. One morning Ignatius has a vision, and is taken by a sudden desire to go see Jean at his hotel. He finds the doctor fatally wounded, in his last breath manages to say: "Murder. Adam Crowley. The Brotherhood of He... the journal is gone."
[edit] Nadia Franciscus
Returning from her gymnastics meeting, Nadia finds Ignatius knelt over the body of her father. When she demands an explanation, Ignatius repeats the last words of Jean to her. Nadia promises to avenge the death of her father by finding his killer, Adam Crowley, and defeating the Bortherhood of Hecate. Ignatius declares his allegiance in helping Nadia. After the funeral services of her father an unknown person leaves a message: "I have information on AC, HVHJ."
[edit] Adam Crowley
An old alchemist, and the newest leader of the Brotherhood of Hecate. Having discovered the manuscript of Samuel Pepys, Crowley wished to use the powerful secret, magic to create a superior breed of beings to dominate the world. In his pursuit for world domination he attracted the interest and gained the support of several businessmen, bankers, doctors and other members eminent in the society to finance and participate in his malevolent schemes. However the society did not forsee that Crowley would create monsters out of his project, and therefore tried to stop him, only the society was caught in a grip of fear by Crowley's power, until the secretary of the Brotherhood known as Henry Victor Holy Jail decides to take action into his own hands. Henry takes Samuel Pepys' manuscript and drops it off, outside Ignatius' door and later leaves a message for Nadia. Adam Crowley is the assassin of Dr. Jean Fransiscus and Ignatius and Nadia need to find Crowley in order to bring an end to his plans, otherwise London will become hunting ground for the nightmare creatures.
[edit] Game information
First, the games stages are:
1- Chelsea 2- Spitalfield 3- Sewer Snake 4- Thames Tunnel 5- India Docks 6- Highgate Cemetery 7- Hampstead Heath 8- Queenhite Docks 9- City 10- Smithfield 11- Snowman 12- Regents Cannal 13- London Zoo 14- Bloomsbury 15- Pimlico 16- Jose Manuel 17- Westminster 18- Westminster II 19- The Roofs
Players take control of either Nadia, the young American swordswoman or Ignatius, the staff-wielding monk and traverse 19th century London to defeat the evil Adam Crowley, a fictionalized version fashioned upon Aleister Crowley. Crowley is a member of the Brotherhood of Hecate, whose headquarters are located in London. Obsessed with creating a race of insanely-powerful and impervious humans, Crowley and the Brotherhood concocted a mysterious amalgam of unknown ingredients. The mixture, however, had detrimental effects. Instead of empowering humans, it grossly disfigured them, yielding horrifying results. Crowley became obsessed with ruling the world so he unleashed these "nightmare creatures" into the streets of London. Ultimately, this led to the Great Fire of 1834.
Secondary weapons such as pistols, mines, fire bombs, and magic spells can be used in addition to each character's primary weapon. The game features an adrenaline bar which causes health to be lost if it runs out, and players are forced to continuously seek out and win battles to keep the adrenaline bar full. Monsters in Nightmare Creatures include:
- Zombie: former townsfolk, currently undead and predatory. Easily dispatched, but will rise again if not properly hacked to pieces. Two versions, blue and black trousers. Blue blocks better.
- Werewolf: abomination with long fangs. Easy to kill.
- Demon: small batlike flyer that sends balls of fire towards the protagonist.
- Pepys' Monster: hideous thing with three heads and three arms.
- Docker: large gorilla-like creature.
- Insect: Giant cockroach-like monster that can fly. Quite easy to kill but does a lot of damage.
- Thames' Monster: monstrous fish/octopus-like thing that lurks in the water near docks. Has huge teeth and very long tentacles.
- Harpy or Banshee: female flyer with bat wings and a long whiptail instead of legs. Has a particularly nasty attack cry.
- Spider: large, six-legged humanoid. Hides in houses and spins webs. Tough to kill.
- Faceless Man: a knife-murderer with disfigured visage
- Gargoyle: grey demon with small wings and large claws. Tough adversary with a habit of impersonating statues.
- Giant Rat: giant, long-legged rat with carnivorous habits
- Hellhound: large wolf-like demon that breathes jets of fire. Extremely dangerous.
While the PC and Playstation ports were essentially the same, the Nintendo 64 version saw a handful of minor changes. Given the limited storage capacity of the N64's cartridge system, all full-motion video cinemas were removed from this release. Brief segments of scrolling text are used at the game's start and following each level to advance the plot. The highly frustrating jump-based platforming elements were made much easier in the N64 version, and the health-depleting adrenaline meter could also be turned off in the options menu, allowing players to explore the environments at a more leisurely pace.
[edit] Movie
On December 8, 2000, a Nightmare Creatures movie was announced, but never never got into production [1]:
According to an announcement made today by Kalisto Entertainment, APG (Artists Production Group, AMG group) and Le Studio Canal have acquired the rights to Kalisto's popular video game franchise, "Nightmare Creatures."
The movie adaptation is set to be directed by Ralph Zondag (Dinosaur) and to be written by Matt Cirulnick, whom the Kalisto press release states as having "recently completed three major projects for Dimension Films: Paid in Full, Total Recall 2, and Hell Hole." Le Studio Canal's Stephane Sperry and APG's Cathy Schulman will produce the picture.
The horror/action video game "Nightmare Creatures" and its sequel have been released for various gaming platforms, including PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast. According to the press release, the Nightmare Creatures film "follows brilliant master surgeon Adam Crowley who is shunned by his medical contemporaries for his gruesomely unorthodox experiments. In seclusion, Crowley learns to regenerate his own failing body and creates a hellish brood of monsters who invade London. But his plan to scientifically alter the course of evolution is threatened by his most perfect creation." While the original "Nightmare Creatures" game is set on the streets of London in 1834, the press release oddly states that the film will be set "in the 17th century London."
[edit] Nightmare Creatures II
Nightmare Creatures II was released in 2000 for the PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast, again developed by Kalisto but published by Konami. Taking place in 1934 London and Paris, players control Wallace, a captive in Adam Crowley's genetics hospital. In a turnaround of sorts, the player character carries an axe and wears bandages and a dark trench coat, appearing to be a B-movie horror villain himself. Wallace escapes the hospital and seeks out Crowley, battling his monsters along the way with an axe as his primary weapon. Gameplay is similar to the previous installment, seeing the adrenaline bar abandoned and the addition of Mortal Kombat-like fatality moves to execute weakened enemies. The game features licenced music from Rob Zombie in the cut-scenes.
The monster design here moves away from classic/gothic imagery (such as the first title's Gargoyles and Hellhounds) and focuses more on horror and nightmares. Monsters in Nightmare Creatures 2 include:
- Zombie (Michel): undead human being with a taste for brains. Two versions, brown and black coat. Black coat is about twice as strong.
- Female Zombie (Anna): undead human being with a taste for brains. thin, tall, female zombie.
- Bofoid: muscular humanoid with tail and protruding tentacles.
- Agile: quick, catlike monster able to scale walls. Goes for the jugular.
- Chainsaw Zombie (Labat): zombie reminiscent of Leatherface.
- Reaper Zombie (Jules): strong zombie carrying a pruning hook. Can survive decapitation.
- Foetus: horrid humanoid monster with octopus-like tentacles for a lower body.
- Giant Bat
- Placard Man: thin, tall, bloodthirsty zombie carrying a knife. Looks somewhat like Marilyn Manson. Hides in lockers.
- Lizard Creature: amphibious frog/human hybrid with two tails.
- Thumper: enormous gorilla-like creature with the strength of a bulldozer.
- Transcube: zombie-like being (possibly female) that throws meat cleavers.
- Giant Spider: actually more like a demonic chimpanzee with two extra arms. Does make webs though.
- Necrophage: dark scavenger with elongated head. Carries a ribcage on chains for a weapon.
[edit] Nightmare Creatures 3: Angel of Darkness
Nightmare Creatures 3: Angel of Darkness was initially announced for a Spring 2003 release for Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox, but the game soon fell into development hell. It began development at Kalisto in 2002 and Ubisoft obtained the publishing rights, but Kalisto soon went out of business and Ubisoft assumed development duties. Kalisto's apparent concept of the game involved a heroine exploring 19th century Prague during the daytime and merging with a raven at nightfall to transform into a beast and battle Adam Crowley's monsters, but Ubisoft reportedly began designing the game from the ground up when it gained control over the game's development and it's unknown whether Kalisto's original concept remained intact. Spring 2003 came and went with no news on the title. In 2004, Ubisoft representatives claimed the game had not been cancelled, but the company has remained quiet about Nightmare Creatures 3 ever since. As of 2006, an official cancellation announcement has yet to be made, and it is possible that development of the game has been carried over to one or more of the seventh generation era gaming systems such as the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii.
[edit] Nightmare Creatures (Mobile)
The latest insallment in the series is a mobile phone game, simply titled Nightmare Creatures. It was released in 2003 by Gameloft.
