| Waxworks | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Horrorsoft |
| Publisher(s) | Accolade |
| Designer(s) | Michael Woodroffe, Alan Bridgman, Simon Woodroffe |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, DOS |
| Release date(s) | 1992 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media/distribution | Floppy disk |
Waxworks (Not to be confused with the film of the same name) is a 1992 Horrorsoft first-person dungeon crawl style role-playing video game. It was originally an Amiga game but was also released for DOS. It is infamous for its still-startling depictions of gore (in 256 colors) and its difficult gameplay. This was Horrorsoft's last game before they became Adventure Soft, a company renowned for their Simon the Sorcerer series.
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Many years ago, a witch named Ixona stole a chicken from an ancestor of the player, who chopped off her hand as punishment for the theft. Ixona retaliated by placing a terrible curse on the ancestor that would take effect whenever twins were born in his family line; one twin would grow up to be good, while the other would become evil. This continues to the present day, and the player's twin brother, Alex, is next in line to inherit the curse.
At the start of the game, the player's uncle, Uncle Boris, has died and left them with his waxworks, as well a crystal ball through which his spirit communicates with the player and helps the player when summoned. In a letter, he tells the player that they must rid the family of Ixona's curse in order to save Alex. To do this, the player must use the Waxworks to travel through four time periods and locations, and defeat the evil twin of each location. These locations include Ancient Egypt, a zombie-infested cemetery, Victorian London, and a mine shaft overrun with plant-like mutants.
Eventually the player learns that the only way to break the curse is to prevent it from being cast in the first place. After all four evil twins are defeated, the player will be given four artifacts, each once owned by one of the evil twins encountered before being purified by their owners' defeat: the High Priest's amulet, the Necromancer's ring, Jack the Ripper's knife, and a vial of the Plant Monster's poison. They will also be granted access to the final waxwork in the game, which takes them to the precise time and place where the curse was originally pronounced, and in this waxwork they are shown the events leading up to the start of the curse. Following instructions given beforehand by Uncle Boris, the player must then use three of these objects (sans the ring) and a crossbow found in the waxwork to kill Ixona before she can place the curse. As a result, the curse is never cast and is effectively erased from existence for every afflicted generation, including the past generations encountered, the present day, and all future generations thereafter.
After the curse is undone, Alex is found unconscious in a corner of the waxworks, and the player uses the ring to revive him. Upon waking, he tells the player about a strange dream he had, in which he witnessed the events in the final waxwork and Ixona's death. However, in the dream Ixona muttered something before she died, at which point the ancestor who originally incurred Ixona's wrath was transformed into a demon. The meaning of the dream is never made clear, possibly hinting at a potential sequel, and the game ends with Alex and the player returning home peacefully.
Waxworks is a first-person dungeon crawl style role-playing video game.
The player mainly moves around a series of tight corridors using a bitmap sprite-based point-and-click interface picking up items, solving puzzles, and engaging in combat with various horrific creatures such as zombies. During combat players can target individual body parts such as head and arms.
The player loses all experience points and weapons once a particular level is completed, which ensures that there is a new challenge for each waxwork.
The game uses the AGOS engine, which is a modified version of the AberMUD 5 engine.
The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #192 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[1]
The game was also reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #197 by Sandy Petersen in the first "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.[2]