Frightmare

Frightmare description

Rare platformer in the horror genre (horror) movie of the same name, ported to the PC with the spectrum a small circulation and very little known. The plot of the film can be roughly described as follows. A person sees a horrible nightmare in which he goes to some weird rooms and spaces where scary monsters, among which there are zombies and existing separately from bodies, huge heads and claws, eating people. And the hero need to survive in this terrible world because if he dies in the dream, then you die in real life... the Film made in Britain and is considered one of the most terrible and bloody in history. And the game in General, trying to follow it.

The main task of the player in Frightmare – to survive until the moment when the hero in real life would be time to get up. This "X" to eight hours and twelve minutes in the morning, starts the game at midnight. After completing each screen, the current time increases by six minutes. That is, the game promises to be quite long. But this is only the final goal, whereas what is happening in the game during its passage, is much more interesting and unusual.

First, let's touch briefly on enemies. It really is a Monster with a capital letter. Among them there are many who are even difficult to come up with some name, perhaps, laid by the game "the bar" in terms of unusual creatures have not been surpassed at least before the release of Nightmare Creatures. But "traditional enemies" here have mentioned zombies, ghosts, flying skulls, giant bats, spiders, snakes and many others... the Total number of types of monsters here – no less than fifteen pieces, and most of them even have justification for the origin: for example, hands are chopped off the hands of thieves, werewolves – people who were worshiping the moon, zombies are former worshipers of Satan, mummies – ancient Egyptian cruel officials who have not received proper burial, vampires – Transylvanian villains... If any of the hostile creatures will affect the character – it instantly dies.

Can I fight monsters? Yes, although at first not all of them. In the game you can find weapons like a standard revolver, which, by the way, it will be necessary to collect ammo (all at the same time you can only have twenty bullets), and less familiar things – like Holy water, Crucifixes, or even normal hours (!). However, some monsters can't be killed – for example, the gun won't help against the devils; but many monsters require for the murder of not one bullet. Crucifixion can temporarily "freeze" enemies (not all – only zombies, snakes and some others), and the use of hours (apparently, it's some mystical watch or delirium mind) – temporarily slow down their movement speed (this is valid for all monsters). Holy water – a very powerful weapon with which to kill many of the monsters: for example, it works well on Jellyfish, bats and skulls, and it is almost like a bomb has a "kill radius" and is capable of hitting multiple monsters at the same time. It is also worth noting that the ammunition in the game there are two types of bullets: regular and silver (for which you want to find a special gun in the entire game be only one), and a werewolf or a zombie, for example, will affect only the last (there is also information that they can kill the devil, but it is difficult to do). The crucifixion after use does not disappear, but the Holy water and (somehow) watch can be used against monsters only once, then you have to find a new one, so use these two items wisely.

The most important bonus in the game is the rings that give additional life; all at the same time you can have up to five lives. Sometimes you can find some special bonus-for example, there is a thing like wings, which can be used to gain the ability to fly, if not, then a huge jump. There are still teleports to other screens – they also can be taken as bonuses. However, there is a limitation that will be sure to note at the same time you can only carry three objects (including, of course, and weapons).

So, to fight monsters you can. But is it necessary? It would seem that this is a stupid question, but – not for Frightmare. The fact that the game (analogues I, honestly, don't remember) there is an indicator such as "dream-state", a kind of "sleep state" that appears in word at the top of the screen; the Bad Dream – the initial state (the "good" in the game), Nefarious Dream – the worst. And even if you manage to kill a monster (and killing in the game too creepy) – it is not the fact that your state of mind will improve: on the contrary, it may be so that it will be much worse, so much worse that the hero of the game would simply die... So the current state you need to constantly keep track of and this is extra nerves, although the nerves here are full enough without it. Change the status using the collection of special bonuses in the form of houses, but therein lies the catch: all the bowls look the same, and lifting can lead to positive and to negative effect, so I have to take the risk. A state change occurs gradually: as already mentioned, it is displayed in text form, and each taking the bowl changes color one of the letters designating his phrase; as soon as all letters has changed the color has changed.

If, by the way, touch of the nervousness of the game – much of it is based on, so to speak, the "architecture" of the game. The world Frightmare consists of a huge number of areas (although there are open spaces) that are interconnected in a very complex way, and since no map of this world does not exist, getting lost here is very easy. Graphics Frightmare in may to many seem strange and unfamiliar: there is rather poor (formally) CGA-palette, side view, backgrounds dark and not particularly detailed, and the main character looks very strange – in the form of white figures with only some black dots for the eyes, so he look like a Ghost or a mummy.

But such a schedule and creates the astonishing atmosphere of monstrous, cruel, drowning in blood the world inhabited a nameless, terrible monsters. This is a great example of what true horror can be transmitted without any "modern technology": of course, scary or not is a matter of taste, but, in my opinion, none of the horror of the turn of the century, from a graphical point of view formally, looking much better with this game can not be compared. Yes, the backgrounds here are really not particularly rich in objects, and these objects are not so perfectly drawn, but all the same we expect here the mysterious ruins of ancient buildings and monuments, scary twisted trees and spooky swamp...

And because every screen is different, although it is sometimes difficult to see; and there are truly a masterpiece of locations with unique monsters: for example, "Laboratory", where your enemies will live brains sitting in the flying fields, or the "Torture chamber" with live guillotines and mass hanging from the walls mutilated bodies... It's really a horrifying world of nightmare, where one scene may in a moment change to another, where there is no laws of logic reign, and the Absurdity and the Horror... Oh, one more thing: game in any case should not be given to children and impressionable people – both because of the level of severity, and the overall depressive atmosphere of a wild despair.

The verdict is, of course, not a perfect score, but the game nevertheless has an overall rating much above average. Yes, it is a cruel thing, at the same time extremely nervous and difficult to pass (for example, there is generally no concept of "level", the total number of screens – about a hundred, and they, as already noted, very intricately linked), but still and very atmospheric thing. It is recommended to educate those who simultaneously is a fan of old horror movies and likes really intense and challenging game.

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Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com