Description
Your name is Caleb. You were a feared gunslinger, until you met a woman who was involved with the mysterious cult known as Cabal. You too are sucked in, and soon become one of the Chosen - the most favored worshippers of the evil god, Tchernobog. But one day, Tchernobog inexplicably kills the four Chosen, including you; mysteriously resurrected years later, you are out to get revenge, and learn why your lord cast you down so abruptly.
Ken Silverman's Build engine is the basis for what was possibly the goriest first-person shooter ever made up to this time. The environment is fully interactive, with moving floors and active vehicles. Destruction of landscapes is possible (although only in specific spots), and bullet holes being left by misplaced shots. The Build engine is 2.5D, so there are rooms above rooms and puzzles which are based on this.
People explode violently when taken out, to the point that you can use a zombie's head like a football. Impaled victims can be found lying around, and people die in different ways depending on how they are attacked and in which part of their body.
The game consists of four episodes, each one containing a set of maps that have to be traversed by our hero in order. The levels are usually realistic-looking structures (such as a carnival - complete with twisted attractions - or a city district).
Throughout the levels, you need to find keys (up to 6 in a level) and switches in order to make your way to the exit. On the way, you'll meet a variety of enemies, such as zombies that tend to come back to life after killed, cultists armed with shotguns and tommy guns that shout in pseudo-Latin language, crawling hands that attempt to choke you, or hell-hounds that can set you on fire with their breath, and many more.
To defend yourself against this menace, you can find a variety of weapons: a pitchfork; a flare gun that can set enemies on fire; a sawed-off shotgun; a tommy gun; a napalm launcher; TNT bundles which come in three different varieties; a home-made flamethrower made of an aerosol can; a tesla cannon that electrocutes your victims; a magical staff dubbed the "Life Leech"; and a voodoo doll.
There are items to pick up strewn around. Unlike other games, your health is not replenished via medikits, but by "Life Essences", heart-like powerups randomly dropped by enemies upon their death. It is also possible to find armor, which comes in three different varieties - Physical, Fire, and Spiritual, each one defending you from different attacks. There are also other powerups; some (such as Jumping Shoes or Doctor's Bag) can be picked up and activated at any time, while others (such as Partial Invisibility) activate immediately when you take them.
Alternate Titles
- "Horror 3D" -- Working title
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Trivia
The statement about what Tchernobog means is absolutely correct. Also, compare Chernovoi [CHAIR-no-VOY] "bad, occult spirit" in Russian, or Domovoi, Russian for "a good spirit that lives at an inn or a person's house, and protects it from bad things, as long as the person is basically good." There is a Domovoi (in fact two of them, one with a large role who has blue fur, and the other with a small role who has discolored brown fur) in
Quest for Glory IV. In medieval Russian folk tales, when the good housewife heard the house making creaking noises, these were supposed to be the sounds made by the mommy Domovoi's little tiny children. It was said to be a good idea for the housewife to throw down a heavy cloth on top of the place where the housewife heard the noises. The mommy Domovoi would then not be able to hear where her little children were, because the cries would be muffled. In exchange for telling the mommy Domovoi where her children were, it was said that the medieval Russian housewife could ask the mommy Domovoi any question at all, and would be able to count on getting a magically correct and complete answer.
This entry to the MobyGames database was contributed by
Accatone (5228) on Mar 06, 2000.
