Shivers

aka: Shivers: La Terreur Révèlera les Secrets des Ténêbres, Shivers: What Darkness Conceals, Terror Reveals
Moby ID: 663
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Surviving a dare by your friends to spend the night in a haunted museum is how Shivers begins, but it soon turns into a challenge of capturing the evil Ixupi, ghosts of South American legend, in pots scattered throughout the museum.

The game is similar to Myst in many aspects in that it's an adventure game with a 1st-person slideshow-type presentation. Though unlike Myst, you have a life meter and the Ixupi can steal life from it if you aren't careful.

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Critics

Average score: 70% (based on 21 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 48 ratings with 6 reviews)

This game is so divine, it sends shivers down my spine

The Good
The 7th Guest was an adventure game released in the early Nineties. Considered one of the first games to take advantage of the CD-ROM medium, it combined puzzle-solving with full-motion video, a formula that made it a success. Not only did it prompted a sequel, but it also caused other companies to capitalize on its success. Shivers shares the same game mechanics, but it is a bit easy on the FMV.

Four friends have challenged you to spend a night at a museum founded by Hubert Windlenot, a professor who was a big fan of archeology. There were rumors that two high school students ventured inside 15 years ago and never returned, and that Windlenot was responsible. The opening movie focuses on the player being locked inside the museum gate while your friends give you the rundown. A mysterious voice is soon heard telling the player to get out, reminding me of the “Bad Dream House” segment in the very first Simpsons Halloween special. Then your friends drive off, leaving you to find a way into the museum. (Hint: It's not through the front door.)

As you start to venture inside, you hear Windlenot's ghost telling you that it has been taken over by the Ixupi, evil entities that drained his life essence, and possibly, the life essence of the two missing students. Your only hope is to capture the Ixupi within vessels, the two parts which are scattered throughout the museum. Only then will you prevent further destruction.

Windlenot's museum is just like any other one in real life, with multiple floors, elevators, and surveillance cameras in certain exhibits. There are even buttons near the doorways that tell you about each exhibit. This led to me believing that I was actually walking through a real museum.

The object of Shivers is to explore every inch of the museum while finding the two pieces of each vessel. Then once you have the completed vessel, you must examine its bottom half to work out what the symbol on it represents, according to a book you find in the library. It is up to the player to associate the symbol with a certain object to find out where the correct Ixupi would be. Once it has been captured, the vessel gets stored in one of the ten slots above your life essence, displayed at the bottom of the screen.

If you encounter an Ixupi before you manage to complete a vessel, or use the incorrect vessel on one, your life essence gets drained and you have to try again. There are puzzles in most of the exhibits that need to be solved in order to access other parts of the museum, or to discover more parts to a vessel. Each puzzle can be solved more than once, and this is even encouraged in fact considering that you get bonus points for doing so.

One of the most useful features is called “Flashback”, in the game's control panel. Not only does it allow you to review the game's cut-scenes, but re-read books without the need to go back to the library or another area to access them. In addition, closed captioning is provided for dialogue if turned on here. This is useful to me as much of the dialogue goes in one ear and out the other. It is the first for any interactive movie Sierra made, but it's a shame that the company decided that this would be a one-off.

The graphics are pre-rendered, in the same vein as Phantasmagoria, another of Sierra's interactive movies released in the same year. All the objects in each of the museum's exhibits are real, the backgrounds are not, and the only animations that are present in the game are one of the Ixupi draining your life essence. I always enjoying see one of the vessels being carted away if you use it on the wrong Ixupi.

The music ranges from traditional to pop and rock styles, but there are some pieces that have a dark tone to them. The music really blends in with whatever exhibit you are in. If you are in the shaman exhibit, for instance, you hear the sound of repeating drums and several chanting. It is brilliantly composed. The way that you can tell if an Ixupi is in one of the exhibits is also neat. It's always the same tune, but with different instruments depending on what exhibit you're in. As for the sound effects, most of them were taken from a CD and then edited for enrichment.

The game is non-linear, meaning that you can tackle each puzzle in any order you like, as well as collecting each vessel at the time of your own choosing, with each part of the vessel placed randomly each game. Completing Shivers gives you the opportunity to explore the museum on your own, without the threat of the Ixupi lurking nearby.

The Bad
The only think I didn't like about Shivers is the fact that you are only allowed to store one item in your inventory, forcing you to memorize the whereabouts of each vessel. The final Ixupi is triggered when you dealt with nine Ixupis, but it is easy to go around in circles finding the last vessel before that event occurs. I had a lot of trouble completing the vessel that resembles wood, but it wasn't until I read a walkthrough that made my job a lot easier.

The Bottom Line
Shivers was released in the mid-Nineties, when video game companies like Sierra decided to create games that combined FMV and puzzle solving. Your objective is walk around a museum, collect vessels, and use these vessels to deal with the enemy within. The graphics are great, the sound is great, and the game itself is packed with atmosphere. You can even play the game in any way you like. If you enjoy light horror games where all you do is explore, then you could give this game a try.

Windows · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚ą (43092) · 2017

A seemingly campy horror mystery that is more than meets the eye

The Good
Shivers is an interesting departure for Sierra. Following the immense success and popularity of Myst, the veteran AGs company decided it was time to venture into uncharted territory, and thus Shivers was conceived.

Featuring 1st person perspective and a Myst-esque solitude, Shivers is quite a change from the traditional 3rd person, characters-laden earlier and contemporary Sierra titles. Moreover, only one item can be carried in the inventory at a time, which is limited to one type of objects.

So how did Sierra fare in this new yet perilous path? The answer, after experiencing Shivers, is well, very well indeed.

The first impression that one might get is that of a pretty much hackneyed, even cheesy teen horror slasher. But as one delves deeper into the bowels of the haunted museum, one learns there's much more here. True to its name, the museum/mansion you're marooned at by your friends (as shown in the introduction) is a treasure trove of the bizarre, the mysterious and the macabre. As for the latter, don't expect the standard set by games like Phantasmagoria, the content is comparatively mild and unharmful, nothing on the same scale as those titles at any rate.

As you explore the vast interior of the complex that is the museum, you'll encounter a wide gamut of interesting factoids and tidbits about an even wider range of ancient civilizations, arcane myths, occult stories and legendary figures and beings. Beside these are pieces of information about the late owner and curator of the museum, as well as a couple of adolescents who went missing there years ago. They come in the form of journals and books usually authored by the characters themselves, and make the bulk of the plot.

Of course, everything is crucial to peeling the layers of the mystery. As with many games of its kind, keen observation and great attention to detail are key in Shivers. Figuring out and uncovering all those secrets lying about provides a wonderful sense of accomplishment and gratification. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to mess around with all those exhibits in the museums you've been to? Play Shivers and you'll probably find out.

As said, the inventory is limited to one single item, which is invariably either a pot or its matching lid, or the combination of the two used for ensnaring the evil spirits (or Ixupi) that haunt the museum - which is the main objective of the game. This, of course, requires finding the two parts of the pot, and then locating the tangible manifestation of the element the newly assembled vessel represents, which is where the Ixupi lingers. The fractured parts are hidden all over the place, and mostly a puzzle is required to be solved before they can be obtained. Puzzles and riddles mostly reflect each section's central theme. Gameplay is non-linear, in that it's possible to work on multiple problems simultaneously - there's no rigid order in which to play, and you get free access to all the rooms.

The inventory may allow for only one item, however there's an extremely useful tool that is actually a more than adequate alternative. What I'm referring to is the Flashback menu. In addition to keeping track of all the viewed cut-scenes, it also records all of the important documents found (books, letters, journals).

The graphics are pre-renders, very reminiscent of Phantasmagoria - a little bit tacky and kitsch, but good enough. Movement is done via directional arrows, and is slideshow-style a la Myst. FMV cut-scenes use live actors, to varying qualities of acting and performing, but this is not really the point here anyway. The graphics may not be all that impressive per se, especially in comparison to the Myst series, but the awesome design compensates for this: The museum is a colossal assortment of neat and varied exhibits which attract the eye from the second you enter a new area. It's all very eclectic and diverse; you never get bored - what more do you need?

The Bad
Apparently, Shivers was marketed to teens, and indeed this is quite evident throughout the game. There's this very prominent side-flavour of campiness, the same evoked by Phantasmagoria.

For one, the Ixupi, which are supposed to be foul, menacing wicked spirits, look too cartoonish and are poorly animated - their physical appearance is far from how they're described. This diminishes greatly from the game's serious, horrific premise and tone.

Another issue is the puzzles. They vary too much in quality and difficulty, two criteria which don't necessarily go together. For example, the marble solitaire and pinball machine pose quite a challenge, but they're not nearly as interesting as the contextual, plot-based puzzles. And this is the weakest point here - unlike its inspiration, Myst, Shivers is fraught with self-contained, independent and unrelated challenges (e.g. jigsaw puzzles). This lends it a sort of a mini-games arena side-taste that is unwelcome.

Yet again we have a point n' click mania due to absent hotspots indication, not unlike Riven, but at least directional arrows do make an appearance here, fortunately. This leads to much frustration at times, especially in the library, for obvious reasons.

The Bottom Line
Phantasmagoria for kids, Myst in a horror setting, Alone in the Dark sans combat - whatever moniker you choose for it, and whatever comparison you make, Shivers will rise up to the challenge and prove it stands on its own as a fantastic experience for any adventure games player.

Just don't let the first impression mislead you, or the less-inspired puzzles dismay you. Shivers holds in it many surprises which are mostly pleasant, and it's enthralling and engrossing regardless of the few drawbacks.

Windows · by Tal Cohen (31) · 2009

Darkness, Terror, and Great Fun in "Shivers"

The Good
This is a fantastic videogame. "Shivers" is a "Myst"-clone that utilizes the same technology of using still images to traverse locations. It is there that "Shivers" ceases to be a "Myst"-clone. Dropping the beautiful and ephemeral locations for a haunted museum, "Shivers" is a fun trek into a creepy and abandoned museum; it is up to you the player to find the right tools to capture the malign spirits. The puzzles, for the most part, and fun and entertaining - but the most fun is all that is in-between the puzzles. Simply walking around the museum, listening to the ambient noises and music, reveling in the lavish production design and chosen color palette is sheer joy.

The Bad
The puzzles are not logic-based like "Myst", at times they can feel just dropped in for the purpose of pacing and increasing the difficulty. Other than that, no complaints.

The Bottom Line
"Shivers" was released in 1995 right on the heels of the mega-popular "Myst". At that time, Sierra Studios, (the developer/publisher), had a slew of hits, including the "Aces" series and the burgeoning "Gabriel Knight" series. Sierra crafted a special adventure in "Shivers" that was a departure from the ephemeral atmosphere of "Myst". Much darker and macabre, like "Gabriel Knight" ,"Shivers" dropped the player in a Haunted Museum of the "Strange and Unusual". And that is where the game succeeds the most: the museum. For fans of classic scary movies like Universal's "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", this game will surely satisfy. The production design, music, and direction are clearly well thought-out and superbly executed; you'll wish you could actually walk through the museum. It is these elements that will make this title continue to be popular for years to come.

Windows · by D P (129) · 2005

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

The random play factor of this game was influenced by Mixed-Up Mother Goose Deluxe, according to Marcia Bales, the game designer.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Benjamin Tucker.

Windows added by Dragom. Macintosh added by Scaryfun.

Additional contributors: Jeanne, jean-louis, Zeppin.

Game added January 3, 2000. Last modified February 8, 2024.