Nocturne

The Good
This game had several strong points going for it. The characters are interesting, complete with personalities and unique abilities. The game has a lot of cool dialogue and interaction. All four episodes had a good story involved. No illogical puzzles or busywork.

The graphics are amazing. Background scenes looked really good. The rendered shadows were very cool. However, on a current p4 computer, the Strangers coat looking like it was pulsing instead of being thrashed by the wind. Very effective job with light and shadows.

The sound was great. The voice actors did a good job. The recordings were top notch. Unlike some games, you don't need to adjust the volume every so often. Music was influenced by 60's style horror movie scores like "Psycho."

The Bad
The actual gameplay. More than once I've had a character stuck in place with no way to get out. I had to save my game every 3 screens and hope for the best.The controls are very sluggish and unresponsive. A very limited interaction with the environment. Weird sound and graphic bugs crop up frequently, destroying any immersive mood. An unusually high disgust factor after trying to overcome all the above listed flaws.

The Bottom Line
Turn on the god mode and play it like a movie. You'll enjoy it more.

The Good
First of all, the graphics in this game are amazingly detailed. Everything from a balcony crumbling under your feet to the main character's trench coat waving in the wind seems to have been honed to realistic quality. The movement of all creatures (human or otherwise) on the screen are very real-looking. You don't see any of the inconsistencies in the graphics like being able to walk partially through a wall or whatnot. The storyline is equally well-developed. Everything that happens has a distinct, well-explained reason. It goes far beyond "Hey, there's werewolves here, go blow 'em up."

The Bad
The interface is brutal. If you don't have the instruction manual, you will never be able to play this game (and since my Dad's dog pooped on it, it looks like Nocturne will sit on a shelf and collect dust for quite a while). The camera angles are difficult as well. There are quite a few locations in which players will die several times because something is blocking their view of the scene. And, most notably, Nocturne just isn't very, well... Horrific. Most of the scary parts are monsters jumping out from around a corner. The plot itself doesn't really add any fear effect, mainly because of the attitude of the characters that there is no way in hell that you will ever fail in your mission.

The Bottom Line
Nocturne is a Steven King novel (maybe one of those that would get a movie deal) trapped in a computer game's body. It's great to look at, but actually playing it is something else. There is invariably a point in every level in which you will get stuck and just run around in circles until you give up. You'd be better off watching scary movies.

The Good
Nocturne has a rather interesting approach to it's layout. Rather than being put into a single, large adventure, you are given several smaller adventures which the main character, the stranger, experiences. This means you essentially get 4 different adventures within one overall story as well as a brief finale which opens up once the first 4 are all complete. This works very well and keeps the variety level high. The stranger is one of the coolest hero characters in any video game. Wearing a hat, dark glasses and a long trenchcoat he looks slightly reminisent of Caleb, the hero from 'Blood'. His dark, say what you think attitude and deadpan approach to conversation often leads to some funny lines. The graphics are utterly beautiful. Light shines realistically on walls and cloth flows wonderfully. The sound is equally impressive with some great orchestral music and beefy effects, the voice acting isn't bad either. The combat system in Nocturne is controlled with the mouse as your aiming device. This coupled with the laser slights that the stranger has equipped on his firearms make for the best and most intuitive system yet seen in a survival horror game, a genre usually plagued with poor combat.

The Bad
The action is very combat oriented so although there is a fair amount of adventuring to to aswell, you'll be firing a LOT of bullets by the end. Also the game isn't terribly scary. It has its moments but you never feel like you might be in serious trouble because you are always tooled up. There are points where you can get yourself in a lock if a group of creatures back you up against a wall and all you can do is wait 'till you die or restore a saved game. Finally, the wonderful graphics do come at a price in the system requirements. You're going to need a Pentium 3 and a decent graphics card to run this game at full speed and detail.

The Bottom Line
Nocturne is a great survival horror title that fans of the genre who like their fighting frenetic would be wise to check out.