The Legacy: Realm of Terror

aka: Haunted House, The Legacy
Moby ID: 697
DOS Specs
Buy on DOS
$52.49 used on eBay
Buy on Windows
$6.99 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

The year is 1993. The protagonist's ancestors, the Winthrops, have obviously dealt with black magic and perhaps even pacts with the demons. Now their mansion is invaded by horrifying creatures, and it is up to the brave hero(ine) to venture inside, solve the mystery, and above all - survive.

The Legacy: Realm of Terror is a role-playing game with adventure elements. The player navigates the protagonist through the 3D locations of the mansion from first-person perspective. The environment must be explored, and items procured in order to solve puzzles and advance in the game.

Beside these adventure game features, the game plays like a RPG, with character customization, equipment, and combat. The player can select one of the eight pre-made characters (four male, four female) to control in the game. Characters' attributes and skills are divided into three categories, which correspond to pure physical traits, supportive techniques (such as healing), and dexterity in usage of firearms and smaller melee weapons.

The player relies on magic spells in combat; those can be acquired and upgraded from spell pages found in the game world. There are offensive, supportive, and restorative spells in the game. Resting, consuming food, and even meditating affects the player character's condition as well.

Combat takes place in the same environment as exploration, utilizing a real-time system, which requires the player to quickly select commands ("Aim" and "Hit" for weapon attacks, and the corresponding spell icons for magic).

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Credits (DOS version)

31 People (27 developers, 4 thanks) · View all

Design
Programming
Music / Sound Programming
Graphics / Artwork
3D Modelling
Music
Sound
Panorama Sequences
Development Manager
Editor
Cover Photos
Packaging
Documentation
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 10 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 23 ratings with 5 reviews)

This game had quite a bit of potential

The Good
Fist, you could choose form a number of different people to play as. There was a good mix of male and female characters, starting from college students to more mature individuals. This game was very creepy, too--the music was wonderful in evoking such a feeling, as well as the sound effects. This game was very reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft, although from the documentation I thought they were going for more of a Poe feeling. I don't think it matters, though, because it worked well. The graphics were really nicely done--even though they were hand-drawn I think it's a plus in this circumstance, not a minus. I thought it particularly interesting that at least one variety of monster would not attack you unless you attacked it first--I had never really seen that in a game before this one, and I don't think I have seen it since then. Interaction with NPC's was a nice break from the action parts of the game. I also liked the variety of responses you could give, and the reaction of the NPC's to such responses. Your responses were neither right or wrong, but how you treated other characters was what determined how much information you got from them.

The Bad
There were so many stats for your character, it made my head swim. There were also a great many objects in the game, making it hard to know what to keep and what to ignore. The interface was clumsy, and sometimes could get very frustrating in battle. There were too many little windows for the game--I think the interface could have been better worked out. It took some getting used to, though, but once I did, things went smoother.

The Bottom Line
A game with very good atmosphere and wonderful sound design. I would highly recommend this game to horror story fanatics, despite the flaws in the interface.

DOS · by OceansDaughter (106) · 2002

Probably the best "survival horror" game ever made - years before the genre was named

The Good
This is one of the few games I've ever played that touched nearly all the things that can make a game fun for me. It was very immersive and had a great story, but it also engaged my intellect. Figuring out what was going on, even with my knowledge of Lovecraftian horror and RPG staples, was a lot of fun. Almost all of the puzzles made sense in the simulated world, instead of being obvious game elements. If you needed to answer a riddle to get somewhere, it was because the stuff within was being guarded from those without the knowlege to use it. If a door was locked, it was because somebody had a reason to lock it. For the limited abilities of the machines it ran on, the graphics and sound were immersive and believable.

The Bad
As some others have said, it was a bit too difficult. Some combats required twitch-gamer reactions more suitable to a later-day FPS title or some of the more recent (and IMHO degenerate) "survival horror" games. The final battle, in particular, was nearly impossible.

The Bottom Line
This game, along with the original Alone in the Dark, is definitive of what a horror game should be like. Heck, just thinking about it makes me want to track down my copy and play it again after all these years.

DOS · by weregamer (155) · 2003

Lot of fun

The Good
This was the second 3-D horror game I played after Alone in the Dark. The main difference here was the RPG elements; you were increasing your character as you explored the house. The 3-D monsters were creepy too. There was a combat engine, so sometimes you had to come back to monsters you could not defeat after you increased your stats.

The Bad
The interface was kinda clunky, and the game balance was a bit off (too easy in some places, too hard in others.)

The Bottom Line
A cool little horror game that hardly anyone played.

DOS · by Tony Van (2803) · 2000

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cancelled Amiga version

An Amiga AGA conversion was in development for a while.

Inspiration

The storyline of The Legacy (and particularly the grim Victorian house where the game takes place) was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's tales.

Savegame

Upon successful completion, The Legacy created a small binary file WINNER.INF and informed the player that the file should be kept. The contents of the file seem to indicate that it was intended for use in a planned sequel, to import the victorious player's character - unfortunately, no sequel was ever made.

Videos

The opening, title, and ending cinematic sequences were stored in a common animation format and were not hidden, encrypted, or otherwise obscured. This made viewing them very easy.

Information also contributed by Jaromir Krol, Martin Smith and saladpuncher

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 697
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tony Van.

Macintosh, Windows, Linux added by Rik Hideto.

Additional contributors: Trixter, MAT, -Chris, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, Victor Vance, Jo ST.

Game added January 9, 2000. Last modified March 6, 2024.