Forums > Game Forums > Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle > Horror-adventure at its best
Slug Camargo (583) on 7/24/2007 4:04 AM · Permalink · Report
A while ago we had this thread recommending games in the general forum or something. I figured I'd recycle my recommendations now we have dedicated forums for each game; especially for the most underdog-ish among my beloved ones. So here we go.
First up: Barrow Hill. To put it simply, Barrow Hill is the point n' click adventure that revived my faith in the genre.
The development team is enormously small :P --93% of the devs have the same last name, 75% of them have both the same first and last name, no 3D graphics, few (and barely) animated backgrounds... And yet, it's one of the most genuinely utter-creeps-down-your-spine atmospheric game I've played in a good while. I guess it has mostly to do with the sound. The voices are not that good, but the sound effects and the music make a terrific job.
And as an adventure, this might just be the smartest game ever: I simply can't remember another adventure in which every single blasted puzzle makes actual sense. Solving them depends exclusively on your paying attention to the clues that are laying around all over the place and applying logical, real-world thinking, as opposed to having to read the friggin' designer's mind in order to even understand what the hell you're supposed to be trying to accomplish.
So, in short, go play Barrow Hill already. It's a phenomenal horror adventure.
St. Martyne (3648) on 7/24/2007 10:02 AM · Permalink · Report
Following your advice in E3 thread I've actually played it. And was hugely disappointed. First of all this game has no atmosphere of horror whatsoever. I don't what was so scary when you were playing it. The stupid game's navigational system spoiled all the tension for me. But the lack of atmosphere isn't the most serious of faults of the game.
It has absolutely no pace, I was overwhelmed by the unnecessary information, meaningless diaries to read, schedules to examine, things to look at that had no reference to the game whatsoever. Good games limit the amount of info thrust in player's throat at a time. Building a tension as player progresses through the story. Barrow Hill doesn't.
And with a horrible control scheme all this add to a constant pixel hunting. Will he look under that wooden plank? Will he open the drawer? I was always wondering what exactly the designers wanted me to look at. Given the huge amount of so-called "places of interest" it was a constant headache for me.
As for puzzles there was nothing outstanding to them. They were easy to solve but not entertaining.
One of the few things that I liked is the voice of Emma, DJ of BHR. It's soothing and mysterious, exactly what this game fails to be.
Slug Camargo (583) on 7/24/2007 11:35 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start St_Martyne wrote--]Following your advice in E3 thread I've actually played it. And was hugely disappointed. First of all this game has no atmosphere of horror whatsoever. I don't what was so scary when you were playing it. The stupid game's navigational system spoiled all the tension for me. But the lack of atmosphere isn't the most serious of faults of the game.... [/Q --end St_Martyne wrote--] Really? That bad? Well, look at that.
When I played this, I found myself really nervous most of the time, even though I knew nothing would happen... I guess I was just engulfed by the soundscape, I don't know.... Whatever it was, I really got into this game's atmosphere, and I honestly can't believe it didn't work for you, because I know several people that agree with me in this particular point: There is something in the game's atmosphere that made all of us feel the same unexplainable uneasiness of sorts or whatever.
As for the text files, there are lots of them, true, but I never found them that overwhelming. Most of them were actually pretty interesting --at least the diary of that guy... can't remember his name :P
I don't like the control scheme either, but I didn't find it to be much worse than any other point n' click adventure on this style (Scratches, Post Mortem, et cetera).
Finally, that thing you say about the puzzles almost makes me think we played two different games. Really, I stand by what I've said about them making more sense than pretty much any adventure I've ever played --and I did play quite a few back in the day.
So, in closing, I don't know what to say :T
I guess we just like different kinds of adventures.
DJP Mom (11333) on 7/25/2007 9:25 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Sam Jeffreys wrote--]Hey! Nice new face, DJP Mom! Where does that pic come from? [/Q --end Sam Jeffreys wrote--]
:-) YA/Juv book series by Erin Hunter (pseudonym for two authors, actually) about a clan of cats...this one is from the cover of The Warrior's Field Guide, with a little judicious editing. The books are pretty much typical mystical "mysterious power, ancient prophecy" nonsense, but I'm a big cat fan!
St. Martyne (3648) on 7/25/2007 7:34 AM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Dr. Von Katze wrote--]
I don't like the control scheme either, but I didn't find it to be much worse than any other point n' click adventure on this style (Scratches, Post Mortem, et cetera).
[/Q --end Dr. Von Katze wrote--]
I strongly insist that you actually try out Scratches. It actually does all the things that Barrow Hill does but has a good story-telling narrative that will unfold itself gradually with each new day spent in the mansion. And control scheme is much better. Unlike Barrow's Hill the only objects that can be inspected at close range are those that actually have relevance to the story or puzzles.
I don't think that our tastes differ that much. I like horror games and I enjoy a good story and appreciate the talent behind the game. It's just that Barrow's Hill feels very incoherent. Where it's great in its story, it sorely lacks in presentation. It has great potential, and the amount of research and effort put into the game is admirable at least. But unfortunately those things simply don't add together . So the game becomes actually less than sum of its parts.
Still though, everybody must try it and figure it out by themselves. As I said before the game had the most diverse impact on game critics. According to MobyGames the score varies between absolute 100 and pitiful 26.
Slug Camargo (583) on 7/25/2007 11:16 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
[Q --start St_Martyne wrote--] It's just that Barrow's Hill feels very incoherent. Where it's great in its story, it sorely lacks in presentation. It has great potential, and the amount of research and effort put into the game is admirable at least. But unfortunately those things simply don't add together . So the game becomes actually less than sum of its parts.
Still though, everybody must try it and figure it out by themselves. As I said before the game had the most diverse impact on game critics. According to MobyGames the score varies between absolute 100 and pitiful 26. [/Q --end St_Martyne wrote--] Hmmmm... I still think the atmosphere is great, but I just realized that you might have a point and maybe I'm being unusually generous because of its underdoguish nature --the fact that it was almost entirely developed by a single guy and such. If this was the child of some big-time company, I probably would've been more harsh and picky.
In any case, I'm definitely giving Scratches a go tonight. Or tomorrow's night. Whenever I manage to pull myself away from all the crazy fun that's tweaking Far Cry's visuals, what with the 64-to-32 patch and whatnot. Man, I hate myself when I get this nerdy >:(