Shivers

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.