Doctor Jaeger
05-13-2011, 08:39 PM
During my work on the Otaku-Streamers and Escapist cookbook, i started to work with a friend who recently began going by the username "DoesntWantLunch" who has helped me by bringing a unique perspective to some of the recipes i published while at the same time having more interesting things to say than "ZOMG TASTE GUD" like half of my !@#$ing research base. However I don't work with the good Falling Down quoter in person, so I don't get to slug him in the face for bringing up that Square Enix has a character with the same nickname as my girlfriend who dresses like a teen prostitute.
But I might possibly forgive him. Though I have followed Yahtzee Croshaw's review show "Zero Punctuation" while I was on The Escapist, DoesntWantLunch introduced me to a series of game made by ol Yahtzee himself. My 1213 review will have to wait, let me review Yahtzee's more trademark series, the Chzo Mythos.
The "Good" Doctor Reviews the Chzo Mythos
The Chzo Mythos is actually a collection of four games with a central plot. It has elements of survival horror because like all good reviewers Yahtzee knows that if you pull off horror right, it can be a more entertaining experience than anything Visceral Games tries to pass off as horror. The Chzo Mythos is a series of four adventure games, three point and click and one text based, and for the most part they revolve around a boy named John DeFoe, a poor tortured retarded soul turned into a murderous wraith. I'll review the games in order:
5 Days a Stranger
Point-and-Click Adventure
5 Days a Stranger stars a cat burglar named Tribly breaking into a now abandoned mansion called DeFoe manner after his fence informed him that DeFoe manner's owner met an untimely demise. Things go poorly when Tribly infiltrates only to discover that he somehow became trapped with a few other individuals as the house seems to have a will of it's own, reaching it's zenith when Tribly's car magically appears in the back yard.
The game is a point and click adventure game, though the interface is far from perfect. You can use the keyboard or a menu to change the pointer to either a walk, interact, speak, or observe pointer or select an item from your inventory. In true adventure game spirit, Yahtzee gives us inventory items that get used either once or twice (At a maximum three with Tribly's lockpicks) and also features inventory puzzles, though the small independent nature of the game keeps you from ever having a point where you spend an hour wandering around like a clueless idiot trying to figure out what to do next FOR THE MOST PART. That becomes an issue in the next game, but for now let's focus on this one.
Yahtzee hadn't started his critic career prior to the release of the Chzo series, though he did know at least the fundamentals of horror. The basic premise is that a group of strangers are forced to trust each other due to the circumstances, only able to survive when they trust each other. It works fairly well, though efforts at horror are severely undermined by how unintentionally hilarious one joke in regards to Tribly's reaction to examining the doors was. Oh, and the terrible interface and the fact that you can be killed without warning at a couple of points...
It does come alive during the dream sequences and when you try to discover the nature of the wraith haunting your group, but 5 Days ultimately falls flat for me when some of the more contrived details just keeps you from getting immersed enough to feel the horror. A career thief forgetting his lockpicks and not having an emergency pick in his tie to begin with? Choosing gameplay structure over story structure instead of properly implementing both is an amateur mistake, and if it weren't a game made by less than ten people in the space of a few months, i would be much harsher. Still, as far as amateur horror projects go, it works fairly well. It's entertaining, and the special edition that is now available for free has some interesting commentary. Plus, it's free, and at some points hilarious. Not scary, but hey... can't be too unreasonable.
7 Days a Skeptic
Point and Click Adventure
Set several centuries after the events of 5 Days a Stranger, in 7 Days a Skeptic mankind has began scouting deep space, going so far as intergalactic travel. On board the scout ship the Mephistopheles, a young counselor begins encountering the same nightmares as Tribly in the DeFoe manner after the ship comes across a strange locker floating in deep space. After the events of 5 Days, the thief Tribly realized that the nightmare was somehow tied to a wooden idol that was used as a weapon to kill John DeFoe and sparking the entire century spanning tragedy. His solution to avoiding another DeFoe Manor tragedy? Send the idol into deep space!
The premise got somewhat silly at this stage, though again it knocks of someone who knows how to make the horror concept not quite grasping the fine writing details. The story elements don't quite meet up with the sci-fi elements, and when the spree killer known as "The Welder" begins appearing on the Mephistopheles, again, the poor story structure knocks down the immersion and keeps things from getting scary, especially since at points it knocks of John DeFoe having become TOO INTELLIGENT despite the fact that the central element of it all was a villain killing out of sheer terror due to lack of social context, a detail i rather liked because your sympathies clash with the "OH DEAR GOD KILL THAT THING BEFORE IT KILLS ME" instinct, something that can work in horror.
Now the flawed story and somewhat silly elements aside, i must say the interface used in 7 Days was a massive improvement on the earlier system. You highlight an object with your mouse, click on it, and then select how you want to interact with the object from the resulting menu. Not all is well though, it is possible to die in this game, and there are some points where you don't have any !@#$ing idea as far as what to do, and this becomes nightmarish in the chase sequences where you don't have any lethal weaponry and need to find a way to distract the Frankenstein Monster style Welder long enough to launch a sneak attack. I only discovered the solution when i remembered from Zero Punctuation that Yahtzee had a huge hard-on for stealth and that only ONE AREA had visible shadows. Sadly the flaws spoke louder than the improved interface, and i'd say 7 Days was easily the worst game of the Chzo Mythos, especially since your character is never particularly skeptical about what was going on around him and when your character never remembers A MACHETE IS IN THE BRIEFING ROOM!! It strikes of Yahtzee rushing things a fair bit.
Tribly's Notes
Text Based Adventure
Tribly's Notes was an interesting reverse of what i said about 7 Days where the story elements were improved but the interface wasn't. Tribly's Notes returns us to the finely tailored shoes of the master thief, but at this point you see there is now a central plot beyond "Some retarded ghost gets a hard on for stabbing people" and things begin to get interesting. Focusing again on the idol used to bludgeon John DeFoe to death, Tribly's Notes revolve around the thief trying to recover that artifact.
A couple of years after the events of 5 Days, Tribly was so haunted by the events of the DeFoe Manor Incident that he slips up and gets captured in a police sting after he tries to go back to his lifestyle of stealing things from rich schmucks, but he is given a plea bargain and joins a government agency, the "Special Talents Group," in exchange for his freedom with the subtext HE CANNOT STEAL ANYMORE. Tribly accepts, though after years of using his cunning for the forces of "Good," Tribly on a whim goes to visit one of the DeFoe Manor survivors only to find she had been randomly killed by someone using a similar weapon to The Welder. Alarmed, Tribly begins an investigation and discovers that several items of the DeFoe Manor survived the incident that ended with Tribly burning the manor down, including most frighteningly the idol, that was being sold by an antiques dealer.
Tribly goes to the hotel where the dealer was staying, and !@#$ hits the fan when he begins slipping between realities. Tribly's Notes takes a nice Silent Hill bend in that your perception is so warped it's hard to tell just who is friend or foe. There is a central enemy referred to as "The Tall Man," but he turns out to be as much a victim as Tribly, so i actually rather like the way the story unfolds, though Yahtzee still hadn't hit the horror on the head. The interface can be frustrating at times, and Tribly's reaction to everything had a bad angst feel to it that kind of drained some of my love for the thief with strange taste in hats. He also falls into some death traps the Silent Hill series fell into, most noticeably the fact that you have complete control over the reality shifts through the use of an energy drink and tranquilizers and that the appearance of Chzo himself wasn't really satisfactory. But, hey, like i said, the story is still interesting as you realize just how far reaching the curse that befell the DeFoe family and by extension Tribly goes. Plus, though i won't spoil the ending, the final action you must take was a nice bit of storytelling.
6 Days a Sacrifice
Point-and-Click Adventure
Now by this stage things hit their peak as Yahtzee ALMOST seamlessly blends the sci-fi and horror elements he was working at the entire time. This game revolves almost entirely around the Church of Blessed Agonies, a cult that worships a god called Chzo, a "Pain Elemental" that grows more powerful by feeding on the suffering of those around it. Kind of like the creature that pops up at the end of Inukami! only the series mostly revolves around the victims of the almost animalistic "God" Chzo, not a bunch of dogs with the inexplicable ability to turn into highly fetishized humans.
Back on topic, perhaps what makes this the crown jewel of the series is that the horror is emphasized by the feelings of inescapable destiny. For no reason beyond convenience, a random man is sent through tortuous trials that he cannot liberate himself from. Dying is impossible, which some people might object to, but it's a nice touch in that nothing you do will change what happens. A man sent to investigate the cult after a strange call surfaces stating that the cult had an unauthorized structure beneath it's front building. The man who is sent to investigate gets shoved down an elevator shaft and is trapped with two women and-- TRIBLY?! ISN'T IT 2183?! HOW IS HE--
Like i said, this is where the sci-fi elements become crucial to the story as it enforces the nature of Chzo. Chzo sees time non-linear, and actually was performing a ritual to form a gate between his land and the land of science, but the exact effects happen out of order putting a strain on his worshipers who actually have to wait for certain technological advances to be made to perform the ritual properly. I won't speak more about what is going on, it would fall into the realm of spoilers, but the ending to it all is masterfully executed and qualifies the series as horror as the nature of it all borders on human while being far removed enough in the nature of Chzo that it adds to the feeling of despair as you end up feeling the most sympathy for THE TALL MAN of all creatures, the antagonist. Since you would have to play the other games to understand this one, i say go ahead and play them. The first two are mildly amusing, and in the end everything is pulled off.
But like i said earlier, ALMOST. Too much storytelling was focused from the cults perspective. If Yahtzee ever finds this and ever plans to try his hand at horror again, he'll have to remember to pull the Silent Hill 2 approach and remember the emphasis should be on making the entire thing feel like a nightmare and not bother with the cult business.
My Ratings:
5 Days: 2/5
7 Days: 2/5
Tribly's Notes: 4/5
6 Days: 4/5
Entire Series: 4/5: Great for an independent project, though the first couple of episodes do not do the finale justice.
The entire series can be downloaded through Yahtzee's website, FullyRamblomatic.com, and i'd recommend it to horror fans who like to check out the independents every now and then. For people who would wonder why you'd support the independents:
THIS IS WHY:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VTnDFT33Dt0/TSSNv4icV2I/AAAAAAAAHYk/06Mh5kAwK3I/s1600/amnesia_box.jpg
But I might possibly forgive him. Though I have followed Yahtzee Croshaw's review show "Zero Punctuation" while I was on The Escapist, DoesntWantLunch introduced me to a series of game made by ol Yahtzee himself. My 1213 review will have to wait, let me review Yahtzee's more trademark series, the Chzo Mythos.
The "Good" Doctor Reviews the Chzo Mythos
The Chzo Mythos is actually a collection of four games with a central plot. It has elements of survival horror because like all good reviewers Yahtzee knows that if you pull off horror right, it can be a more entertaining experience than anything Visceral Games tries to pass off as horror. The Chzo Mythos is a series of four adventure games, three point and click and one text based, and for the most part they revolve around a boy named John DeFoe, a poor tortured retarded soul turned into a murderous wraith. I'll review the games in order:
5 Days a Stranger
Point-and-Click Adventure
5 Days a Stranger stars a cat burglar named Tribly breaking into a now abandoned mansion called DeFoe manner after his fence informed him that DeFoe manner's owner met an untimely demise. Things go poorly when Tribly infiltrates only to discover that he somehow became trapped with a few other individuals as the house seems to have a will of it's own, reaching it's zenith when Tribly's car magically appears in the back yard.
The game is a point and click adventure game, though the interface is far from perfect. You can use the keyboard or a menu to change the pointer to either a walk, interact, speak, or observe pointer or select an item from your inventory. In true adventure game spirit, Yahtzee gives us inventory items that get used either once or twice (At a maximum three with Tribly's lockpicks) and also features inventory puzzles, though the small independent nature of the game keeps you from ever having a point where you spend an hour wandering around like a clueless idiot trying to figure out what to do next FOR THE MOST PART. That becomes an issue in the next game, but for now let's focus on this one.
Yahtzee hadn't started his critic career prior to the release of the Chzo series, though he did know at least the fundamentals of horror. The basic premise is that a group of strangers are forced to trust each other due to the circumstances, only able to survive when they trust each other. It works fairly well, though efforts at horror are severely undermined by how unintentionally hilarious one joke in regards to Tribly's reaction to examining the doors was. Oh, and the terrible interface and the fact that you can be killed without warning at a couple of points...
It does come alive during the dream sequences and when you try to discover the nature of the wraith haunting your group, but 5 Days ultimately falls flat for me when some of the more contrived details just keeps you from getting immersed enough to feel the horror. A career thief forgetting his lockpicks and not having an emergency pick in his tie to begin with? Choosing gameplay structure over story structure instead of properly implementing both is an amateur mistake, and if it weren't a game made by less than ten people in the space of a few months, i would be much harsher. Still, as far as amateur horror projects go, it works fairly well. It's entertaining, and the special edition that is now available for free has some interesting commentary. Plus, it's free, and at some points hilarious. Not scary, but hey... can't be too unreasonable.
7 Days a Skeptic
Point and Click Adventure
Set several centuries after the events of 5 Days a Stranger, in 7 Days a Skeptic mankind has began scouting deep space, going so far as intergalactic travel. On board the scout ship the Mephistopheles, a young counselor begins encountering the same nightmares as Tribly in the DeFoe manner after the ship comes across a strange locker floating in deep space. After the events of 5 Days, the thief Tribly realized that the nightmare was somehow tied to a wooden idol that was used as a weapon to kill John DeFoe and sparking the entire century spanning tragedy. His solution to avoiding another DeFoe Manor tragedy? Send the idol into deep space!
The premise got somewhat silly at this stage, though again it knocks of someone who knows how to make the horror concept not quite grasping the fine writing details. The story elements don't quite meet up with the sci-fi elements, and when the spree killer known as "The Welder" begins appearing on the Mephistopheles, again, the poor story structure knocks down the immersion and keeps things from getting scary, especially since at points it knocks of John DeFoe having become TOO INTELLIGENT despite the fact that the central element of it all was a villain killing out of sheer terror due to lack of social context, a detail i rather liked because your sympathies clash with the "OH DEAR GOD KILL THAT THING BEFORE IT KILLS ME" instinct, something that can work in horror.
Now the flawed story and somewhat silly elements aside, i must say the interface used in 7 Days was a massive improvement on the earlier system. You highlight an object with your mouse, click on it, and then select how you want to interact with the object from the resulting menu. Not all is well though, it is possible to die in this game, and there are some points where you don't have any !@#$ing idea as far as what to do, and this becomes nightmarish in the chase sequences where you don't have any lethal weaponry and need to find a way to distract the Frankenstein Monster style Welder long enough to launch a sneak attack. I only discovered the solution when i remembered from Zero Punctuation that Yahtzee had a huge hard-on for stealth and that only ONE AREA had visible shadows. Sadly the flaws spoke louder than the improved interface, and i'd say 7 Days was easily the worst game of the Chzo Mythos, especially since your character is never particularly skeptical about what was going on around him and when your character never remembers A MACHETE IS IN THE BRIEFING ROOM!! It strikes of Yahtzee rushing things a fair bit.
Tribly's Notes
Text Based Adventure
Tribly's Notes was an interesting reverse of what i said about 7 Days where the story elements were improved but the interface wasn't. Tribly's Notes returns us to the finely tailored shoes of the master thief, but at this point you see there is now a central plot beyond "Some retarded ghost gets a hard on for stabbing people" and things begin to get interesting. Focusing again on the idol used to bludgeon John DeFoe to death, Tribly's Notes revolve around the thief trying to recover that artifact.
A couple of years after the events of 5 Days, Tribly was so haunted by the events of the DeFoe Manor Incident that he slips up and gets captured in a police sting after he tries to go back to his lifestyle of stealing things from rich schmucks, but he is given a plea bargain and joins a government agency, the "Special Talents Group," in exchange for his freedom with the subtext HE CANNOT STEAL ANYMORE. Tribly accepts, though after years of using his cunning for the forces of "Good," Tribly on a whim goes to visit one of the DeFoe Manor survivors only to find she had been randomly killed by someone using a similar weapon to The Welder. Alarmed, Tribly begins an investigation and discovers that several items of the DeFoe Manor survived the incident that ended with Tribly burning the manor down, including most frighteningly the idol, that was being sold by an antiques dealer.
Tribly goes to the hotel where the dealer was staying, and !@#$ hits the fan when he begins slipping between realities. Tribly's Notes takes a nice Silent Hill bend in that your perception is so warped it's hard to tell just who is friend or foe. There is a central enemy referred to as "The Tall Man," but he turns out to be as much a victim as Tribly, so i actually rather like the way the story unfolds, though Yahtzee still hadn't hit the horror on the head. The interface can be frustrating at times, and Tribly's reaction to everything had a bad angst feel to it that kind of drained some of my love for the thief with strange taste in hats. He also falls into some death traps the Silent Hill series fell into, most noticeably the fact that you have complete control over the reality shifts through the use of an energy drink and tranquilizers and that the appearance of Chzo himself wasn't really satisfactory. But, hey, like i said, the story is still interesting as you realize just how far reaching the curse that befell the DeFoe family and by extension Tribly goes. Plus, though i won't spoil the ending, the final action you must take was a nice bit of storytelling.
6 Days a Sacrifice
Point-and-Click Adventure
Now by this stage things hit their peak as Yahtzee ALMOST seamlessly blends the sci-fi and horror elements he was working at the entire time. This game revolves almost entirely around the Church of Blessed Agonies, a cult that worships a god called Chzo, a "Pain Elemental" that grows more powerful by feeding on the suffering of those around it. Kind of like the creature that pops up at the end of Inukami! only the series mostly revolves around the victims of the almost animalistic "God" Chzo, not a bunch of dogs with the inexplicable ability to turn into highly fetishized humans.
Back on topic, perhaps what makes this the crown jewel of the series is that the horror is emphasized by the feelings of inescapable destiny. For no reason beyond convenience, a random man is sent through tortuous trials that he cannot liberate himself from. Dying is impossible, which some people might object to, but it's a nice touch in that nothing you do will change what happens. A man sent to investigate the cult after a strange call surfaces stating that the cult had an unauthorized structure beneath it's front building. The man who is sent to investigate gets shoved down an elevator shaft and is trapped with two women and-- TRIBLY?! ISN'T IT 2183?! HOW IS HE--
Like i said, this is where the sci-fi elements become crucial to the story as it enforces the nature of Chzo. Chzo sees time non-linear, and actually was performing a ritual to form a gate between his land and the land of science, but the exact effects happen out of order putting a strain on his worshipers who actually have to wait for certain technological advances to be made to perform the ritual properly. I won't speak more about what is going on, it would fall into the realm of spoilers, but the ending to it all is masterfully executed and qualifies the series as horror as the nature of it all borders on human while being far removed enough in the nature of Chzo that it adds to the feeling of despair as you end up feeling the most sympathy for THE TALL MAN of all creatures, the antagonist. Since you would have to play the other games to understand this one, i say go ahead and play them. The first two are mildly amusing, and in the end everything is pulled off.
But like i said earlier, ALMOST. Too much storytelling was focused from the cults perspective. If Yahtzee ever finds this and ever plans to try his hand at horror again, he'll have to remember to pull the Silent Hill 2 approach and remember the emphasis should be on making the entire thing feel like a nightmare and not bother with the cult business.
My Ratings:
5 Days: 2/5
7 Days: 2/5
Tribly's Notes: 4/5
6 Days: 4/5
Entire Series: 4/5: Great for an independent project, though the first couple of episodes do not do the finale justice.
The entire series can be downloaded through Yahtzee's website, FullyRamblomatic.com, and i'd recommend it to horror fans who like to check out the independents every now and then. For people who would wonder why you'd support the independents:
THIS IS WHY:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VTnDFT33Dt0/TSSNv4icV2I/AAAAAAAAHYk/06Mh5kAwK3I/s1600/amnesia_box.jpg