"A good idea gone REALLY REALLY bad."

One of the coolest advewnture sub-genres out there is the Survival Horror Genre. There isnt anything cooler than blowing away the undead with large calibur weapons... Except mabey blowing up a lot of 'em... Rapidly.

The Playstation has this market cornered. The Dreamcast failed with its first attempt, namely Blue Stinger. A terrible game, not because of bad graphics or gameplay, but because they had this unatural urge to make a camera change. Talk about a bad Idea! I got MOTION SICKNESS from a 3ps! N64 doesnt even count, so that leaves the PC. GOD attempted to break into the Genre with NOCTURNE. A valiant attempt... Poorly executed.

lets start off with saying, if you want a game to show off just how good a PC could be, Nocturne is it. From details to shadows, nocturne is chalk full of eye candy goodness. Sound is also excellent, with noises being good warnings when some evil zombies are just around the corner. nothing is overlooked... except everything else.

Controls? Where? They are Terrible! The Stranger (the main character)turns like a 500 year old driver. They are hardly responsive. Come on GOD, didnt yer playtesters tell you to fix this?? Not to mention its hard to figure out some puzzles as they just make no sense!

Camera is also low in the goods department. I like closeups of butts as much as the next guy, but not the butt of a Zombie I am trying to figure out how to shoot at! Give me a break!

The story is cool, but the Nocturne engine needs a lot of work before it is made into the Blair witch project game... God help uhhhhhh.... well.... GOD.

graphics-10: Nothing is overlooked. I like the Stranger... but not his flashlight. (20 seconds of Time??? Come on , the guy is a secret agent! how else are you supposed to show off realtime shadows??)

Sound-10: Note the spooky Moans of Zombi... Now note the cool sound of Gunfire. now note the cool sound of silence. isnt it grand?

Camera-5:Look up Terrible in the dictonary... you'll find this camera code mentioned.

Controls-3: i'd rather rely on Resident Evil 3's Dodge function on hard difficulty against Nemesis, than use these controls. then again, who wouldnt?

Playability-5: Slightly higher than normal, cause you can choose to progess in any of the 4 stories in any order... Cool huh?

Overall-6: God forgive GOD for such a bad game... Cause I wont.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/99, Updated 12/14/99