Blackstone Chronicles

I hope no body minds, but I think this is also a forum to discuss the 'turkeys' and 'let-downs' in our favourite genre. With this opening statement in mind I'm sure you know what's to follow, so here we go with perhaps the first negative review of this forum (which I have to say I am getting enormous pleasure from). And remember, don't shoot the messenger!

You play the son (grandson? - I forget which and frankly it makes no difference) of an infamous proprietor of a private sanitorium who has long since shuffled off his mortal coil. You are forced to return to the now closed-down sanitorium to rescue your daughter from the evil spirit of your dead relative. Needless to say your antecedent was a few sandwiches short of a picnic while he was breathing, now expired he is even more insane and for some bizarre and inexplicable reason now wants someone from his lineage to carry on the good work (sic) he started.

The old duffer was keen on 'experimenting' on his unfortunate guests and throughout your sojourn in the old wreck you meet a host of spirits of the hapless miscreants. In fact the game's progress very much relies on you meeting these 'tormented souls'.

I shall say no more about whom you meet and how, as it is integral with the game and story. And I would not want to disappoint, though you'll end up disappointed at this lame offering anyway.

I was bitterly disappointed with this game, it is one of those games that promised so much but did not deliver, by a long shot too!.

The graphics were up to par and the movement reasonably slick, which is just as well as you will spend a lot of 'dead' time moving around just to complete a simple task. Again sound quality is as it should be. The games major problem is gameplay (or lack thereof). You are reduced to sauntering around the old 'homestead' and finding a few objects, solving a few lame problems and puzzles and watching the improbable story unfold before your increasingly sceptical (or disinterested) eyes.

Puzzles are few and far between and are generally made up of finding something to appease a spirit so that they will then impart some dramatic information (ho-hum) which will allow you to proceed, or the rather mundane tasks of getting into a locked room, shutting off a generator

Funny Rick, but I had the opposite impression! I didn't expect much from this game but I was curious so I got it in a trade and decided to check it out. I found it better than I though it would be. I liked the setting, and the slowly developing story as you begin to realize just how 'sick' your deceased father was. I thought there were some interesting puzzles to solve too.

I would agree this is not for the faint of heart, and stay away if your looking for an upbeat story!

[This message has been edited by nolalou (edited 04-12-2001).]

[This message has been edited by nolalou (edited 04-12-2001).]

I have mixed rections to this game. I liked it well enough the first I played. It was new and I found parts of the plot sad and yes the pathos of the characters was at turns macabe, just plain sad and even overdone in points. But since this was the first time, I was more focused on figuring out the puzzles, path of the game..

I replayed it recently and since the plot was still vaguely in my mind, I had more focus on the characters, dialogue and plot itself. This time I was deeply disturbed by certain threads in the game. I found it more pandering and less enjoyable the second time around. I still think this game is overall worth getting - but it should be with a huge caveat. Children are involved in the horror - which if you have children (or even if you don't!) this plot track may just be too much for gamers to consider this an adventure. But if you like horror and see this as a fiction (with sadly - patterns taken from real life) then the graphics are fairly good, puzzles logical to the plot (for the most part) and it is a unique game.

I agree that much was wasted of a great plot - but all things considered I felt it was an overall decent effort.

Laura

[This message has been edited by gatorlaw (edited 04-12-2001).]

To begin with it must be noted that I am a huge fan of John Saul, and have read all his books (Blackstone being the one exception as I generally don't go for serializations and am waiting for it to come out in one volume like Stephen King's The Green Mile).

This just happens to be one of my favorite games. I thought the acting to be some of best of any game I've come across particlarly the actor who played dear old dad ( what a deliciously warped sicko!!!) I also found extremely interesting the history of the treatment of mental illness (I actually did a term paper on this for a masters program I was in)which for the most part was mostly brutally correct. I found the graphics top notch as well as the total atsmospheric set of the game, music included.
Simply put this is one of my favorite games, not my overall favorite but definitely in my top 10. Also my sister, who normally plays RPG and strategy games and doesn't really care for adventure, found this to be one of her favorites along with the 3 Zorks, Amerzone, and Beyond Atlantis. She found the acting to be some of the best she's come across (extremely critical of the voice acting in general used in adv. games) and liked the puzzles and the hunt for clues.

I enjoyed playing the game, though I do know what you mean. It could have been expanded in oh so many ways, but hey, the odd short game shouldn't put anyone off playing. The historical info itself is worth knowing, again a reminder of just how far we have come in 100 years!

I agree with Tigger. I really enjoyed this game, although I feel they "dropped the ball" in several spots. If they had spent more time on developing other areas of the asylum, what a wonderful game it could have been. (Too many areas that just weren't accessible, if I recall.) But I certainly would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a dark game.
Mary

hi everyone,
i just finished it too. overall i enjoyed it. the graphics were wonderful - you really felt as though you were in there, the sound effects were realistic too, different sound efects for the many different rooms you have to go into. the acting was well done too.
it was point and click which i love, and though i don't normally go for first person games, i did like this one.
there are some things in the game that are disturbing, but life is becoming that way too.
this is not a game for everyone, but to those who enjoy this type of game, i highly recommend giving it a try.
rainbow

------------------
i am not perfect, but i am perfectly human.

After so many good comments for this game I wondered if I had been a little unfair in my analysis. Hence I went back and gave it a quick spin.

And I have to say, that perhaps some of my remarks were a little OTT (Over The Top).

It was not as bad as I remembered, though I absolutely stick to my original opinion that some of the theme material is dreadfully black, depressing and harrowing.

My main objection with this game is that it could have been so much better, I feel that, with the subject material, plus a renowned author and given the graphic quality, this could have been a classic, but it is not.

And I blame the developers for putting out a substandard game to tie into the popularity of Saul's book for a quick buck. Because this could have been a really excellent game, especially in terms of orginality and gaming experience. I always felt that so little thought went into the game and it's playability.

As I mentioned in my review (but perhaps did not highlight enough), it is not a bad game, but a disappointingly ordinary game, when it could have offered so much more.

This leads me on to (perhaps) a contraversial issue - and this is that, to my mind, the best gaming experience is the adv game. Unfortunately so many titles let the genre down due to their their mediocrity (especially in their gameplay).

I realise that this is not the forum to discuss such issues and so I will switch to the adventure games discussion forum and post a message. I feel very strongly that the genre has let itself down with so much mediocrity and rubbish, especially when you think that, many years ago, when PC gaming was just kicking-off, the dominant, and by far the best type of game was the adv game.

We seem to have been resigned to a backwater, accepting 'average' for so long that we become immune to the demands of the modern gamer. If you look at the 1st person shooter, they have evolved to meet the demands of intelligent gamers (compare Thief, System Shock2, half-life and Deus Ex with Doom, Quake etc.)

I have played so many adv games where I thought, 'yes, not bad, but if only.......' I challenge any adv gamer out there to disagree.

Obviously there are some major exceptions, but, as the consumer, surely is it not incumbent on us to dictate the quality of output from developers, as opposed to just accepting any old rubbish they produce just to keep the '.....genre going'.

And I apologise if I am getting people's backs up here, but let me give you a quick example of my disappointmant with this genre:-

The forgotten: To my mind this was a superb idea and I drooled over the ideas expounded for the development of this series. The problem was that the games themselves, though graphically lovely, were really 2nd rate (please do not be offended, but compare them to the likes of Riven, Myst, Chronomaster and a host of really other good games, and you will soon realise that there are an enormous amount of missed opportunities out there).

Sorry, ***** session over. I shall revisit this theme in another forum.

Actually Rick, I liked your review. It certainly generated some good discussion. It was also articulate and lucid.

I just read over all the posts and yes there is a varied level of appreciation for this game. Most games are like that. Except for the rare total turkey, to varied degrees a particular game has elements that drive some folks nuts, some are in the middle and others just love it.

I didn't get the impression that you said BC was a bad game - you were just disappointed in it. I think any review - whether glowing, neutral, mixed or bad is a resource for folks as long as the reasons given for the reviewers opinion are game specific. This is what helps you to decide if a game is one that suits your tastes.

I say keep them coming - Rick.

Laura

Hi There:

This is one of the first scarry games that I played and I loved every minute of it. The linear games are always a little bit more difficult. But at least you can go back to a savved game and start that scene over again and find out what you missed. The walkthrough is something I generally have to have and the ones that are written for Pilgim are very well done.

Thanks for the review. It was well done and easy to follow, it also gave us a different take on the game than our own.

Regards,
Nancy

I didn't find Blackstone Chronicles to be scary. Maybe I'm just hard to scare. That's OK. I don't like being scared anyway.

But I did find the game to be icky. Especially toward the end where you learn the fate of poor little Abe. Did doctors really experiment on little children like that or was that just thrown in at the end for cheap effect? Maybe it was based on a book and made more sense in the book. It wasn't scary. It was just plain disgusting. Up to that point, nothing that Malcolm had done seemed to be too over the top for what was done in sanitariums in those unenlightened times. But after meeting Abe's spirit, things got to be too unbelievable and gross too quickly. And it seemed very sudden - just thrown in at the end. Some people complain about the "Children's" level in Sanitarium. But I thought what happened toward the end of Blackstone was much worse.

Was there a story? Maybe I finished the game too fast, but I didn't notice any gradual unfolding of a storyline or any increasing revelations of who your character Oliver is or why he acts as he does. Why does he try to keep killing himself anyway? What a dope! Is it Malcolm's influence over him or is Malcolm really just a part of his memories/imagination? Was something really triggered when Oliver discovered certain objects or was that Malcolm playing with his head? This was never properly explained. The game's plot didn't really hang together for me.

The graphics and the music were very nice though. I had mild static whenever I turned or moved forward, but I assume that was the fault of my individual computer since no one else has mentioned it.

I thought the ending of the game was too fast. Not enough was explained. How did Joshua and his mother get back home anyway? Was the whole thing a dream? Were both Oliver and Joshua dreaming? It just wasn't a satisfying ending. And unlike Morpheus (where you are also left to guess at certain things) the Blackstone ending didn't feel like it was deliberately obscure so much as it felt like they were tired of making the game and like what we saw was just the quickest ending they could come up with.

I guess you can tell I was somewhat disappointed. The game seemed to start out so well too.

I just finished this game recently and also have mixed opinions. Towards the middle of the game I was really enjoying myself. I was very disturbed about the little boy and those jars. That storyline was heartwrenching. One thing I liked about the game was that despite the morbid subject matter and some of the horrifying things talked about in great detail there was no gore or cutscenes of violence. It was very tasteful in that respect although with this subject matter and some of the stories and the things that went on there "tasteful" is a questionable term.

I enjoyed having a number of people to speak with and thought the stories were varied and well detailed. The graphics were incredible. Though I did find the movement annoying. I resorted to right clicking through that at the very beginning of the game. Which resulted in having to replay a bit at the end where the wife becomes involved as there "conversation" that you missed if you right click to avoid the "walking." The ending wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It didn't occur to me later though............SPOILER
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Towards the end when you enter the door to get into Oliver's cottage, the door with the articles about Oliver detailing some of the things he did - the ending seemed to completely overlook that bit of info. Throughout the game I wondered what Oliver's story was. Those articles hint at something that is never examined or resolved.

The acting was great. I especially enjoyed Oliver's interaction with the little boy Abby and his son.

Overall though I enjoyed this game and was actually able to get through the series of times puzzles without chest pains and cramps and only had to use the hint once. For the serum remedy.

While I see that more could have been done with this game I did think that the stories were detailed and varied and I was impressed with that.