The Charnel House Trilogy
Book One: Inhale
Owl Cave
At barely 30 minutes, it’s a
good thing that Books Two and Three are immediately available, although
I haven’t yet partaken. Just knowing they are there makes the brevity
way more palatable.
The 30 minutes themselves though
are rather interesting.
We start in an apartment where
we meet Alex. She clearly has some family and relationship issues, but
as yet doesn’t appear to have noticed the apparitions which briefly and
occasionally flash into view. Twenty-five of the 30 minutes later, and
she decides to catch a midnight train for reasons I won’t reveal, and
the book ends with embarkation and a startling and unexpected jolt
involving the train’s porter.
A fair few of those 25 minutes
sees Alex poking fun at quite a few adventure game staples, which is
oddly at odds (is there any other sort?) with the Poe-like feel
suggested by some of the goings-on. To me, this discordance added to the
undercurrent, but some might find it grating.
There isn’t a lot of puzzling
you can pack into 30 minutes, and what there is revolves around a small
number of inventory items. Alex I thought was well voiced, and the other
characters were too brief in their parts to warrant serious
consideration. I expect though we will see much more of a fellow train
station traveller so will let you know more about him when I play Book
2.
The graphic presentation is that
retro pixelly look that is becoming more and more prevalent in indie
games, and which once again does not detract from the overall experience
(albeit a very short one). I had no issues with not being able to
discern relevant items, and the game plays full screen which is always a
good thing.
A charnel house as we know is a
building where human skeletal remains are stored, which suggests the
Poe-ness will come more strongly to the fore. The book which Alex has on
her bookcase and which she takes with her on the journey would seem to
support this, and the porter jolt probably cements it.
Apart from the train’s
destination, I don’t quite know where this is going, but think the ride
has been intriguingly set up.
The Charnel House Trilogy
Book Two: Sepulchre
So here we are on the train,
this time with Harold, the fellow traveller I mentioned previously.
This is very much a ghost story,
and a metaphorical one at that. Perhaps a little obvious, but only if
you observe the detail. Which is worth observing and thinking about in
terms of the metaphor.
Mood wise, it didn’t “horrify”,
but it does on occasion unsettle. Or rather, there are some unsettling
elements as Harold wanders the train, wondering. The overly large
suitcases that he won’t look inside are just one example.
What Sepulchre endeavours to
create does make the fun poking in Inhale seem more incongruous or out
of place, but then this is Harold’s journey, not Alex’s. It is one that
is very much about getting to the destination, and to that end the mild
puzzling in the first chapter becomes not a lot more than painting by
numbers. There is also a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing, but the whole
thing is again short, a little longer than Inhale but not a lot, so that
aspect is over before it begins to wear thin.
Harold’s choices got him here,
and his past ultimately lead him to where it all ends. It’s a measured
build-up to that final point, and I rather liked getting there with him.
The Charnel House Trilogy
Book Three: Exhale
I went straight on this time,
and we are back with Alex. It’s the longest chapter, which is a relative
concept given it probably won’t take you much over two hours to play all
three, and it’s a brasher, brassier contribution than Chapter 2.
A little too much perhaps, a
little over the top, and a tad foul mouthed. But then this is Alex’s
journey, not Harold’s, and her unravelling reflects the events she is
experiencing.
Like Harold, Alex’s past is very
much present, and she confronts it far more directly than Howard did.
Again, the tale is the thing, and so puzzling takes a back seat.
Inventory items remain to be found and used, but it is a very directed
thing.
Telling too much about the tale
would tell too much, so enough said. The end makes clear there is more
to come, and while it left some loose ends it didn’t feel unfinished.
The rest of the things that make
up the three Chapters are generally well done, and the music needs
special mention. As a whole, The Charnel House Trilogy is a little
disjointed, and struggled a bit to hang together, but I didn’t really
mind. Think of it as three short stories around a common thread, and if
a little Poe is something you enjoy, you might find these two hours to
your liking.
Grade: B-
I played on:
OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel i7-3820 4GHz
RAM: 12GB Ripjaw DDR3 2133 Mhz
