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| 7 APR 2011 at 3:25am | |
karlaAdministrator  Posts : 2590 Joined: 27 JUL 2003 Location: US, Close to the Edge Status : Online | **Here be spoilers aplenty** Scary? Nope. Disturbing? Er, no. Spine-tingling? Negative. Unnerving? Huh-uh. Irritating? Yep. Frustrating? You bet. Inconsistent? Affirmative. Unintentionally funny? Bingo. This is a detailed review of Baron Wittard: Nemesis of Ragnarok. I hadn't intended it to be as long as it is, but it seemed to take on a life of its own. Further, the nature of the game is such that rather than being straightforward, this review will jump around. Considering the above elements, I wouldn't blame you for saying "I'm not reading that thing." I wouldn't take it personally. Baron Wittard is by indie devoloper Wax Lyrical, which basically consists of only two people: Alan Thorn and Marlies Maalderink. I think it's quite an accomplishment for two people to have made this game, and I appreciate the amount of hard work that must have gone into it. The highly-detailed look of the game is impressive -- I love the big statue of the rearing horse out front -- and both the premise and story have a lot of potential. For once, there are no secret societies. Instead, we have Norse Mythology, which hasn't been represented in any other AG I've played. Additionally, although the developers set out to emulate the style of games such as Myst, they've made getting around a lot easier. The game does use first-person node-to-node navigation, but it's not a slide-show presentation. Players are able to look up and down and pan 360 degrees horizontally. I found this tremendously helpful. Slide-shows tend to really mess me up in that I can become disoriented and hopelessly lost quite easily. The game's official website says: "Local townspeople say Wittard kept a terrible secret. They speak fearfully of someone or something malevolent lurking at his city. They say it is waiting and growing in power." Hmmm...that sounds really creepy. I love creepy. I wanted so much to like Baron Wittard. I wanted it to scare me. I wanted it to give me nightmares. But something seems to have gone wrong somewhere. I almost feel guilty about taking exception to so much in what follows. Maybe it's just me, as the game has received many favorable reviews. Interestingly, few of them have mentioned any of the things I'll be addressing. I was raised on horror/sci-fi movies and books and I still devour them. I saw my first horror movie when I was around 3 years old. So perhaps I'm simply desensitised. Or maybe I've seen way too many "things may or may not be what they seem" movies lately and it's given me an irresistible urge to over-analyze everything. In Baron Wittard, you play a character referred to only as "traveller" (not our Traveller, however. Hi, Trav! [smiley=wave.gif]). You're a photographer -- not a reporter as some reviews have stated -- sent by magazine editor Kate to "take as many photos as you can" of a failed city within a building called Wittard Utopia, the brainchild of one Baron Horatio Wittard, now deceased. Kate tells you that two years earlier, the building was "condemned as structurally unsound shortly after its completion." She says your photos will be crucial to the article the magazine is going to publish. The first thing I noticed is all the heavy equipment, construction materials and junk that clutters up the building's grounds. Why is it still here if construction is complete and furnishings have been placed throughout the building's interior? What construction company would let its equipment sit at a condemned work site for two years? Further, why would Wittard have been permitted to furnish the place and move in before structural integrity had been assessed and pronounced satisfactory? Additionally, lights are on both inside and outside the structure even though the whole area has been fenced off and there are no passable roads leading to it. I had to hike through "fields and forests" to get there. Interestingly, the game proper starts with the player already inside the front gateway of the perimeter fence. This is the only entrance and is securely locked. How the player gets in isn't shown or explained. The structure is tightly boarded up and locked as well. So why keep lights on? I wonder who pays the electric bills? No...wait...hang on... Over halfway through the game I discover that some of the residences are unfinished and there's an observatory that's never been completed. Could this mean that construction is not complete? Oops. That couldn't be right. According to Wittard's diary, which I found after I'd seen the unfinished areas, "construction and furnishings were completed" three weeks prior to the diary entry. It goes on to say that Wittard is living there full-time with teams of cleaners and security personnel. So was I hallucinating the unfinished areas? Er...nope. The diary also says that the local council has reported "structural damage and subsidence issues that could prevent Wittard Utopia from being opened to the public." Nevertheless, Wittard has some fancy brochures printed up to give to that very same public. (Continued...) See my portfolio of original artwork at http://home1.gte.net/res0b8zk/portfolio/resources/portfolio.htm I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process. - Vincent van Gogh |
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| 7 APR 2011 at 3:29am | |
karlaAdministratorPosts : 2590 Joined: 27 JUL 2003 Location: US, Close to the Edge Status : Online | Okay, let me get this straight. At the beginning of the game, Kate tells you that the structure had been condemned shortly after its completion, yet the grounds are still full of construction equipment. Later, you see parts of the interior that have not been completed. Then you read in Wittard's diary that construction is complete but the structure has been pronounced unsafe. (Incidentally, Wittard doesn't believe this; in response he recruits even more Utopia personnel). So I guess whether or not construction is finished depends on who you're talking to. Now let's see...it's apparently fine with the council for Wittard and staff to move in and risk being crushed by a collapsing building, but it's not okay for this to happen to the general public. Wittard must have felt so special. The structure is obviously still standing, but my exploration of the place revealed no human remains. I did see a lot of stuff scattered around and/or broken. So aside from one janitor (I'll get to him in a minute), where did everyone go? Who tore things up? I doubt the place was wrecked by the janitor. It's later revealed that a malevolent entity, electromagnetic in nature, inhabits the Utopia. Yet it would be hard for me to believe that this entity is responsible for the destruction found inside the building. None of the damage looked to me as if it were electromagnetically induced. The game says Wittard died under obscure circumstances. It doesn't say anything about what may have happened to anyone else. Interestingly, Wittard's apartment is in a lot better shape than anything else. I don't recall seeing any damage there, although someone/something had broken in and stolen some artifacts. And now, with the collapse of the building still a possibility, you're in there poking around. Is this really a wise thing to be doing? Do you really need a job that badly? Well, anyway...let's move on. Once I got inside the building via a couple of puzzles, it soon became evident that just about all I'd be permitted to do is look at things and solve puzzles. Throughout the game, I wasn't permitted to pick up anything except ten runes stones and one amulet. This necessitated massive note-taking, made all the more necessary by the detailed solutions of some of the puzzles. Further, I was only allowed to use the camera once (more about this later). So much for the "take all the photos you can" directive. The entry point I found leads, not surprisingly, into a sewer. But wait! Someone else is already down here, talking on his phone. He says he's waited there for two years for a buyer who wants the amulet, which is in his possession, to contact him. (Excuse me: two years??) This has finally happened and he says he's leaving. Then some sort of presence creeps up through a chained door that's behind him, and that's all she wrote. You don't get to see this happen. > When I reached the spot where the person had been, I found a pair of shoes, a torch (flashlight) and a leather case. Inside the case was an amulet. There was no trace of the person. There's an ID card in the case saying that this person had been a janitor. Not until later, after I'd finished the game and gone back in to replay some of it, did I discover it's also possible to read a newspaper article that's in the case regarding thefts of artifacts as well as some notes made by the janitor explaining a few things it would have been helpful to know during my first playthrough. They're behind the ID card. I had tried clicking on them when I was there before but nothing had happened. I later discovered that instead of leaving the close-up view so the ID card would go back into the case then clicking on other items (which did nothing), you have to click on the ID card while viewing it in order to display the the newspaper article, then click on the article to display the handwritten notes. Anyway, the game's official website says players are "armed with only a camera and a torch." As I had no torch, I thought I'd take the one I'd just found. But the game wouldn't let me pick it up. I had no torch throughout the game. Fortunately, I didn't need one. I am, however, able to pick up the amulet. It starts talking to me and asks who I am. It says I've collected the amulet so I must be the Chosen One. Well, why couldn't the first guy have been the Chosen One, then? The voice claims to belong to Baron Wittard, speaking from the "spirit plane." He says that only I can hear him. This doesn't really matter, though, as no one else is there for the rest of the game. The amulet provides information and guidance. It tells you that Ragnarok is the Norse Apocalypse, and that Wittard's real purpose in building the Utopia was to stop this from occurring. But he's now deceased, so he's given this task to you. The amulet also repeats things. For instance, it says about 100 times that ten rune stones must be found. Well, maybe not 100, but quite a few. The amulet goes on to say that because you've touched it, it's now bound to you. Only you can do what's necessary to rid the Utopia of its malevolent inhabitant and thus avert Ragnarok, and you'll have to stay until this is accomplished. Again, I wonder what was wrong with the first guy? He had the amulet and had obviously touched it. So even if he hadn't wanted to help, he would have had to stay until he had done so. Or would he? (Continued...) See my portfolio of original artwork at http://home1.gte.net/res0b8zk/portfolio/resources/portfolio.htm I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process. - Vincent van Gogh |
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| 7 APR 2011 at 3:38am | |
karlaAdministratorPosts : 2590 Joined: 27 JUL 2003 Location: US, Close to the Edge Status : Online | At one point, the player receives a call from someone claiming to be Kate. It's quite obvious that it isn't Kate both in tone and substance. Moreover, the voice is done in reverb. It tells you to meet Kate at a certain location within the building.. Even though the voice sounds strange and the amulet has warned you about a bad presence at that very location, you go there anyway. Argghhh! Not only does your character believe the phone call is legit, he doesn't even question how Kate could possibly be in the building all of a sudden. This was almost enough to send me packing. Bye-bye Baron, it's been an "interesting" experience, I'd like to say I've enjoyed it but I just can't. Later on, the Kate-thing calls again and says, "Give up this game, mortal." Surely my character knows it isn't Kate now. This interlude brings to mind a recurring skit on Saturday Night Live from years ago involving a "land shark" that tries to get people to open their front doors. The shark would knock on the door and say things ("candygram," flowers," "plumber" etc.) to try to trick the person inside. Eventually, one of these ruses would work, the door would be opened and a rubber shark's head would barge in and drag the person away. [img]http://home1.gte.net/res0b8zk/SNLJaws.jpg[/img] In Wittard, the player's character is tricked immediately and could be setting himself up to be dragged away in blissful ignorance by the Bad Thing. I hope you'll pardon me, but I think this character is incredibly dense. Anyway, once you arrive at the specified location, the lights go off, the phone rings again, and you briefly see a white and glowing humanoid-shaped thing that disappears. Then the amulet pipes up and says: "That wasn't Kate on the phone." Well, congratulations, Sherlock. The call was really from a nasty entity in Norse Mythology whose name is Fenrir. The amulet also says, "Hang on a minute. Someone just knocked on my door and said 'telegram.'" Okay, so I'm kidding. There are many instances of flickering lights in Baron Wittard. Way too many. I guess this is supposed to be unsettling or something. One is required to read things as this is occurring. It's difficult to do, but the only other choice is not to read them. Players aren't permitted to pick up reading material and look at it in more consistent lighting. This became so annoying that I skipped reading a couple of things altogether. I think it might have created a more foreboding atmosphere for the lights to have flickered for a couple of seconds, stopped, then flickered again at random intervals. Having them flicker continuously is really irritating. Interestingly, neither the lights visible in the windows of the structure from the grounds outside nor the lights on the grounds ever flickered. Here's another annoyance. The cursive style/size and dim lighting of some of the reading material make it hard to decipher even when the lights aren't flickering. For instance, in the sentence "I finally found out how to manipulate the values in the maintenance area," I thought "values" was "panties." I kid you not. At least this was was a welcome piece of silliness. I literally had to look at the word with a magnifier to discover what it really was. Another note written in the same style says: "...a thief infiltrated my residential suite here in the Utopia and succeeded in stealing an authentic and valuable Norse amulet as well as some ancient Viking rune stones." "Authentic" looked like "antibiotic" to me and "ancient" looked like "apricot." The flickering lights didn't help. Want more? Elsewhere, "infinite willpower" looked like "infinite wallpaper." And "I am serving Odin" looked like "I am screwing Odin." I think you get the picture. This stuff would have been funny were I not developing an impressive case of eyestrain trying to read it in either dim or flickering lights. Instead, it was aggravating. It's not easy to read things when your eyes are watering profusely. Let's stop a moment so I can share an observation concerning fear. In my travels through life I've found that anger and similar feelings are excellent antidotes for fear, just as laughter is a great tension-reliever. I don't recall ever having been angry and afraid at the same time. So I think it might be advisable for developers who want to make scary games to avoid annoying, irritating or otherwise aggravating players. I'm just sayin'... Going back to the game, the lights go off completely at times. Sometimes a wooshing sound is heard and they come back on. Sometimes there's the sound of a heartbeat. See my portfolio of original artwork at http://home1.gte.net/res0b8zk/portfolio/resources/portfolio.htm I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process. - Vincent van Gogh |
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| 7 APR 2011 at 3:39am | |
karlaAdministratorPosts : 2590 Joined: 27 JUL 2003 Location: US, Close to the Edge Status : Online | Other sounds within the structure include flies buzzing around, squeaky rats, electrical noises, deafening crickets, creaky floorboards and assorted clanking and banging. I wish this kind of thing scared me. It doesn't. I was able to successfully read a newspaper story about the recent disappearance of three children. The story says there's been "a uniquely cruel precedent of misfortunes connected to Wittard Utopia and its environs." And Kate has already told you about other disappearances connected to the Utopia. Yet the kids' parents -- all three sets of 'em -- let them play near the building and are surprised when they vanish. Duhhhhh. The game never says what happened to the kids after that. But in one area of the structure (I don't remember exactly where), you briefly hear kids' laughter. So maybe they were absorbed by Fenrir. Or maybe they just got candygrams. At one point, Fenrir locked me in a rather nasty-looking medical bay. First, the lights went out, then I heard heavy breathing (no wisecracks from me!), and the only door opened and closed accompanied by some heh-heh-hehing. Then the lights came back on. Ho-hum. I was thinking how great it would have been to have looked in the dirty mirror that's on the wall and seen the "presence" behind me for just a split second before everything went dark. Now that would have been scary. It think it would have helped quite a bit had the presence looked more evil or threatening. As it was, it reminded me of Claude Rains wrapped up in bandages in The Invisible Man. [img]http://home1.gte.net/res0b8zk/Fenrir2.jpg[/img] In Norse Mythology, Fenrir is a giant wolf. I think something like that would have worked a lot better. [img]http://home1.gte.net/res0b8zk/Fenrir.jpg[/img] Anyway, after the lights came back on, there was a knock at the door. I actually found this funny! Instead of seeing who it might be (I wonder...) I decided to move away from the door toward a contraption that was sitting on a table. There was more knocking. It happened every time I moved toward the contraption. It was always the same pattern: five knocks, pause; four knocks, longer pause; then five knocks. Ooooh! Code! (Not really...) I asked, "Who's there?" a few times but got no answer, so it wasn't a knock-knock joke. And I could swear I heard "candygram" a couple of times, but it was probably just my imagination. So it probably wasn't the shark either (I'm so bad). I guess the knocking is supposed to be scary or maybe startling. All it did for me was to set off a case of the sillies that got worse each time I repeated it. When I finally decided to get on with things, I went back to the door and reached to open it. The amulet popped up and told me that touching it would be fatal. Okay...just to see what would happen, I backed out of the close-up, went back in and reached for the door again. This time I was able to touch the doorknob. Nothing happened to me. I stood there and twisted the doorknob back and forth a bunch of times. The door wouldn't open and I heard crackling noises a couple of times, but that's it. I didn't die. I didn't even get slightly roasted. Nothing happened to me. Also, the first and only time I got to use my camera was in the medical bay. And of all things, I discovered it's a video camera. Say what? I was told to take photos, not make videos. Actually, I ended up doing neither. Instead, I used the camera to disrupt Fenrir's hold on the medical bay door. After I got the door open, I didn't want to leave. I'd had a lot of fun in that room. I didn't however, have a lot of fun with some of the game's puzzles, which run the gamut from easy to brain cramp-inducing. There are lots of puzzles in Baron Wittard. If there weren't, players wouldn't have a whole lot to do outside of wandering around and looking at things. Among the puzzles are two killer sliders and a lovely Tower of Hanoi. To add insult to injury, there are only 8 save slots. The game has two endings that aren't very different from each other. In each, you end up heading home empty-handed (with the exception of, possibly, the amulet). So you've risked your life and really messed up your assignment. On the phone, Kate (the real one) says she's looking forward to seeing your photos. Well, you have none. Uh-oh. If a sequel to this game is made, they could call it "Unnamed Traveller Gets Fired." Or maybe "Unnamed Traveller Tries to Strangle Editor for Expecting Him to Take Still Photos with Video Camera." I'm sure you'll be happy to know this is finally the end of my review. See my portfolio of original artwork at http://home1.gte.net/res0b8zk/portfolio/resources/portfolio.htm I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process. - Vincent van Gogh |
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| 20 MAY 2011 at 9:07pm | |
| Deleted User | Thanks for taking the time to write all this Karla. It REALLY made my day. Before even starting the game I was uber-hyped by all the tags on the packaging: Spine tingling mystery... (I don't really know what it feels like if or when my spine has tingled but perhaps this could be it) ...enough suspense to keep even the most level headed of people on the edge of their seats. (not applicable) ...enjoyable and unsettling.... (sounds like a question of which I ought to be able to pick one or the other, but both?) Awaiting me inside the monumental pleasure dome all under one roof: 1000 apartments a shopping mall hundreds of offices and leisure facilities missing people perhaps in need of rescue Yeah, lets get this party rolling. |
| 20 MAY 2011 at 9:28pm | |
karlaAdministratorPosts : 2590 Joined: 27 JUL 2003 Location: US, Close to the Edge Status : Online | I'm happy you liked it, CB. I really had fun writing it. [smiley=devil_smiley_grintail.gif] See my portfolio of original artwork at http://home1.gte.net/res0b8zk/portfolio/resources/portfolio.htm I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process. - Vincent van Gogh |
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