The best laid plains of mice and men ...

Ah, the bitter, burning disappointment! The table had been set for failure. My sharpest cutlery had been finely honed in anticipation of skewering another shrimp on the barbie. My excitement was barely restrained as I read the manual and discovered that The Lads, producers of that infamous Dungeon of Shame resident Spud, had breach-birthed a new child--The Quivering. My glee knew no boundaries as emails poured in from readers who complained about the clunky save system implemented in the interface. At long last, a game that would live down to my lowest expectations! Perhaps a new entry for the Dungeon of Shame?

Hours later, the harsh bite of reality hit home. How could I dislike a game with cute red imps, silly monsters and the first mention ever in any computer game of that goddess of gaming, that virtue of virginity ... Pamela Anderson Lee! Be still my heart. Oh, the shame that I am so easily bemused. For now a cry has gone out and reverberates through the hallowed halls of adventure gaming, "He likes it! He actually likes it!" But we all know what happened to Mikey after he ate that Life cereal. Done in by an explosive diet of Pop-Rocks and Coca-Cola. Or is that just another urban myth meant to suck the fun out of life?

Like any horror story worth its fangs, The Quivering begins innocently enough. You, Spud, have been deposited in the local village by a taxi driver who is too frightened to drop you off at your uncle's forbidding castle on the hillside. Your uncle, Dr. Franken-Stamp, is a mad scientist who has contacted you for help after an experiment has gone horribly astray. Now, not only has your uncle been turned into a raven, but his failed experiment has loosed the denizens of another world, Dimension X, upon the district. Perched upon your shoulder, Uncle Franken-Stamp will guide you through the hoards of skeletons, vampires, werewolves and any other horror cliché you can name in preparation for a final confrontation with a netherworld demon known only as Big D. Sounds silly, doesn't it? Well it is, but all is presented with such loving care and knowledge of the horror industry that you soon realize that The Lads have gone beyond what could be considered a "B" game. Instead they have created a minor gem that pays homage to the horror genre in much the same manner as Mel Brooks' classic film, Young Frankenstein. They have purposely assembled a world that is chock full of every hoary plot device and evil creature familiar to the many midnight fans of chiller/horror/suspense movies around the world. An entire page could be filled with the subtle references inspired from well-known horror films. The townsfolk warn you away from the castle on the cliff (Dracula), as you approach a motel on the hillside the game shifts into black-and-white (Psycho), and your inventory is stored in a cube that strongly resembles the puzzle box from Hellraiser. Throw in some British humor that is not quite as ribald as Monty Python, but still elicits a few chuckles (a discussion about the movie Jason and the Argonauts between two skeletons in the graveyard is the funniest thing I have ever heard in any game), and The Lads have concocted a point-and-click game that will please any adventure fan. Better yet, just when you think the adventure is over, it seems you are only half-right, as all new sequences become available and you must flee for your life! It is difficult to parody and still keep your plot from becoming a caricature of that which you are lampooning. The Quivering achieves this goal by showcasing an in-depth knowledge of its subject matter, and thus the plot does not suck and gets an A+.

The Quivering's puzzles are the old-fashioned, point-and-click, combine objects in your inventory type that many magazines insist no longer exist. While you would expect the puzzle solutions in this type of game to be ludicrous, they are not. You have pizza topped with garlic in your inventory, and it is used on a vampire. While this provides a comfort zone in solving the puzzles, it also makes many of them easier than one would like. I may be remiss here, though, since what I found to be easy was mainly due to my knowledge of horror movies and literature. Adventure games, however, are for thinking individuals, and since death literally lurks around every corner of The Quivering, you must use your saves sparingly, especially as they are limited to the amount of imps in your inventory. You will through necessity find yourself hesitating to randomly save a game as these same red imps are also occasionally involved in a puzzle solution. The imps can take on different personalities determined by the object they sport--give an imp a tool and he becomes handyman imp and so on. It would be simple to complain about the awkward save interface; I shall instead take the high road and consider it part of the adventure. After all, the ability to quick save at any given moment, thus rendering the game too easy to beat, is just as harmful as a poorly implemented save feature. The puzzles are always fun and always fair, even if some of them do suck (insert laughter here), and also receive a grade of A.

The Quivering's animations are always whimsical--3D characters playing against mostly 2D backgrounds. Yet, even while employing a cartoony LucasArts style reminiscent of Maniac Mansion or Day of the Tentacle, they still manage to convey a "horrorific" atmosphere. Seeing the Phantom of the Opera performing as the "house band" at an English pub that is strangely familiar due to multiple viewings of Hammer horror films is a hoot. "Super-Look-Around-O-Vision" allows for 360-degree scrolling--you never know who or what might be looking over your shoulder in a horror game! Locations to visit are--all together now, horror fans--a cemetery, the haunted woods, the mad doctor's laboratory, a forlorn hotel and, of course, what horror game would be complete without a visit to Egypt? 3D cutscenes tie together the narrative and keep the game flowing smoothly. For graphics that have a biting edge without losing their believability--A.

The in-game sounds are appropriately creepy. Again, every cliché imaginable has been utilized, but not to the point of overkill. There are some dead-on (more laughter) voice impressions of Boris Karloff and Vincent Price that had me grinning from ear to ear. In fact, much of the voice acting is impressions of various horror personas, and it is a joy to attempt to place the voices. The only character in the game to lose any points for voice acting would be Spud himself. While the dry British humor is my cup of tea, I often found Spud so laid back that I wondered if he had a steady diet of Valium. This kid could put you to sleep with his slow, emotionless intonations. Grade--B+.

If there is truly a glowing fault with The Quivering, it is that it seems to suffer from that malady that has diseased and atrophied so many good adventure games the past few years--Crappymarketingitis (and I am being nice here). Advertising and marketing for this game is virtually nonexistent. The Quivering is a good game and would sell--if only one knew where it could be purchased. Sure, you can buy it directly from the Alternative Software website, but why would you even go there if you did not know the game existed? The game was not marketed at all for North America, and there has been very little mention of it on the European sites or in computer magazines. Emails to the company either never get answered or a response arrives four weeks later after you have forgotten what the original email was concerning. Come on guys, get a clue! Do some self-promotion. Send out some review copies to the adventure sites. Run a banner here and there. That such wonderful imagination should go into the development of a game and then zilch on the marketing end is even more frightful than the thought of being forced to replay Bloodwings or MTV Club Dead.

I had a howlingly good time playing The Quivering and enjoyed more than a few good belly laughs from its absurd sense of humor. I will even go out on a limb and claim that this is probably the best pure adventure game I have played this year. Sure, the field has been sparse, but a game with the lively imagination of The Quivering would be in my top ten best adventure games in any year.

Final grade for The Quivering: A-.

System Requirements:

Windows 95/98
Pentium 75
16 MB Ram
SVGA
4x CD-ROM