Castle Paradox

[Camdog]

Purgatory is one of my all time favorite OHR games. In fact, I'm a little worried about it as a topic of discussion because I think it might be reduced to a hundred "Purgatory is awesome!" comments. I guess I'll just try to talk about what makes it so great...

Obviously the graphics are wonderful, being a game by Friend, which is perhaps more important in a survival-horror type setting, since establishing a convincing atmosphere is so important. The same goes for the music (which I think is Setu Firestorm's?). The fact of the matter is, these are nothing without the appropriate gameplay, which is what make a survival horror game in my mind, and in this area Purgatory comes through in spades.

The game is sprinkled with puzzles, which are great, but the true strength of the game is its balance. Throughout the game, my health and ammo teetered on the brink, but the game was just forgiving enough for me to scrape by. In other words, I always felt like I was about to die without actually (for the most part) dying. Really, I think this type of difficulty, which is especially emphasized in this genre, is best for any game. Specifically, if you can make a game that feels like its really difficult without actually being really difficult, you've got yourself a winner.

Perhaps Friend could jump into the discussion and talk about his strategies for balancing the game, and how much work he put into it? I think we could all learn a lot from that.

The only beef I have is that I just couldn't get past the boss in the sewer. I know this kind of goes against what I just said about difficulty, but I'mm willing to let it slide for two reasons. One, the rest of the game was so great I can't dismiss it. And two, I feel like a lot of the problem with this boss was with the engine and not the game itself. The way the OHR handles NPC collision detection is awfully sensitive, and I felt like so many deaths were unwarranted in this section that I eventually gave up in frustration. Still, the overall experience was so good playing through the game remained worth it.

[Friend]

I think survival horror is mostly about tricking the players. Tricking the players into thinking that they're in an extremely desperate situation gamewise when they're actually not. The truth is, even if you're not that conservative with the ammo, you'll probably end the game with 2-3 clips of ammo by the end of the game. There's also an abundance of health boxes in the game. It's just a matter of fooling the players into thinking that resource is scarce.

I don't really have a strategy on balancing the battles; I mostly rely on brute force. I estimate the stat numbers then try them in-game. If the result isn't to my liking, I change the the numbers and try them again in-game.

My memory is a bit rusty by now, but I think the sewer boss battle is a bit easier once you eliminate 1 or 2 of the butchers with dynamites. Also make sure to take advantage of the warp doors when the butchers are catching up to you.
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"I am Collins. From my position in the moon's orbit, I watched Armstrong and Aldrin land and walk on the surface. I was so close to the ground of the moon, and yet I returned without having trod upon it... I am Collins." -Friend

[Rimudora]

Let's see.. The butcher boss really was hard, but I got through it okay because I'd been using an pre-final version of the game where the store didn't have a limited supply of dynamite.

Lessee.. I really liked the two headless-statue boss fights, mainly because of the intensity. In both fights, the targets that the player has to reach are spread out throughout the map, ensuring that the player will have to invest a lot of time into beating the boss. On the other hand, the player has to start over if she gets hit by the first boss at any time or if she gets hit by the second boss without a vial of acid. If the boss fight ends too quickly, the time investment risk wouldn't be high enough to make the player nervous, and if the consequences of getting hit by an enemy isn't high enough, it would also put the player too much at ease because she'll always feel like she'll have a second or third chance if she gets caught the first time.

Oh yeah, and I brute forced my way through the first hallway puzzle after trying out "PNA" and "PDA" to no avail. The secret is that if you took the wrong door at any point, one of the doors of the room you end up in (I forget which one) will always take you out of the maze, so you can eventually figure out the right path through deduction.

[Onlyoneinall]

Purgatory is a fun play. I enjoyed using the flashlight to make it darker to increase the mood. I had problems with NPCs disappearing behind overhead tiles, which was really just a nusiance more than anything. I love how well done the tiles are and how they really set the atmosphere. The music is great and the battles were okay, a little more work could have been put into it such as added attack graphics, and fixing a particular spelling error in one of the enemy advancing textboxes.

The first puzzle still has me stumped as to how I can figure out the solution on my own, but all the other puzzles I got through nice and quick. The bosses were easy, although I was worried with the first one when it kept running away and wouldn't die.

What about the story? No one has really discussed the story. I think it is interesting she is stuck in purgatory until her mind is at ease at what has happened to Emily, Mark, Dale and Bauer. I see Lewis finally embracing redemption, and then dying and being nothing more than a lifeless body in the physical world admist the destruction of the nuclear meltdown.

This game has been one of my inspirations for Bloodlust, and I am hoping it will top Purgatory. I look forward to seeing it complete so that aside from Purgatory, Bloodlust will be a strong title when it comes to the thought of OHR horror survival games.
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http://www.castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=750 Bloodlust Demo 1.00

[Leonhart]

Purgatory is the very first OHR game I played (next is Wandering Hamster). I was three years younger, and at that time, my PC was situated near a window that overlooks our creepy garden..

The first time I played the game, I was stunned by the graphics. I was stunned even more when that "thing" first greeted Lewis when she got out of the room. I immediately closed the window, thinking that there might be something that would come out of it.

Purgatory has lots of strengths. First, the graphics. Next, the fear that it generates to the gamer. The boss battle in Boogieman's Lair outdoes some of the memorable boss battles in other videogames, becasue the difference here is that Lewis isn't allowed to use any weapon, because the headless statue is almost invincible.

My only complaint here is the story. Forgive me, but I personally didn't like it. However, that could be overlooked, because I think Friend wanted to confuse the gamers by adding lots of confusing scenes (like the hospital scene and scenes with Bauer). The ending was a bit, should I say, hanging or a little too brief? Sure, the "other" Lewis explained it all, but that was it. There were no scenes where I felt satisfied that I had beaten the game... except maybe for a close-up of Lewis's breast...

Overall, Purgatory deserves a special award for being one of the best OHR game ever made..
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The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.
- Robert Bloch

[Setu_Firestorm]

In all honesty, Purgatory is one of the few OHR games I actually have fun playing. Most others I seem to skim through.

(((Inner Setu: Don't feel too bad guys. He does it with his own games too.)))
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/georgerpowell
Newgrounds: http://setu-firestorm.newgrounds.com

[Camdog]

Heh, I guess the problem with selecting a game as good as this is that there's no real controversy to fuel a discussion. The game rocks. We all agree. End of discussion.

I do have one thing I'd like to bring up regarding the game, which I guess is sort of a meta-discussion on the game, since it relates more to the engine. As I mentioned before, the part where you're chased by the statue monster in the sewer, avoiding deadly gases, was extremely frustrating to me, not because the concept was ill-conceived, but because the engine itself made dodging very frustrating (since its based on tiles rather than pixels).

This makes me wonder, how far should the OHR be stretched? Obviously it's good at old-school FF style games, but when I look at many of the plotscript based games that do all sorts of crazy things with the engine, I wonder if those projects would be better suited for a different engine, or a straight programming language. I'm not saying it's bad to stretch the limits of the engine (I enjoy taking plotscripting to the extreme as much as the next guy), but... I guess my basic question is, when making a non-rpg game, why do so many seem to elect to put it together the game using the OHR?

This question really has nothing to do with Purgatory; the section in question was a mini-game in a larger, traditional RPG framework, which is perfect for the OHR. It simply brought this question to mind because if I were designing a game where that type of gameplay were the core mechanic, I'd probably use something else.

[Moogle1]