Realms of the Haunting PC Game Review
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
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Realms of the Haunting is a first-person adventure/shooter game developed by Gremlin Interactive. The 3D engine used in this game was borrowed from Gremlin's own Normality.
Adam Randall ventures to a haunted house in order to investigate the mysterious circumstances around his father's death. As he enters, however, the doors locks behind him and he is forced to journey throughout the entire house while looking for answers as well as means of escaping it. Along the way he meets up with the psychic woman Rebecca Trevisard who provides Adam with guidance as they work together in trying to escape. Adam soon discovers the house contains portals to several different universes, and that he is the Chosen One who must prevent the final apocalypic battle between the forces of good and evil.
The game has over 40 hours of content and includes many different universes to travel, and has a plot which involves multiple sides fighting for their own causes. The beginning gives the idea of Adam being against demonic forces, but later on player finds himself caught in much deeper plot between different forces, where demons play only one role.
The player explores locations and battles demons from a first-person perspective. A floating cursor is used to interact with the environment and pick up items. The game features many inventory-based puzzles.
The story of Realms of the Haunting is told through full-motion video cutscenes, which utilize live-action actors.
A few years ago, I dug out my original disks and was determined to finally finish this game, as I was totally in love with its concept back when it came out, but never got far in 1997. So I printed out a walkthrough, and sat down with it every night after work for several weeks (around 2009), playing on my old Win98 Packard Bell Pentium II 266. Damn, I was still in love with it. The atmosphere was incredible throughout. However, even with the walkthrough, I reached a point about Chapter 16 where I was hopelessly stuck. I had apparently left something undone a long time before, but I had no idea what it was that I needed to do. Frustrating as hell, but I still count this among my all-time favorite gaming experiences. Oh, and I had a big crush on whoever the girl was that played Rebecca. I thought she was so beautiful.
Gggman, if you actually finished this game (and it appears that you did), you have my respect. It is no small feat. Loved your video examples of many of the locations I remember so well. You covered a wide variety. Also, it is rare that I can agree with every word of a game review, but you nailed it here. I was nodding my head sagely all the way through. Well done, sir!
well now i feel bad that you never finished the game,is on steam if you still interested i know is late comment but i still have to watch all of his vids
I finished it with a walkthrough as well but I did have slight issues with some of those damn puzzles. I believe that's chapter 16 or 17. There are tons of let's play videos if you want to see the ending
@@Gurra88 Heh. Thanks for the reply! I had forgotten about this. You know, I think I might still have the game installed on that same Packard Bell PII 266. I never get rid of my old gaming rigs. And if is the last game I played on that rig, my save game is likely still there. If the machine will start up. I may have to dig it out of the closet and see. Thanks for the reminder!
I finished it in 2000ish? No walkthrough. A friend let me borrow his 4CD set and I ground it out. I was a pretty obsessive gamer back then. Really enjoyed this game and think of it fondly.
The weapon fire and reload sprites are exceptional. They look better than some 3d animations in more recent games.
The sound design also sounds really good from what I heard in the review.
That's because those sprites were done via basically just digitizing & mo-capping video of Adam (David Tuomi) actually firing and reloading real weapons from the 1st person perspective (or at least physical props like with the magic staffs and so on). At the time virtually every other game used hand-drawn sprites and hand-drawn, rather imaginative reload animations... The difference between photo/video of _real_ weapons and items being used by real people is far, far better looking than some animator having to draw what he thinks a shogun might look like; and animate how his essentially cartoon weapons will fire and reload. I mean don't get me wrong, ROTH doesn't truly live up to being called truly "photorealistic" (the resolution and color depth are too primitive for that), but most of the textures *are* from real photos; both weapons/items and the environment. It really adds a lot to the atmosphere and realism, and certainly stands out in a era when almost all FPS and adventure games were going for generic sci-fi aesthetics and used hand-drawn or 100% CGI rendered textures and animations.
Locked... Won't budge. Stuck fast. Stuck fast. Won't budge.
The nostalgia is real.
Clive Barker's Undying took a hell of a lot of inspiration from ROTH I think.
Protaganist reminds me of anakin skywalker from episode two
Totally lol I think everyone makes that connection when they see him.
Even his brown duster looks like a Jedi robe.
I recently checked up on the actors in this game. Most of them have fallen by the wayside when it comes to acting, according to IMDB. A few, like Emma Powell (Rebecca), have gone on to do a lot of voice acting. Go check out her GAMES demo reel. It's fabulous.
I found an interview with her here. It wasn't very recent (2010) but she was still doing acting. She was talking about her character in a play. I wonder if she gets approached by ROTH fans these days. I know the game didn't garner that much fame but I absolutely love it
I will always remember this as the game where you make a bong for a supernatural water being.
So it might have drawn inspirado from 'Crossworlds' (which came out a year before) while at the same time predicting 'Evil Bong'.
Poor Gremlin. They did some great games back in the day, but sadly lie forgotten now. I hadn't even heard of RotH, so thanks for the review Chief!
Lotus... Zool... when I saw the Gremlin logo in demo discs I know stuff gunna be good
I played this game maybe 20 years ago. I always wanted to know what it was in adult life but never remembered the name then suddenly during the night it just popped back into my mind. So here I am!
It's really cool that you reviewed this game and liked it. I had so much fun with it back in the day, playing it all night with the lights off.
One of my all-time favourites which I still come back to (thanks of course to GOG). The dynamic atmospheric lighting absolutely wowed me at the time, and still impresses, and the scope of the mythology (Cornish myth, Egyptology, Gnosticism, Dante, and good old haunted house horror) is truly epic. Also, I was stupidly amused you could turn off all the textures by pressing "M" (A useless features, as the textures are often informative, but a nice little look at the raw mechanics of 3d gaming).
I'm so impressed by how much personality the reload animations have and how good the weapon effects are. Best 3 dollars I'll spend on Steam
very interesting, never heard of this game before
It is. I bought it randomly 20 years ago because the cover looked interesting and since it was cheap. It blew my mind across the room
Nice review! I bought this game when it first came out 20 years ago and just completed it for the first time today. Finally!
Me too man. I found a cheap copy at some computer store 20+ years ago and just had to buy it haha.
awesome review, one of the most underrated games ever IMO
First person shooter, FMV, point & click adventure, puzzles, cheesy horror game from mid 90's? Somehow combined all my favorite things. This game was made for me and I've never even heard of it until today!
ACTUALLY, you can press Right and then left mouse buttons together and just let go the left one, while holding the right one to have a mouse look, then ya just use the CTRL for shooting.
EDIT: Also the US version lets you change controls. The UK one doesn't have that but can be patched up to the version i've mentioned.
KayKay91 ....how? Fu**ing tell this curious man.
@@123darkelf Just get the US version. All previous versions of ROTH (including the Steam & GoG releases, which I believe are the UK version) can be patched to the US version. US version adds the ability to rebind all controls; so you can use WASD to move, space to jump, c/ctrl to crouch, and have mouselook -- just keep in mind the mouselook is always to be _different_ to standard FPS games because that's the the game was designed eg; your aim is where your mouse cursor/crosshair is, but unlike standard FPS games it doesn't move your entire view to aim. Rather you look in one direction via the WASD keys, then use mouse to aim within that direction and field of view; when your crosshair gets too close to the edge of the screen, then it'll start to turn your view (normal mouselook). Or you just hold down mouse2 and it will lock normal mouselook until released. It sounds really wonky, but it grows on you and in practice it's highly accurate. I actually really prefer it to standard mouselook+aim in slow paced, adventure/fps like this.
@@J.DeLaPoer thats…actually really helpful thank you!
@@123darkelf I didn't see til after I wrote that, that your comment was like 7+ years ago. Still, this game is a seriously underrated gem so I'm happy to help anyone pick it up. Btw the Steam and GoG forums for ROTH both have links to the US patch installer; as well as various tips and DOSBox config files for improved texture filtering, increasing resolution, etc (don't expect miracles, but you can bump up the res and filtering so it doesn't look like such a grainy, jaggy mess eg; proper filtering and 1920x1080, vs the original software renderer filtering and 640x480).
Good luck!
The cutscenes look like green screen UA-cam movies run through a "full motion video" filter. And I'm here for it.
God i love this game. Still have the original cds. I don't know how many hours i have played that game over and over. Great review as always!
This was hands down my favourite game as a kid, even if certain bits did scare the shit out of me (like the cave section with the flying enemies). Way, way ahead of its time, even if it did come on FOUR compact disks! For context, this game came out the same year as GoldenEye on the N64.
I played this one all the way through the end and was extremely surprised with how many different elements it had and the firing system was better than a lot of shooters. Glad you reviewed this one.
Protagonist kinda reminds me of Anakin
This looks like it has all the charm of a mid 90s VHS b movie while also being a pretty cool looking game.
(Leofair) One of the most atmospheric game I ever played. It is really nice someone pays attention to such an emmersive classic game :)
what the enemies in this game WERE a real threat, died tons of times
RoTH used the same engine as Normality, which is also smacks you in the face and pisses in your mouth instead of holding your hand. I kept the boxed edition of RoTH I bought back in 1998 (it's a in bin in my attic, somewhere... LOL). Hell, I even bought a Tseng 6000 and SB AWE 64 for DOS games like this that played well with the VESA 2.0 spec.
On sale at GOG for $0.59, thanks for the recommendation.
I had the game on disc. Or rather, discs. :p I always found it amazing, the adventure + FPS gameplay made it one of my favorite games when I was a teen.
BTW, do you know the Tex Murphy games? I would love it you did a review of them (even if it's one video for all games in the series).
Who else wore a brown duster in the '90s and had that same haircut? Ever see the movie 'Crossworlds'? It came out in 1996. Rutger Hauer's in it and he wears a duster and uses a staff that he describes as "a cosmic chainsaw."
Such an amazing game ! The story is a bit convoluted and the level design somewhat confusing but the game as a whole is incredible even today !
People forget what a powerhouse Gremlin was back then, as much so as Bullfrog and Blizzard.
GOG is my go to site for video games; love the variety.
Why have i never heard of this before? It looks great visually and sounds great
Woah, this game and engine look awesome
OK so this is sort of an interesting concept.
I just think it could of had just a LITTLE more spit and polish by the looks of things.
Great review.
Holy old school, how come i've never seen this video?
Was on steam for less than $4 had to pick it up, this games better than most newer games being released today.
Lost a lot of hours to this game. I remember the fun and frustration fondly. Might have to look up how to install this game on a modern PC and give it another go.
+AcidicPandarion I discovered the coolness of DOS box. I feel like I've come full-circle and come home.
Great vid yet again!
I recommend checking out IRON Storm isn't ANZAC but its a decent shooter within a creative setting.
Yeah I will reviewing it soon!
best game i´ve ever played. it is simply perfect. played it in 1998 and it took me 1 month to complete it, cause some of the riddles were so damn hard
i remember playing this way back in high school but could never figger out what it name was called when i finished school thanks iv been looking for this one for a verry long time.
Are you sure you've actually finished school? Maybe you should have "figger"d out how to spell.
I just found an original copy in a "throw away" bin on the street here in Bremen Germany... Good condition!
Shilling a bit there in the end, were we? Great review as always!
This is such a good game. I feel like it's a transitional game, like the end of the adventure game era and the beginning of the FPS era... I mean, yeah, lots of FPS games had been out by this point, but maybe you know what I mean.
If there is one thing I didn't like about this game, it's that I feel like some of the enemies look too cartoony when compared with the style of everything else. But I think that's just nitpicking.
I'm in love with this Shaded Lighting software rendering (CPU-only) 3D was a lie... almost everything looks better in 2D
besides System Shock 2... but even then... that game used "baked-in lighting" which was 2D textures
I played this when it came out, but I had consistent problems with the video playback, and if I remember the screen just went black until you skipped it. It was funny as I had quite a good computer at the time and graphics accelerator, so I couldn't effectively play the game (all the other graphics worked). I was also about eleven years old at the time, and remember being quite scared of the catacombs and the bit when you take the scepter and all the skeletons come out. But all in all the game was really cool and pretty memorable to me. I took a while earlier trying to remember what it was called as I know the shortcut was just called "Roth".
ROTH does a good job combining adventure with fps, and it's a long and complex game -- not for casuals or people looking for an action shooter; as it's adventure first and foremost. It can be difficult in that areas are large, hub based, and there's no automap (just "paper" maps you have to read yourself). It's possible to screw yourself by missing items, but all the puzzles do make sense and the game throws in enough hints and info if you read the documents, examine the items, etc: There's none of that "90s adventure game logic", and though items don't glow or anything, it's not a pixel hunt either. Weapons are neat, but combat can be clunky; as are the controls in general _(NOTE: The US patch allows you to change resolution and remap controls to the conventional wasd & pseudo mouselook)._
Also a strong point is that the art direction and atmosphere are *top notch*, and the story is pretty well written and interesting especially if you're into the occult... It delves into everything from religious history to the Templars, ceremonial magic, summoning, seances, magical artefacts, persistence of the soul, dream interpretation, alternate dimensions; even getting into gothic architecture, the apocalypse, angels and demons... Most of the major historic and popular occult beliefs are at least touched on if not integral in some way. It does get a little fantasy-like in some later areas, but most of the game is you basically playing occult detective in a creepy old manor house complete with hidden passages and secret rooms... It's not going to scare you to death, but it avoids most of the silliness and cheese of the FMV adventure era and does a good job being eerie and sucking you in to the story.
In all, a highly underrated retro gem that remains one of my favorites -- if not one of the greatest horror/occult adventure games of all time. Just take my advice and find the "US patch" before playing. Due to the primitive BUILD-like engine the mouselook is limited as in original Doom, Duke, etc, but being able to use wasd+mouse to move around makes a huge difference vs. the default scheme.
Loved this when myself and a few friends played it.
The story and atmosphere always stuck with me, and I replayed it decades later and enjoyed it just as much.
Props to the actor of Belial. Awesome villain.
Don't forget Gaul. Evil as fuck despite not talking a lot. He has like one line in the entire game but his acting is great
Why does this dude looks and acts like Dante from DmC before DmC even existed?
Very good review. I watched a Let's Play of this game some time ago and would like to play it, but I would probably get lost in the mazes and the *'spoiler'* downer ending *'spoiler'* demotivates me somewhat.
Hey, ross scott did a video about this game too, though that one is about 30 minutes, loved the review though
One of my favourite old games. Still have the original big box and discs. Gameplay holds up for the most part although the first part of Sheol is both metaphorically and literally Hell.
As for the FMV cutscenes, I think the only 90's game that has them beat is Wing Commander. It has pretty decent acting and overall it's not all that cheesy, plus it helps that it has a compelling story with twists and turns and some pretty obscure references.
I've still got this game from it's release. Really have enjoyed it several times but it's been years. A reboot onto console would be nice-same story/same characters [[well, new actors I suppose]], same everything but new graphic/engine and controls. Next to Blade Riven, Runner and Oddworld Abe's Oddysee it is one of my favorite older games.
I got this game for 74 cents on steam and the atmosphere is amazing very glad I got it.
Though there may not be in game ways of changing the key mapping, you should be able to use the DOSBox key mapper to set whatever controls you like.
SuperGreatFriend did an exhaustive LP of this game, and he spoke about using Xpadder or some other program to reconfig the controls to work with a ps4 controller, because of the touch pad.
Love this game. If there is anything to complain about, it's how the art style of the enemies clashes with the rest of the game's art style. They look a bit cartoony sometimes. This game still creeps me out, and that's an accomplishment.
Oh! The platforming was a bit of a pain in some areas.
+Saibot216 The Tower... rofl, I can't even count how many times I fell off the edge in that place.
I was watching a Resident Evil retrospective the other day, and it said in early development for the first game they planned it to be a FPS with puzzles. I wonder how similar it would have been to this game.
Another game I would really like a reboot of.
This game looks super neat! Thanks to this review, I am going to buy this.
Rebecca is hella fine
make a Nosferatu the wrath of malachi review pliz :)
Are they making a sequel? Or a spiritual successor. We need more point n click adventure FPS games
They were going to make a sequel, but unfortunately despite overwhelmingly positive reviews it didn't sell that well.
The closest I found to a spiritual successor was Clive Barker's: Undying, more emphasis on the shooting but there's still some puzzles in there. And the creepy, foreboding atmosphere is spot on.
This is a great game. I wish somebody would remaster it...
Ross Scott's Game Dungeon review of this game is brilliant too if anyone wants a 30+ minute look at the entirety of the game.
Okey, I'll be a creep! Who's the girl in the thong (intro)?!
Did you ever find out? It's bugging me because I recognise it.
Elexis Sinclaire (SIN Episodes: Emergence)
This is still a really fantastic game. You can change the controls to make them easier for modern players. You can find the patch here. www.gog.com/forum/realms_of_the_haunting/transformation_patch_uk_us_version/page1
Seriously, this game is $.59 cents on GOG now. This review is helpful to see if it's just worth spending time because money is not an issue. I'm not sure I want to watch the cinematics though. This does look like it controls much better than System Shock.
Amnesia of 90’kid!!
Looks like a pretty cool game, although 90s FMV can be incredibly ridiculous, I'll just have to see.
I never knew this game had an FPS element. I might have looked into it if I did, but it never got me interested for some reason... I think I may eventually correct this mistake thanks to you.
If you are planning to add another genre to your reviews the please consider third person shooters since there are even more games and it will be familiar to you.
I got this game free years ago and enjoyed it, cool game.
There was a steam giveaway for this game not too long ago.
You can get it on GOG for 59 cents atm, go and get it. ;)
Utterly brilliant game. One of the few games I have purchased. But it's hard, REALLY hard and you do die a lot. Puzzles are fun if not frustrating at times but like you said you spend a lot of time going back over the levels to try and find what you have missed.
Just a shame that the engine is dated and I know this sounds funny but there are NO cheat codes so you cannot pick it up again and quickly slog through it. Speaking of dated engine it's a real shame that some company has not picked this up and updated it. It would be awesome on a modern game engine. I mean, what game give live action cut scenes?
+datasilo uk Totally agree. I have nothing but incredibly fond memories of this game. The environments were all so fantastic. The house, the tower, that hedge maze. Those fucking skeletons near the beginning... One of the few games that really freaked me out. It might have just been the fact I was only 12 or 13 when I played it but I'd still say it's probably my favorite PC game of all time.
I Get this game in my GOG Piñata today...
Interesting.... I shall try this game out.
Why have you not done any of thebDevil May Cry games
Do you see a theme with the videos I do?
Gggmanlives yea you got me there i was just wondering itd be neat to hear your opinion on it though i respect you view on the games and the videos are great keep up the good work man thanks for taking the time to read this
Hey ggg id like to see a review for Warhawk: Red Mercury Missions for the ps1 by SingleTrac. The same team that made Twisted Metal
I once saw a let's play of this game, where a ps4 controller was used, which should make the game a little easier to control.
this is good review ^^
Still have the game in its box as new, probably worth about £2 but loved it when I played it
Great box tho. Whole game has such lovely art.
someone uploaded a package of Textures used in this beautiful game to idgames to be used on Doom mods... so use it!
Did you play Will Rock, ZenoClash or Pariah? They aren't really good but I think they're pretty fun to play.
slayer0304 Yeah Will Rock was pretty fun.
looks like a bad ass cross of Blood and Killing TIME
Ok what you said about missing crucial items and not knowing what you missed until later levels is a big turn off in games like this.
Do an L.A. Noire review!
Freaking cool review
The game is great and i am playing it now ..just got it from GOG ...but i have one question .How to drink health potions ?
Is the head-bob adjustable, I wonder? I'd love to play this, but I can see it would give me motion sickness within about 5 minutes.
Looks like Doom. =)
quite grainy
Mmmh... I think the combat is missing some gore but other then that it looks really fun.
that shotgun looks and sounds really punchy. like, brutal doom punchy
At the time? Now they have some?
PC PowerPlay demo disc
This was pretty awesome.
Brain maze.
No mouse look?
Gremlin Interactive
rip