Review Dead Cities, Ecdysis and The Cellar: The H. P. Lovecraft Commonplace Project Developers: Jon Ingold Peter Nepstad David Whyld Publisher: Illuminated Lantern Genre: Interactive Fiction Release Date: 2008 Platform: Review by Dr. Ricardo M. Pautassi June 26, 2008		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

Introduction

By 1934, the (now) acclaimed Howard Philips Lovecraft had put together a collection of ideas in a manuscript he referred to as “The Commonplace Book”. Let him explain this project:

"This book consists of ideas, images and quotations hastily jotted down for possible future use in weird fiction. Very few are actually developed plots, for the most part they are merely suggestions or random impressions designed to set the memory or imagination working. Their sources are various: dreams, things read, casual incidents, idle conceptions, and so on."

The purpose of the HPL Commonplace Book Project is simple, to recreate some of his ideas in games. So far, game designers from Spain, France and America have created some graphical and conversational (i.e., IF-like) games. As of today, they are exhibited online at Illuminated Lantern. I'll be reviewing three of these games: Peter Nepstad's Ecdysis, Jon Ingold's Dead Cities and David Whyld’s The Cellar. A common denominator between them is that they belong to the beloved sub-genre of the text-adventure. They also share being relatively short in length (i.e., no more than 1 hour of gameplay). These as well as the remaining entries can be downloaded (free of charge) at the Illuminated Lantern site.

Based on entry #67 from the Common Place Book: an impression-city in peril-dead city- equestrian statue-men in closed room-clattering of hooves heard from outside-marvel disclosed on looking out-doubtful ending.

Excerpt from the game: "The letter you received from Arkwright's nephew Carter was clear enough: when the old man dies the inheritance tax will be too great. It's certain ruin, much like the estate itself. To raise some capital the nephew has set up buyers for Arkwright's extensive collection of rare and old books: the British Museum, the libraries at Cambridge and Oxford and the Université de Paris. You have the inventory: of course, you still need his signature".

Dead Cities was written by Jon Ingold, who has in his portfolio an award for "Best Game"' IFComp (2001, for the blockbuster "All Roads"). If first impressions really made a difference, the game would have had a straight A+: neat typesetting, clear explanation of commands and interesting drawings. The hand-drawn graphs are by no means jaw-dropping but they do their job nicely and fit the general aesthetic of the game. Your goals are clear, too. You are sent to the house of this old man to make an inventory of his potential valuable books. It is clear that the writer made an effort to recreate Lovecraft's style and it shows. There's a sense of oppression and decadence everywhere and the level of detail is remarkable. If asked, I would pick up Pickman's Model as the work of Lovecraft that more closely resembles the game.

There are two NPCs, the old man and his maid, both are well depicted and react reasonably well to your inquiries. The story unfolds quickly and in no more than 15 min you'll be in the climax of the story. Without giving away too much (spoilers ahead): this climax comprises a one-room situation with two puzzles: escaping the room and getting knowledge about the core topic of the game. Completion of the first is a must to wind up the game and will require a great deal of exploration. No completion of the remaining puzzle won't preclude finishing the game but I would advise taking your time and look at everything. Otherwise, if you rush too much, you'll end up wondering what the heck was going on (end of spoilers).

As should any good Lovecraft game, Dead Cities exhibits a couple of mythical books, and they play and important role in the story. The exhibit a very good level of prose and I should admit that a line or two made me feel the chills going down my spine.

The game was made in Glulxe. For the purposes of this review was run in its Windows interpreter (WinGlulxe) and also in Gargoyle (a very interesting piece of software capable of loading almost any type of IF file out there, read more about it here. I would clearly suggest using WinGlulxe since it keeps the original font/color combination. However, I noticed an annoying glitch when using WinGlulxe. Basically, sometimes there is a (short) delay between your command input and the reply. I am assuming the main engine and not the game is to blame for this (I also noticed it in other games, notably "City of Secrets").

A downside is that the game's total length is no more than 35 min and there's very little room for changing the course of the events. Most important, the end is sort of a disappointment. Basically, there's no close to the story and it is just... uninspiring. It seems that the author ran out of ideas and looked for a quick way to wrap it up. On the plus side, the interface exhibits an on-line system help. Basically, it is a clickable suggestion (i.e., "You could..."') that helps you move further into the game.

But even in the light of the previous drawbacks, It is easy to recommend the game for a quick snack of good-old typing. Dead Cities receives a C+ from this reviewer.

Based on entry #221 from the CommonPlace Book: "Insects or other entities from space attack and penetrate a man's head and cause him to remember alien and exotic things--possible displacement of personality.".

Excerpt from the game: "You wake, a pounding headache loud in your inner ear, the back of your head itching and tingling, your mouth full of cotton. The pain drives away your dreams, weird visions of alien landscapes and strange geometries that your awakening mind can no longer comprehend... ".

This game is quick and to the point. Level of description is minimal, which seems a conscious game-design decision made to force the player's attention focus in the relevant details. In no more than 10 turns you will witness your character undergoing a truly horrifying metamorphosis. The prose is intense and dense, revolving in the more "cosmic horror" style of the New England's writer. The idea behind the story is not novel but it is developed cleverly and succeeds in delivering a truly sense of horror, particularly in its ending. Indeed, the final scene is very intense and gory.

The man behind this game is Peter Nepstad, better known for having penned the epic-sized and incredibly complex "1893:A Worlds Fair Mystery" (also revised at JA by this mighty reviewer). While "1893" was written using TADS 2, version 3 of the engine is employed now. The game features a multimedia element exclusive of this last installation: clickable links for the most obvious actions are attached to objects and locations. Hints are available for part of the game, too. Interestingly, you can click your way for most of the game. So, Ecdysis may be a good transition for those not fully used to type to wind up the game. As the author states, Ecdysis is more an experience than a game, but the ride is worthy. A short review for a short game, Ecdysis is graded C.

Based on entry #92: man’s body dies—but corpse retains life. Stalks about—tries to conceal odour of decay—detained somewhere—hideous climax.

Excerpt from the game: “In a book under the bed, there's where your father keeps the key. You should grab it and quickly. He won't return for many hours...”

The Cellar, written by David Whyld,is the least interactive of the three games. There are no real puzzzles, just “go-fetch” tasks here and there. But on the bright side, the game packs a great amount of text, and its quality ranks pretty high. By far exhibiting the best prose and story of the games here reviewed, The Cellar puts you in the shoes of a young child. Driven by his curiosity, he tries to sneak into the cellar, although he has been explicitly warned by his father against doing so. Pretty standard horror stuff, right? Don't be fooled. The game cleverly mixes original elements with common lore from Lovecraft's stories (notably, "At the Mountain of Madness"), succeeding in creating a truly fascinating reading experience. Without spoiling the whole thing, let's just say that there is an expedition and a quest and a curse and... well, play it by yourself, it is going to take about 35 min. And make sure you play it to the end, as the final twist deserves particular attention. On the technical side, it ran fine in Gargoyle. Although it should be mentioned that, when replying to my input, there were a couple of unnecessary lines repeating my command before the actual reply. Not a big issue, for sure, but certainly did not help to favor the immersion into the game.

As a short-horror story, it should get nothing but a straight A. As a piece of interactive fiction, The Cellar receives a C+.

Requirements: You can play all games with Gargoyle.