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Nocturne is a PC gamer's dream and nightmare all at once. A good old fashioned action/adventure/shoot-em-up that spins a horrifying tale of the supernatural and whacked out folklore. The game is moody, depressing and downright pantsfilling scary in parts, which makes this a must have for action and horror fans. However, instances of long distance viewing, violently awkward camera angles, slow down and dropped audio make the game very frustrating and far from perfect.
Without a doubt Nocturne has character. As the lone wolf, aptly named Stranger, you are hired by the Spookhouse in 1923, a secret agency started by Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 to squash the supernatural forces hell-bent on taking over the world. Not all is as it would seem; even your team members are made up of a half human, half-vampire hybrid a re-animated dead guy and a real hell-spawned demon. But you are all fighting for a common goal: To eradicate all forms of evil. Unlike today's action heroes, The Stranger has little to say, preferring to let his weapons do the talking for him. The guy even hates saying the Password to his secret club!
Nocturne consists of four levels that can be played in any sequence. Do yourself a favor and play them in order; the overall game will just make more sense. As the mysterious Stranger, you'll take on werewolves, changelings, winged sentinels, zombies, vampires, ghouls and even the mob on your quest for a better monster-free world. You'll travel the globe while putting an end to a Count Voico's never-ending pajama party in Germany, you'll make a stop in a redneck town in Texas to oust the undead (who happen to be smarter and more deserving of sympathy than the humans...), take on Al Capone's undead army in Chicago and finally travel to a Paris cemetery to "chew bubblegum and kick ass but you're all out of bubblegum". Okay that's not the Strangers line, it's from "They Live" with Rowdy Roddy Piper, but it's still a quirky little quip.
Luckily for you, The Stranger can use all kinds of implements of destruction; elephant guns, tommy guns, shotguns, crossbows, flame-throwers, wooden stakes, crosses, silver bullets, dynamite...you name it. If it causes hurt, then it's in this game. To make aiming much easier, each weapon has a laser like device that will allow you to pinpoint your next target. The Stranger can also use a lantern and a cool Nightvision device that allows him to make out shadows in the dark; it's in black and white and the view is terribly snowy, but it does the job. Hey this is the 1920's and 30's (the game takes place over an eight year time span) so what do you expect? Infrared? Didn't you know Infra-red was reverse engineered by the US government after they were able to get their hands on alien technology after the Roswell, New Mexico crash in 1947? Actually the idea for Infrared was discovered during the autopsy on the deceased beings when the eyes of the aliens were researched. Oops, actually said too much. Now I'll have to kill you all.
Graphically Nocturne is visual dynamite. The lighting effects are out of this world; wait until you turn on the lantern and see the shadows created on the walls. You can tell that G.O.D. went to great lengths to make Nocturne as creepy and atmospheric as possible. The only way to play this game is in complete darkness with a great PC sound system. If you are playing it during the day, you are a complete baby! Along with the amazing lighting effects, Nocturne's worlds are extremely detailed and realistic; moonlight shimmers on water, glass breaks, wood creaks, footsteps echo on cobblestone streets and the list goes on. Even watching The Strangers trench coat flap as he runs is astounding. Very cool trench coat animation going on here!
The voice work in Nocturne is top notch, perhaps the finest voice acting I've heard in a long time. The Stranger (who I believe is voiced by the actor who lent his voice to Mike LeRoie in Shadow Man) is unflappable and the epitome of calm, cool and collected. The various Spookhouse cronies all carry themselves convincingly without going over the top and playing for laughs. That's not to say there isn't any yuks in the game; I particularly enjoyed The Strangers aversion to having to say his Spookhouse codeword.
Complaint Dept. Unfortunately, the game's camera is the ugliest monster you'll battle in the entire adventure. At numerous times, your character will be at the other end of a screen (the furthest point away from the camera, making him about ¼ of an inch tall) surrounded by enemies, and unable to see your character, you will die most frequently. Other times the camera angle will disorient you when you move from one section of an area to another; even walking down a street can throw you for a loop and make it difficult to get your bearings. The game manual advises you to "save often" and "know when to run like hell" and now I know why. Saving often means it's my fault when I die and not the fact that I can't see my character at all. Riiiiiight. Another serious bone of contention is the fact that this game needs major horsepower, and even when you supply it, there is slow down. The game also recommends Sound Blaster Live (which I have) for environmental audio, but there are numerous accounts of dropped audio, both in speech and sound effects. The sound effects tend to drop out most noticeably when the slow down occurs, but in other cases some lines dropped out during the cutscenes. Now either a few lines weren't recorded for inexplicable reasons and maybe G.O.D. just saw fit to add the subtitle in; who knows?
Unfortunately the execution problems found in Nocturne turn an extremely enjoyable game into a barely playable one at times. This is definitely too bad because Nocturne is a game that you'll probably play despite the inherent flaws, but they'll nag at you almost every step of the way. If the game hadn't gone for the Resident Evil/Perfect Weapon camera angles, it would have been easier to play and would have earned a near perfect score from me. As it is, Nocturne is ambitious and a helluva lot of fun, and I do recommend picking it up if you have the CPU horsepower. Just be aware of the flaws and make sure you "save often" and "know when to run like hell". Wise words to live by.
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