Together Retro: FMV Frenzy

[CFFJR]

Well, I too had grand dreams of playing Realms of the Haunting. Lack of time (and where there was time, lack of motivation) meant that I ended up playing the 32X version of Corpse Killer instead. I thought it would be brief. It is not.

I actually rather like the game's presentation. It's cheesy fun, and Winston and Julie appealed themselves to me. But setting aside any of the usual complaints Corpse Killer receives, the game's biggest sin is just how bloody repetitive it is.

Your goal before confronting the main villain is saving your 4 buddies who have been zombified. Doing this requires you to visit the Fortress level, divided into 3 scenes, 4 separate times. These visits are interspersed with repeating other scenes around the island over and over so you can build up your health and stock of special ammo, the latter of which is required to defeat your zombie pals. It gets old, fast.

Which is a shame, because the moment to moment gameplay is, believe it or not, entertaining for me. I was just ready to be done by the end of the first hour, and the game just keeps going. It lasts even longer if you have bad luck with enemy spawns in a scene (which seem random to me, it's never consistent and I don't see any patterns), which can be unbearably frustrating if it spawns 5 enemies right in your face, and they just don't die quickly enough. Sometimes it drops special enemies on you that either require special ammo or specific timing, which is fine until they are placed immediately behind other enemies where you can't see them and thus don't have time to switch ammo types. Enemies will continue to soak up bullets during their death animations, so you can either burn precious special ammo or suck down significant damage. Fun.

I honestly find Corpse Killer charming. It's also god damn frustrating. I don't hate it, but I wish I'd played Realms of the Haunting instead.

[ElkinFencer10]

ALRIGHT FOLKS thanks for a glorious month full of FMV greatness. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your experiences and gaming vicariously through your write ups and discussions. I want to thank our XX participants for helping to make my month a success. And now for our April 2018 Together Retro tally. If I missed something or made a mistake somewhere (especially in the platform y'all played on), please reply to this and let me know. I did this based on how many games y'all played regardless of whether or not y'all beat them.

• Ack (3): Phantasmagoria (PC), Toonstruck (PC), Riven (PC)
  
  
• alienjesus (2): Shinobi Legions (Saturn), Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (3DO)
  
  
• BogusMeatFactory (1): Wing Commander 3 (PC)
  
  
• CFFJR (1) : Corpse Killer (Sega CD32X)
  
  
• crazythink4 (4): Myst (PC), realMyst (PC), The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime (PC), Riven (PC)
  
  
• ElkinFencer10 (5): Night Trap (PS4), Corpse Killer (Sega CD32X), Corpse Killer (Saturn), Area 51 (Saturn), Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Sega CD)
  
  
• Exhuminator (11): Double Dragon (Neo Geo), The Yakyuu Ken Special: Konya wa 12-kaisen (Saturn), Dennis Miller: That's News to Me (3DO), Pyst (PC), Alive (PS1), Black Dahlia (PC), The X-Files (PC), Fahrenheit (Sega CD32X), Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (PC), The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (PC), Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon (PC)
  
  
• Gunstar Green (1): Crusader: No Remorse (PC)
  
  
• JT (2): Temujin (PC), Double Switch (PC)
  
  
• KeyGlyph (1): Silent Steel (PC)
  
  
• laurenhiya21 (2): The Book of Watermarks (PS1), The X-Files (PS1)
  
  
• Michi (1): Phantasmagoria (PC)
  
  
• nullPointer (4): A Fork in the Tale (PC), Shinobi Legions (Saturn), Myst (PC), The Dame Was Loaded (PC)
  
  
• prfsnl_gmr (2): Double Switch (PC), Mad Dog McCree (PC)
  
  
• Sarge (5): Wirehead (Sega CD), Shinobi Legions (Saturn), Street Fighter: The Movie (Saturn), Ripley's Believe It or Not!: The Riddle of Master Lu (PC), NBA Jam (SNES)
  
  
• sevin0seven (1): Street Fighter: The Movie (Saturn)
  
  
• SpaceBooger (1): Shinobi Legions (Saturn)

Thanks again to everyone who participated. I wasn't sure if my month was going to be much of a success given the rather hit-or-miss nature of people's opinions on FMV games, but I'm THRILLED with the turn out. Thank you so much, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!

[laurenhiya21]

Thanks for hosting, Elkin! While I unfortunately couldn't really participate much, I still liked reading everybody's posts

[Key-Glyph]

Sorry to revive this old thread, but I just had to tell you guys about this.

My husband and I are always in the middle of some Star Trek series or another, and we're currently making our way through DS9 again. This afternoon he was chilling with some episodes while I was in and out of the apartment. At one point I came back and opened the door to see this face on the television:



Immediately I yell, "OH MY GOD!" and my husband says, "What?!" So I continue yelling: "I KNOW THAT GUY FROM SILENT STEEL! THAT'S MASTER CHIEF!"

The last time we were making our way through DS9 was maybe three years ago. We have seen this particular episode (Past Tense Part I) at least twice before. I never would have remembered this actor from my childhood obsession with the Silent Steel demo, but after playing the game approximately 592 times this year for the FMV challenge, I would recognize him anywhere. I feel like we're practically coworkers at this point.

When I looked the actor up on IMDB (Jim Metzler), I discovered that he appeared in the roles for DS9 and Silent Steel in the same year. It was wild to remember that those two things were happening at the same time -- to be really aware of that cultural atmosphere again, that we were just eight months away from the debut of Windows 95 when this episode was airing on TV. I tend to think of media in a vacuum, so this powerful convergence of chronology really struck me.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. Watching those video clips in Silent Steel so many times really gets you attached to the characters, apparently.