Part 3: Things to do on ground floor when you're dead.

First things first, let's take a look at Henry's initial stats.



Hmm not too bad. He's got a few points in clubs and throwing however. Plus his willpower is so high he's got spells before the game has even begun, the overly prepared bastard! I've covered up the spell descriptions so that we will discover them at the appropriate junction.

These stats are alright, but we can do better. Lets reset and redistribute!



Much better. These stats are fairly typical of the way I normally play the game. In my opinion, there's very little else worth choosing. At the very least you'll want a decent blade skill and some first aid to begin with. You don't need any willpower at the start but it eases experience costs for the late game.

Time to start the game proper.



Welcome to the game proper. You'll notice that the interface is a series of independent windows that can be re-sized for personal preference. You can even save your custom interface to swap with your friends! If anyone wants me to expand the size of the actual play window, I can give it a go, but this doesn't mean the resolution will improve. For the time being, the window will be this size.

Henry has just realized that he's left something in the car. He'll just be a sec.



Curses, we're trapped! At this point I'd like point out how lucky you are that this is a screenshot lp. The reason being that the sound design in this game is pretty dreadful. When you try the front door a bad evil laughter sound clip plays. You can hear some horrible clicking noise at the start and end of every sound clip, like someone turning on and off tape recorder.

Now if I double click in Henry's portrait window, you'll notice that it has opened his inventory. He can carry a grand total of four small sized items, plus two items of any size in each hand.



But that's enough game play mechanics, lets read this note at our feet. Just like every horror game ever invented ever, most of the plot will be told through documentation.






So that was our introduction to our games first NPC, Marcus Roberts. He will be a great source of information about what we're up against and will provide many clues on what to do next. First clue, stop the evil from breaking into our world. Sounds simple enough.

At the foot of the stairs ahead of us, we find a blue book.



This is our spell book. If you have a high enough willpower you start the game with one in your hand. It's currently empty but sure enough it will serve us well before this nightmare is over.

I'm feeling bold, so let's climb the stairs and introduce ourselves to the floor spaghetti like whoever it was who did that in the opening cut scene.



Sadly the door has been nailed shut and we will never be able to open it. We will get to the other side of the door in the future, however.

Alright then, let's try the doors on the stairs above this level.



Rats!

The game chides us for attempting to vault over the bannister.



Left of the front door, we spy a painting.



Let's take a closer look shall we?



I'll bet that indentation in the necklace is nothing of importance.

North of the painting, there's an envelope on the ground.





So as it turns out most of the furniture in the mansion has been sold at auction... I suppose it's not the worst thing inheriting this mansion has wrought upon us.

At least they didn't take our precious metal vase or the painting of that man being incinerated.



Hmm what's that over on the other side of the stairs?

Pah! Call that a museum?



Hmm this gives me an idea...




We hurl the vase at the display case as hard as we can and swipe the statue of a demon called Cartag. It's too big to stuff into our pants so we just haul it around with us for the time being.

Behind the door to the right under the stairs we find the most useful item in the game.



The Attache Case.



As you can see, it expands our inventory by fourteen slots and allows you to place large objects, such as the Cartag figurine, inside of it. There's also a med kit on the floor here too, which we also grab, not too shabby.

Finally, there's another note down here from our buddy Marcus too.





Oh great. He's flooded the first floor with the walking dead. Way to go Marcus, as if we don't have enough fucking games about zombies as it is.

We head out into the mansion proper and we immediately run into our enemy. Henry is visibly shaken by this.




Meet the zombie. They're as slow as molasses, weak as a newborn kitten and pose little to no threat to a well equipped archaeologist.
Unfortunately we're not so well equipped, so we'll be running away till we get adequate protection.

A zombie lightly grazes our arm as we stumble blindly through the corridors.



We make a mad dash for those stairs. Zombies can't climb stairs.

And we find ourselves on the first floor, with its lush blue carpeting. We won't be staying long up here, it's far more dangerous than the ground floor at this point.



Henry witnesses some Cyclopean monstrosity in the distance...



...and becomes literally paralyzed by fear.

Now is a good time to talk about the fear mechanics in this game.
As you will have noticed, whenever monsters are prowling about within eye shot of Henry, he becomes noticeably agitated. If the fear is too great, he becomes paralyzed and won't move, all the while screaming and screaming and screaming. What is odd about this mechanic, and I don't know if this is a bug or not, is that you seem to become less fearful over time. I suppose it makes sense, as you might build up a tolerance to looking at scary things or what have you. The thing is though, by the time you're finished with ground floor, nothing seems to invoke that reaction again. You can even find ways to lessen fear later on, so I can't help but feel that either this is either a bug or the tolerance builds far too quickly, too early.

Scared witless, Henry manages to regain enough composure to duck into a nearby room.



and finds something that calms him right down.



Ah the Kevlar Vest.

This thing will reduce the zombies already piddling damage to next to nothing. Almost all their attacks will be rendered harmless. When starting out this game, I highly recommend making a mad dash for the first floor and grabbing this thing straight off the bat. It makes the early stages of the game a lot easier. Remember, supplies in this game are finite and you should take all measures to ensure you take as little damage as possible.


Next time, we'll head back down stairs and look for a decent way to put the dead back into their original state.



See you then!