Was it Good? - Nightmare Creatures

if I asked you to think of a love crafty and action horror game where you fight through the gothic streets of 19th century monster infested London you'd probably say the 2015 Masterpiece bloodborne and you'd be spot on but bloodborne wasn't the first game to attempt this because 18 years earlier on the PlayStation 1 N64 and PC we had nightmare creatures hi I'm Josh D haes when I was a kid I remember having nightmare creatures on a demo disc for the PlayStation 1 it was either sampler 2 that came with PaRappa the Rapper or it was Volume 7 disc 2 that came with rapid racer and that weird firefighting video game Rosco McQueen at the time nightmare creatures terrified me as a kid the atmosphere the enemies the sound effects I was way too scared to even finish the demo level but now I am very slightly braver so let's go back to 1997 and save London I will critique the mechanics the movement the combat the environmental interaction and then I'll have a look at the hidden play as a monster mode and then answer the very simple question nightmare creatures was it actually any good as usual a massive thank you to all the supporters on patreon YouTube and twitch who keep this channel alive more information on how you can support at the end for now let's begin quick warning this game does feature giant spiders nightmare creatures was a hacken slash action game made by French gaming developer kisto entertainment back in 1997 now Kalisto had made a few games before but nothing majorly successful they'd made Pac-Man pack in time on the SN or the PC action adventure Dark Earth and after nightmare creatures they would go on to make The Fifth Element video game adap and then nightmare Creatures 2 before unfortunately declaring bankruptcy in 2002 likely a result of how poorly The Fifth Element game was received so we know that this game got at least one sequel but nightmare creatures was actually planned to be much more almost a franchise nightmare creatures 3 Angel of Darkness was canceled mid-development and a nightmare creatures film was announced in the year 2000 which would have been set 200 years before the events of this game another thing the bankruptcy stopped for this review I'll be playing the PlayStation 1 version there are no major differen between the N64 and PC versions although the PC version has slightly faster load times and the N64 has slightly longer draw distances the PlayStation is overall a smoother experience so let's load it up and return to 19th century yanam sorry London to meet the crazed scientist Adam Crowley he works alone his hands defiling the bodies of the dead in his thirst for knowledge and power his name is Adam Crowley a man who was once respected in the field of science until fate led him along another path towards black magic now he is in possession of the mythical lost Diary of Samuel peeps a volume that contains the detestable rituals of the demon worshiping Brotherhood of heet soon he will complete his work tonight as the sun sets on London one last time he will unleash his demonic brood onto the streets and should no one stop him this city will be consumed by a horde of nightmare creatures So Adam Crowley has turned the people of London into the titular nightmare creatures using Arcane magic and we need to stop him now while Adam Crowley and the Brotherhood of Hecate are both fictional and made up for the game the word Crowley might link to the English occultist Alistar Crowley who spent most of his life performing seances in war castle alist Crowley famously founded the religion of thma which is all about following your own personal desires Above All Else finding your purpose in life so here's a strange personal link and one of the reasons I know too much about alist Crowley many years ago the American TV show most terrifying places did an expose on war castle and during this episode they did a recreation of a seance using alist Crowley and a couple of his minions and I know this because in that episode I played alist Crowley and it was an extremely fun day and we got to explore war castle all day I don't think the episode's online anymore but if you can find it it's called death car back to the game through the main menu you've got two difficulties easy and hard and as standard the game is set to hard so if you struggle with this as a kid that's why I'll leave it on hard mode for this playthrough just to see how difficult it actually is you've got two playable characters Ignatius an old man with a stick or nardia a young woman with a sword they both move the same but have different combo attacks neither is better than the other so I'll be playing as nardia because of reasons level one investigate a workshop and track down Crowley you're thrown straight into the action with a zombie attacking you right away so let's break down the mechanics of nightmare creatures the movement the combat the items and the interaction with the environment third person hack and slash movement is forward and backward with tank controls turning you left and right L1 and R1 Dodge to either side and triangle jumps the jump is extremely situational because most of the scenery you can't jump up onto even if it looks like you should be able to even if it's the same height as another thing that you can jump onto like a box there's also no hanging or climbing mechanic holding Circle will block this also puts you into sneak mode while sneaking you will walk forward or backwards slowly your side Dodges now become smaller side steps there are some issues with binding the same button to both block and sneak but we'll see that later while we're running around we will likely be attacked so combat health bar to the bottom left and when you get hit you'll see the amount you've been hit for Flash in green and then drain away unlike bloodborne there is no retaliate and cover this health system I've mentioned that holding Circle blocks all incoming attacks from any direction although you can't block certain breath attacks or boss attacks so let's fight back X is kick and square is hit with your weapon you only have these two to choose from pressing either of them three times fast does a basic combo of that style if you're also pressing forward while attacking you'll do a stronger version of that hit but for tougher enemies you'll want to try the more complex combos shown in the manual and you need to input these very quickly otherwise the game won't register them and sometimes you you can do a combo perfectly and the game will still not register it now Ignatius has slightly longer range but hits slightly slower nardia hits slightly faster ignatius' combos are also simpler requiring simple button presses one after the other while nardia requires you to press multiple buttons at the same time however none of this will matter because nothing is more effective than just button mashing square and doing your light attack triple combo all the time whenever any enemy takes damage they'll get staggered backwards and be vulnerable to another hit so the best tactic with absolutely everything is hit them into a corner and then keep hitting them until they die the only time you ever actually have to use a combo is the final boss and that is a whole load of disappointment we will get to later now when you get into combat the camera will pull back so you can see the enemy you're fighting and you'll enter a soft lock on state meaning you are now moving forward or backward not in relation to the camera but to the enemy your Dodgers now also circle strafe around the enemy and if you connect with the first hit of a combo against the enemy even if that hit knocks the enemy out out of alignment you will be autocorrected so your follow-up attacks also connect this is fantastic when you're fighting one thing but when you've got multiple enemies you cannot manually change the target of the soft lock on and if you want to run past a group of enemies you can't stop the camera locking on which makes avoiding fights quite frustrating you can also do jumping attacks but don't because enemies can and will hit you while you're in the air and this will knock you onto the floor but if blocking works so well why don't we just play like bloodborne block and then retaliate well it's because the enemy's damage frames don't always match their attack animation you can be blocking you can see the enemy's weapon or claw has passed your character model so you release block to attack back only to discover the damaging moment actually lags behind the animation and now you take damage and get staggered and my God it is always a lot of damage couple this with the fact that sometimes when blocking you'll get a little graphical flourish of Metal Sparks and a sound to let you know block successful and sometimes you won't then add on not all enemies have wind ups and some attacks are just instant lunging damage directly at you and you'll quickly discover nightmare creatures is a game about hitting fast hitting first and hitting constantly it's not so much a traditional back and forth this is actually the least efficient way to play If an enemy hits you for any amount of damage you'll be knocked back often into more damage and you will die a lot in Nightmare creatures now when you die you'll lose a life shown by the hearts in the top right if you have any lives left when you die you'll get right back up at full health and carry on fighting but if you lose all your lives it's game over back to the main menu I hope you save the game because as we'll see later most of this game is reloading this game but remember how block and sneak abound to the same button while blocking as long as you stand still you're okay and you can use left and right to turn no problem but if you accidentally press forward or backward and begin sneaking you will lose the block and are now vulnerable to attacks now combat itself can look really cool blood splatters on hits lovely screeching sound effects great animations even if they're not timed mechanically perfectly but one of the best aspects is the limb removal system hit at the right level with the right strength and you can take something's head off something's arm or legs off or straight up split something in two all enemies are effectively destructible and it's not just visual if you manage to cut something's arm off or an explosion rips its legs off it will lose that attack a headless zombie cannot see you so we just wander around mindlessly a legless hellhound cannot claw you so is forced to use its breath weapon some enemies actually get back up unless you decapitate them and some enemies can take 40 normal hits to kill but a perfectly timed heavy attack will kill them in one and rip them in half there's even an item which imbus all of your basic attacks with sore blade properties for a short time so you just constantly remove limbs it's viscerally very impressive the only other combat aspect is the adrenaline system and we will see that soon because it is in my opinion one of the worst aspects of the game and actively prevents most of the game from being fun it is that bad so items you've got a whole arsenal to take on these monsters with you pick items up with square which is also attack and items can be found in breakable boxes hidden around the level or dropped by enemies you hold L2 to activate the item Cycle System to the bottom right and while holding L2 you can cycle through the items with left and right and with the correct one selected activate it with R2 while cycling you can keep attacking which you'll often need to do and the items you can find include healing orbs small for 25% health and large for a full restore Hearts which give you another life the single shot pistol which kills most things in one shot or the mult shot pistol which clears an entire room proximity mines which are mostly useless smoke which keeps monsters away from you freeze bombs which turn monsters to ice then let you shatter them Dynamite which explodes a flashbang grenade the extremely effective Berserker saw which gives all your attacks decapitation and the rare chaos skull which makes enemies attack each other you can also if you're lucky find some permanent weapon upgrades but we'll see those later now the pistol does have a secondary use shooting explosive barrels you can't manually accurately aim but you will will lock onto anything that your character thinks is worth shooting at if you do shoot an explosive Barrel you can blow up the scenery and reveal A New Path and if you need to do this there'll always be a pistol on the level somewhere meaning it's much better to save your pistols for exploration and not combat I really like it when items have multiple uses in multiple systems both combat and environmental interaction I also like how if you pause the game you get this lovely blood splatter effect in this nice sound effect it's small touches like this which really add to a game's overall Ambience and that's one thing nightmare creatures does insanely well this game is dripping with ambience the textures are gooey the lighting is lovely the short draw distance actually works really well you've got small touches like rats crawling along the streets raindrops on Windows distant fires and smoke snow water City debris gravestones having names on them pubs having signs swinging in the nighttime fog screams of people echoing in the breeze nightmare creatures is a beautifully ambient world and if you combine this with the rich and Gothic soundtrack from French composer Frederick mot with lashings of intense Rock and metal during the tough boss fights and you've got one intensely dark enjoyable experience oh interesting note Frederick mot also did the music for the 1993 tactical game canon fodder the levels themselves are all extremely linear you'll start somewhere and have to get somewhere get there by finding a button opening a gate killing the enemies you're given a bit of narrative reason for why you're doing what you're doing but ultimately it doesn't really matter it's just Loosely tying bits of London together the first level is actually meant to be Chelsea so what I'll do is I will put a map up on the screen every now and again and we will chart the journey that you supposedly take through London in Nightmare creatures to see if it would be realistic you also don't need to kill anything or find any item all you need to do is get to the end of the level but the adrenaline system does make that rather difficult so we'll have a look at that pretty soon slice a zombie slash some boxes then get jump scared by the bit everyone who played the demo will remember kill the wolf and find a button in a dungeon now to press a button just hit it there's no button press animation although I do notice a small but wonderful bit of design here whenever you activate a switch the game Cuts away to show what the switch does like opening a gate or moving a barrel but it doesn't pause while doing this meaning if you're being attacked you're still under attack during the Cutaway animation but you can't control your character which should mean you die but watch carefully after activating any button there's a brief moment where you can see the game automatically puts you into block mode for the length of the Cutaway this means as long as you're holding Circle by the time the Cutaway finishes you will remain in block mode and not die this is a small but really nice touch to prevent unfair deaths during cutaway animations although blocking doesn't stop breath attacks so you can still be burned to death as I discover later while I recommend saving your pistols for barrels and exploration there is something deeply satisfying about just shooting a werewolf's head off quick note about zombies if you don't chop them in half they will eventually get back up up no matter how much you hit them this actually has a really odd use later I love this touch if you're injured and on low Health while standing still you'll lean on your weapon or kneel down if you're very close to death it's a lovely graphical flourish now you can't block ranged attacks so Dodge these fireable imps and spend some time scouring the level to find all the items and then get to the end finishing a level shows your time how many enemies you've killed and how many Secrets you've found if you're able to get 100% of everything you'll get an extra item and it's unlikely you'll do this because of the stupid adrenaline system system so what is that well interestingly the first level the demo level does not have the adrenaline system but from level two until the final level you do so here is probably the worst system in the entire game a system which actively makes playing the game less enjoyable in my opinion this is your adrenalin bar it starts full and will slowly drain whenever you are not in combat if you are in combat it remains static and when you kill an enemy it will fully refill if your adrenaline bar ever drains empty you will begin losing Health rapidly and yes you can die from this very quickly and enemies in Nightmare creatures do not respawn this means if you go too long between fights you die it also means if you journey through the entire level killing everything as you go and then get to the end and think hey I want to go back and slowly explore take in the design admire the layout find the items or the secrets I've missed bask in the ambience no tough you can't you will die because there are no enemies left look I get what you were going for a fast-paced adrenaline fueled battler through Gothic London but unfortunately what the adrenaline system means is you are forced to run from fight to fight moment to moment you're never given chance to stop and smell the gothic roses you're never allowed to explore the level you're actively punished for admiring and basking in the ambience that is Nightmare creatures run to the next fight all the time forever you can't memorize the layout of the levels or appreciate where the secrets are narratively they try to justify this by saying the London Fog is poisonous and will turn you into a nightmare Creature if you aren't full of adrenaline all the time and I get the narrative reasons it's not the weakest reason that you would turn into a creature but it's never used again I think it's a okay justification for a bad mechanical Choice unfortunately what this means is Nightmare creatures has great scenery lovely level design nice Secrets it's a game I actively want to take my time and enjoy it's a world I like being in but adrenaline prevents that I think there's a rather cheeky reason the first level the demo level didn't use this exploration and secrets are a strength of this game and you've made me actively avoid looking for them nightmare creatures is a horror game and horror often benefits from slow ambient buildup to make the player feel a sense of unease and Dread you want the player terrified of creeping around the next corner but this system actively prevents the slow atmospheric buildup forcing you to ignore all of the ambience it's built up and just run mindlessly into the next fight I even soft lock myself later in a level by killing everything then realizing I needed to find a switch to open a gate but the switch and the gate was so far apart that running between them without out fighting something killed me I genuinely believe this is the system that makes the entire second half of the game feel repetitive and syy because even though the levels do have differences you're not given the time the safety to get a feel for any of the later levels the design is above standard for the time but you don't get chance to notice if you ever feel rushed to play nightmare creatures this is why level two we're off to spittal field I like how this small wooden fence is enough to keep this horrific monster at Bay maybe we should build more of these fences the variety of monsters is decent here too you've got some unsettling amalgamations of people spiders flies rats flying harpies visually it's lovely but mechanically again the best tactic with everything is constant light attacks no enemy feels different to another to fight if you replaced all of the enemy graphics with just a generic white blob your combat experience would be the same for the whole game there is an issue with this specific Stone enemy though every time you hit it it will stagger but when it dies it will keep staggering if you keep hitting it the only way you'll know you've killed this thing and can stop hitting it is your adrenaline meter refills and it will stop making a groaning sound on every impact if you aren't looking for these signals though you can end up smacking this thing for ages thinking it's not dead thankfully it's the only enemy with this weird Quirk I like how this guy knock some boxes down at you using the environment or environmental set dressing against the player in a mechanical way is a great way to make a world feel immersive while in any level press select once to bring up your remaining lives and select again for a level map it's a basic wireframe map but it does the job and while on the map importantly you do not lose adrenaline hey a broken bridge this means some platforming the game uses the jump ability in the most basic way possible extremely simple platforming sections normally jumping one two gaps at most there's nothing moving no times you need to hit a button open a gate and get there before it closes again and the only time you need to jump further down is for a secret weapon upgrade we'll find later at the end of this level you spot Adam Crowley running away further it's a nice little Personal Touch reminding us of the narrative and now a difference between PlayStation PC and N64 we're meant to be entering level three which is the temps tunnels and then level four is the boss at the end of the tunnels but on Playstation these levels are switched and the boss comes first and the tunnels after which feels really disjointed anyway here's the first boss level the SE snake and I hope you've saved up loads of lives cuz you're about to need them nightmare creatures has four boss levels and they are all gimmicks use the environment Dodge the boss attacks wait for the brief damage window you've got the problem is they're extremely easy to die on while you are learning the gimmick specifically because most boss attacks you can't block so sewer snake tactic the flame breath only ever goes toward these wooden beams wait for the breath to stop attack the beams so they collapse onto the snake and a quick note about the fire attack the damaging bit is the Fire graphic meaning even if the breath has stopped but the flame graphic is still lingering in the air it's still dangerous with all the beams broken you'll begin phase two zombies will climb out of the central pool while the snake lashes around block the snake and then hit it either just before it touches you or just after your block connects avoid the zombies while doing all this it sounds simple but two or three mistakes will lose your life this is a serious difficulty spike in the game into the sewers attack this cart carrying an explosive Barrel to send it trundling into a wall and explode now they had the potential to maybe use this system to create a Cool Secret area accessed by hitting carts in the correct order but it is never used in any more interesting ways functionally it's just a switch we've now got cavens and flying insects and all of your attacks can hit aerial enemies just the same even if you're not jumping so they're functionally no different to land enemies a touch I do love with the cave-in or the falling debris you always get a loud noise and a screen shake to warn you debris is about to fall and if you jump forward or backward in time you'll be safe and the debris can hurt enemies too I love it when environmental dangers also apply to your enemies it makes the environment feel like a neutral third party you're battling the forces of evil the environment doesn't care the enemies have to be as wary of it as you do ah brilliant the first creepy tentacle creature now regular viewers will know that I personally am terrified of the ocean or water where you cannot see the bottom because you have no idea what's in there I think the worst bit in this series so far has been that bit in Tomb Raider where you fall into a massive Cavern and cannot see what's below you and you're in the water and it's terrifying but nare creatures has done quite well especially the flailing tentacles on these enemies because for 1997 that's a lot of animation for a tentacled creature and the fact that they do hit you relatively accurately is quite nice and now another small but excellent design touch your character cannot swim walking off platforms into water jumping into the water or being knocked by an enemy into the water will instantly kill you now when you attack or perform a combo you naturally move forward with each hit to compensate for the knockback effect on the enemy this means if you're fighting an enemy on the edge of a dock or trying to attack a giant squid which is in the water over the edge you might risk attacking yourself into the water except you can't movement caused by attacks will never push you over the edge of a platform only ever move you up to the edge the fact that this is coded in and this links back to the auto block on cutaway design means they have clearly gone through nightmare creatures with a mechanical focus and really fine-tuned it this shows excellent attention to detail unfortunately the platforming sections anything over water is pretty unforgiving especially if you're trying to line up a jump into a small Al Cove because she'll often hit the ceiling or the edge of a doorway and die a lot in fact you'll die more to water than you will to enemies look I make this jump and a fly knocks me back midair and I die God nightmare creatures is just so brutally unforgiving I mean look I make a jump and land in the tiny gap between platforms and I drown I hate it here level five the India docks dynamite and Squid and then avoid these rolling barrels an enemy kicks down some steps at you now we get some more open areas and it's a shame the first boss used environmental damage as a design which I like but it's not then used in regular levels at all oh hey look a bonfire regular viewers will know that I can't make a video without comparing a game to Dark Souls so I'm really glad this is here jump up some boxes onto this small ship and fight along the deck and hey some possessed swinging rigging this is dangerous so avoid it and then you see that floating sword down there this is the only leap of faith jump you need to make this is one of the weapon upgrades so quick info on those there are three weapon upgrades throughout the game but you get two chances to find each of the upgrades you don't need to find the previous upgrade to get the next one you can use the starting weapon until you find the level three upgrade if you want to now on the N64 version and the PC version finding the third weapon upgrade also gives you a second health bar but on the PlayStation hard mode it does not platform passed some perilous pumping pistons and then slash away through the these supporting iners of a still being built ship while dodging some scary swinging stabby things and reach a bar you'll also start to notice the end of one level doesn't relate to the start of the next it's like there's travel happening between the levels because now we're in Highgate Cemetery sent to find the tomb of Samuel peeps because Adam Crowley is using peeps as diary and the tomb might have some Clues as to what he's doing now Samuel peeps is actually a real historical figure most famous for his diary which charted the events in London between 1660 and 1669 mostly The Great Fire of London the plague and the coronation of King Charles II he however was not known for his love of occultism or necromancy the cemetery level is again a series of corridors except this time you're flanked with long runs of tombs filled with surprise werewolves and the music has taken on a more mysterious detective tone [Music] this is one of the more open sprawling levels but the adrenaline system means no time to explore so fight into a church take out some more wolves and then I realize the scale of our character is a little bit off you are taller than most doorways taller than desks or chairs would have you be it kind of feels like you're a 7 and 1/2t giant fighting through a world made for normalized people and once you notice it you can't unsee it shop Windows reach your eyeline you're wider than the front doors of most buildings find Peep's tomb run inside and the next level begins in hamsted Heath adding to that disjointed feeling also now we have spiderwebs hung over doorways and in caves the spider hybrid monsters are actually very nice body horror the gangly Limbs and multiple eyes and I'm really enjoying fighting them and I want to explore this level but again I can't or I'll die this bit is probably the most annoying as far as the adrenaline's concerned because you to run from a switch to a gate but I've cleared the enemies out to make it safer for me so I'm losing Health before the next fight starts and I'm starting the fight on low Health this level ends with two larger mini boss style spider hybrids ambushing me and the music suddenly switches into this badass rock metal which really enhances the [Music] fight Chase Crowley onto the docks and sail to the next level more docks now we're fighting along thin walkways with water drops either sized and Swinging hazards and jumps and enemies ambushing us and Squids flailing at us and this place is quite the gauntlet because I've also noticed the flying have a slightly more intense knockback on you than the ground enemies do and are more likely to throw you off the edge regular viewers will also know that I love me some stacking mechanics when two mechanical designs combined to create a more layered gameplay moment so I love having to time your jump over this Gap to also avoid swinging hazards fight past more squid than a soldout sushi restaurant to make it from the docks onto a boat and find a dead body whose body don't know doesn't say but we do find a clue telling us to go to the bank of England and at this point I've realized the plot just exists to Loosely tie the game to London and occultism you don't need to follow it welcome to the main city of London as foggy and as grimy today as it was back in the 19th century and hey I love this atmospheric moment while fighting we hear a horse Winnie and then just around the corner a werewolf and a half eaten horse that's a great use of sound effects leading to a Scenic moment making the city feel less abandoned like stuff is still happening we just can't see it new enemy man in trench coat does he bring with him an exciting style of combat no of course he does not just hit him a lot into a corner more excellent use of sound the satisfying gooey squelch while walking on spiderweb contrasting beautifully with the dull thud of the cobblestones I'm performing combos mostly out of experimentation less actively trying to I'm racing the adrenaline meter to finish every level and then I throw a flaming torch onto the floor and set this guy on fire level 10 Smithfield follow the blood trail also it's snowing now don't ask why they just needed a snow snow level for the screenshots and to contrast with the bright red blood unfortunately you don't leave footprints in the snow but we do actually get some environmentally specific mechanical changes icicles now hang above some doorways and will fall on you if they are knocked down this damages you this is a lovely way to reskin the falling debris mechanic to be aesthetically specific to the snow level and to make them less random you can even lure enemies underneath them if we check in on the real life mapped track Journey it takes about 20 minutes to get from London Bank to Smithfield so this is still doable unfortunately the size of this level contrasts so strongly with the adrenaline meter that this was the first time I legitimately felt annoyed at being forced to rush through instead of being able to take my time and admire the ambience however this is where the zombie comes in handy because remember that they don't die unless you chop them in half well you can lure a zombie to just follow you around and not lose adrenaline because the game thinks you're in combat like a little exploration buddy it's tedious but it's the only way to explore the whole level make it to a church and the second boss a Yeti why is there a yeti in the middle of London because they made a snow level so my God they are putting a yeti in this is another gimmick grab the dynamite from The Ledges throw it at the yeti to destroy the barrels and cause shattered glass to fall onto it do this three times while doing this avoid the Snowballs the yet he throws at you because he throws two at a time and if you get hit by the first one you will be knocked into the second and die very fast nothing too complex here but I do lose three lives on this boss because of how awkward the character is to control with a locked camera and tank controls next up Regent Canal giant rats more docks steps I really want to admire the level design and talk about it but I can't because fights are spaced out so far apart here that you have to rush more than normal also explosive barrels no longer have the explosion symbol and now just look like regular barrels but I do still enjoy ripping apart rats with a well-timed kick next up London Zoo and this is the moment the game begins to feel syy because by now we've actually seen every mechanic or attempt at stacking them the game has corridor open area enemy Barrel secret tunnel fine switch get to exit repeat all the combat encounters are basically the same I'm feeling as rushed as an actual tourist trying to take in the actual London Zoo I'm especially disappointed they didn't use the giant dinosaur skeleton at the end as either an environmental hazard an exploration route or an enemy this is just Scenic and it feels like a waste maybe I'm disappointed because 2 years later siphon filter would let you climb the dinosaur to get to a vent although to be fair siphon filter is still an absolute Banger in terms of level design I do like how you can break the display cases and they all contain pistols that's a very nice touch up next Malbone the updated map of our journey looks like this and we can start this level by running up through so many brick tunnels I feel like I'm in the windows maze screen so look at these lovely details every shop and every PB has a little hanging sign outside and they're all references to occult or mystical things what they all are I don't know because I don't have time to look must fight or will die this level ends in one of the most difficult fights so far because I'm on very little health and I'm faced with a triple gargoyle Arena Battle now one gargoyle I can stunlock not three and these things are as I discovered immune to items you can't shoot them can't freeze them can't burn them can't blind them so it's a good oldfashioned runaround and hope for the best end up restarting this level four or five times getting back here four or five times and dying repeatedly this is a hard section level 15 into Bloomsbury how hard can this be all right we're at the instant death on a single hit point of the game because you carry health and items from level to level and I have no lives left so every time I get hit I have to see the game over screen reload the level from the main menu and try again the truth is Nightmare creatures is about a 4 4 Hour game hiding within an 8 hour gameplay experience I can forgive the difficult combat hell I could even forgive the adrenaline bar if reloading your game was fast and smooth which it is not every single death especially when you're out of lives means watching the dying animation watching the game over screen returning to the main menu reloading your last save and starting the level again and then when you replay the level it's highly likely you'll die to the same enemy which is normally further along in the level because you'll get less practice at fighting them if you go back and play nightmare creatures with without save states you'll discover a lot of the game is reloading the game now we've also got hellhounds fire breathing dogs at first quite intimidating but you quickly learn when they commit to a breath attack they root themselves on the spot for a few seconds meaning you can easily run around them and combo them to death and now this bit this bit took me more tries than any other part of the game I'm on low health I'm always on low Health by the time I get back here if I touch the fire I die a hellhound spawns when you get close to it but then in the arena you meant to fight it a gargoyle smashes through a window and the smash counts as a cutaway and while yes you do automatically block blocking doesn't stop breath weapons so you lose control of your character block and the hellhound kills you this is a frustrating section now remember although you can save your game after every level reloading the previous save doesn't refill your health it gives you the exact health and items you had when you made the Save which means fighting through this level on low Health to this point again the only way to change this would be to start the game again from the beginning but finally I make it through and find a health orb and then I get a strange urge for some reason to run into the fire fire seems to lead somewhere all the other blocked firewalls have just been debris this is a path so I risk a dash through and yep I was right found the third weapon upgrade fantastic now to just run back I hate this level oh joy two hellhounds what a fun time spot Crowley and get to level 16 pimo this level has no real identity it's slightly more open than the others and I remember falling from a window onto a fire while fighting a werewolf which was kind of cool and this is the only instance I can remember where the critical path of the level Loops back on itself and you need to jump from a ledge to another ledge over the path from earlier I like the fact they've made the level more of a puzzle and looped it around but I dislike the fact this is the only time they do that by now it's starting to feel a bit like lost eolith from Dark Souls 1 see I told you I would get a comparison in it feels like they've almost ran out of time and they're just plonking enemies down in any random place just to make the area feel full it doesn't seem to have the same care or attention of the earlier section and this leads to the penultimate boss Jose Manuel a another hard gimmick fight Jose throws knives at you and zombies climb out of this flame pit in the center of the room you need to hit the switch on the right hand side to raise the cage to the left then either run around the room dodging the knives or leap over the flame pit and pray you don't get hit and again with tank controls and no way to judge angles or depth with a locked camera this is difficult and then you hit the second now revealed switch this causes Spike to move slowly toward Jose you then leap back to the start and do this process three times and you will die so many times here and every death when out of lives means game over main menu reload retry over half this boss fight was me reloading the boss fight off to the final level a two-parter here Westminster part one is inside this Grand building this level is a series of onfire corridors hellhounds imps and a collection of pistols leading to a secret lab you've got very tight jumps over flaming pits and mor fights all of which need you to find the nearest corner to lock an enemy into there's not too much new or interesting here it's just very unforgiving but then we get to Westminster part two the actual final level I attack a suit of armor and die because because this spawns a flying imp who instantly shoots a fireball which is at Point Blank Range and you can't block more fire more hellhounds more corridors and More Death than I can remember and by now I'm finding nightmare creatures more tedious than fun if reloading a level took only a second or two or just warped you back to the start and said hey try again here's full health I'd be fine but failing in this game is such a long process because every attempt requires your focus and attention and even if you want to go slow you can't running past fire barely avoiding it just so you can make it to the next fight before adrenaline runs out and drains your health and then hoping you can get the first hit in it's so bad that at this point I'm seriously considering replaying the entire game from the start just to hoard extra lives and items specifically for this level it actually makes me consider that earlier in the game if you die instead of using a life to get back up it might be better just to restart the whole level to reload your last save because you need to hoard your lives for this bit and I think I've actually found a soft lock bit where you can't progress unless you have more health or more lives that that is fire I need to be on the other side of it but I don't have time to find another way around because the adrenaline's depleting so you need to jump over this means you're guaranteed to take at least a little bit of damage unfortunately I've only got a little bit of Health which means I can't make this jump now there might be a Pixel Perfect route with no damage or ice might remove the fire but I don't have time to line it up and I don't have the ice item this bit legitimately soft locks My Level and I need to restart the most annoying moment though was here there's an imp in front of me and it shoots a fireball at me but I can't see the fireball because the character model is in the way so I don't know to dodge and instantly die but eventually after restarting more times than I can remember I make it to the end and finally we Face the boss Adam crowling he's taken some of his formula and has converted himself into a horrific Beast we're on the roof of the crumbling Westminster along the wreckage and flames and we fight so this final boss it's two phases and for some reason you don't have the adrenaline meter on this level the first phase is four flying imps Meandering around the roof leaving a flaming trail behind them if you touch the the trail you die you must kill all four imps while avoiding the others and then the fire and your attacks can move you forward into the flame Trail once they're taken down grab this hidden Health orb in the corner don't jump into the fire like I did and then prepare to take on Crowley so interestingly this is the only fight in the entire game where you need to use combos you can't just triple attack the same button you actually have to use multi-button combos because Crowley will block and retaliate any attack chain which isn't a combo but if you are able to hit him with a full combo on the final hit you will stun him while stunned hit him once and you'll knock his head off and he'll die that's it that's the final boss of this brutally hard game use one combo then hit him once that's what it's all been leading up to the item collection the weapons upgrading the platforming the reloading one combo single attack dead and after that incredibly anticlimactic fight we get the final cut scene now you're probably thinking o who is that shadowy figure who picked up Crowley's monstrous decapitated head the answer dear viewer is we do not know because they are not mentioned in the game or the manual anywhere it's likely just sequel bait maybe it explains who they are in Nightmare creatures too I don't know I hav't played it yet it took me about 4 hours of gameplay and 3 hours of reloading and retrying to get through all of monster infested London but that's not all because there's quite a bit of fun to be found in the cheats like the ability to play as the monsters there are two ways to unlock this cheat mode you can either finish the entire game 100% which means doing every single level killing every enemy and finding every item or you can do what everyone else actually did and use the password system to enter the cheat to do it playing as the monsters is actually quite fun because there's no adrenaline bar so you can use their moves and explore the level at a comfortable Pace but one of the coolest Secrets if you access the hidden cheat menu and then put in the developer room code you will start whatever level you choose in this secret room with portraits of the entire development team and if you break the portraits you can take a load of items from behind them I love it when old games had loads of cool hidden stuff like this so with that done the Journey of our complete trip across London looks like this so now we've saved the city we can answer the question nightmare creatures was it actually any good well yes and no there are some aspects in does undeniably right General Ambience is Stellar lighting textures music sound design combat animations even though it's not matched up perfectly enemy visual design even the fire Graphics are nice the tentacles lashing the enemies being made of segments you can split apart the act of dismembering them changing their fighting ability and the small touches like auto block on cutaway and not attacking yourself into the water all the way down to the splash graphic on the pause screen nightmare creatures has a lot of excellent design which makes the overall world of the game and the minutia of momentto moment gameplay very impressive however the adrenaline meter forcing you to run from fight to fight and removing the ability to explore at your own pace to really immerse yourself in this world to hunt for secrets and exist in this beautiful oppressive atmosphere really lets it down you are forced to play fast and you are missing so much Beauty in doing so this is why the first level is so bloody good and so creepy you are allowed to bask in the ambience and allow that horror to build up you're not punished for it combine this with how every enemy has ultimately dealt within the same way just stun lock them into a corner and you end up feeling rushed from fight to identical fight meaning you're missing both the level design and repeating yourself mechanically the boss is a gimmicks and extremely easy to die to and dying wouldn't be an issue but reloading and retrying takes so long you'll spend more time in the menu than in the boss fight I feel nightmare creatures would be a lot more fun if you removed the penalty for adrenaline loss and instead replaced it with an advantage so instead of killing the player make them more likely to decapitate an enemy with a regular attack if they have any adrenaline and then I'd suggest removing the life limit and just letting people retry from the start of a level without needing to reload but lives and game overs are a retro gaming staple we've learned a lot since 1997 we've learned the gameplay as the fun bit not the looping process of reloading the gameplay so is it PlayStation 1 bloodborne in Ambience and in feel yeah it's remarkably close but mechanically nightmare creatures has made just enough mistakes to make the experience just annoying enough to not be easy to enjoy so to end the review I will W nightmare creatures oh didn't review fast enough ran out of adrenaline out of 10 cheers for watching another massive thank you to all the supporters on patreon Twitch and YouTube who keep the channel alive you can support from only one pound a month check the video descriptions for links to our patreon twitch Twitter and Discord and as always remember tonight as the sun sets on London one last time he will unleash his demonic brood onto the streets and should no one stop him this city will be consed consumed by a horde of nightmare [Music] creatures

Channel: Josh Strife Plays

Views: 701,891

Keywords: classic gaming, retro games, older games, retro review, gaming reviews, nostalgic gaming, nostalgia games, playstation 1, playstation 2, n64, dreamcast, classic rpg

Id: uKzWwv_F18E

Length: 42min 14sec (2534 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 28 2023