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Sunday 13 September 2015

ECSTATICA


Alone in the Dark may have been the first, and Resident Evil cemented and refined the genre but two years before that PlayStation classic Ecstatica pushed many boundaries of survival horror. This unique game is now largely forgotten but does it deserve to be?

Designed by Andrew Spencer at his self-named London studio and published by Psygnosis in 1994, Ecstatica was one of the few 3D games to experiment outside of the traditional polygon graphics. It instead used ellipsoids which allowed for far greater character animation and character models. This made everything look like bizarre balloon animals created by some kind of deranged party clown but it was revolutionary in 1994. Keep playing and these deceptively childish visuals bombard you with images that explain the 18-rating the BBFC gave it in the UK. People are impaled and tortured in gory fashion, topless nymphs dance around and in one horrifying scene, you're fanned by naked men in gimp masks.

You can choose to play as either a man or a woman, but neither make any difference. No matter who you choose, you'll still be referred to as 'him' and the female love interest will still love you. The game begins with your sexually confused avatar travelling on horseback at night. In need of rest and supplies, you decide to embark towards the nearby village of Tirich. The streets are ominously deserted and a quick look round reveals that all of the townsfolk have been murdered in glorious fashion. The culprit is a demon with a dangerous sense of humour who was "accidentally" summoned by Ecstatica, the local alchemist's maid (and your bi-curious love interest). She lies in a coma deep in the bowels of the village and it's up to you to save her despite being the cause all the evil going on.

The game plays very much like Alone in the Dark, which is cited as an inspiration by Spencer. The main difference here is that there is more emphasis on action. You will regularly be chased by werewolves and little demonic elves, all of whom seem to have excellently timed and aimed attacks that you can't break out of. I found most of my fights to be a one-sided affair as I was pummeled so much I could not run away let alone get a single hit in myself. It was far easier to just run away. It gets a little better once you've found some weapons but until this happens you're a sitting duck.

Outside of the action lies a rather short and simple yet memorable adventure. There are basically two puzzles in the entire game, each of which are basic fetch quests, but the main draw is not what you do but what you see. The inventive spectacles of spilt claret that often veer wildly into the darkly comic keep you coming back.

The controls are mapped only to the number pad which performs all of your characters movements. There is no inventory, which means you are limited to carrying two items at a time - one in each hand. This gets reduced to one hand as you'd want to continuously carry a weapon in the other. This means that there's a lot of backtracking during the fetch quests, but the village is so small that only the monsters will prove a hindrance. Even to veterans of Alone in the Dark, it feels a little clunky. It's easy to get overwhelmed at the beginning of the game when you're weaponless and monsters are everywhere. Battling with the controls as you watch your character get helplessly beaten to death is not fun, but at least this lessens as you get better equipped further on in the game.

It may have garnered great reviews in 1994 and sold in such large numbers that Spencer cancelled his next project to focus on a direct sequel, but that hasn't stopped it from falling into obscurity. The main culprit is probably the ellipsoid technology which looks far less appealing to modern audiences than a polygon from the same era. These bubbles may have allowed for better animation, but they are certainly at odds with the overall tone.

Even though I found the fighting to be clunky, the story to be slight, the puzzles minimal and the graphics dated, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It is a great experience even though I struggle to call it a great game by today's standards. There are moments in Ecstatica that are so bizarre that they'll stay with forever and that alone is enough for me to heartily recommend it.


To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber runs natively in Windows. Low-res Ver.1 using DOSBox also included in the link as a separate download. Manual included. Tested on Windows 10.
  01.02.2019 - Version 2 -  Upgraded to Hi-Res patched version running natively on Windows. 

File Size: 38 Mb (DOS) 102 Mb (WIN).  Install Size: 80 Mb (DOS) 190 Mb (WIN).  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download


Ecstatica is © Andrew Spencer Studios
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

Like this? Try These...

Ecstatica II  Jack in the Dark  Horror Zombies From the Crypt

22 comments:

  1. Sorry about that but this game may have a problem, or I'm doing something wrong... The problem is after I double click the desktop shortcut for the game, it opens "TESTMEM" in a blank window and after a couple of seconds it closes by itself.

    Thanks for the attention!

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    1. Hello Charles, I'm not getting that problem here. Try running Run.exe from the installation folder and see if the same thing still happens. If it does, it might have downloaded funny causing the installation to screw up (did any errors appear here?).

      I've checked the file I uploaded and all seems to be well. Let me know if you're still having issues.

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    2. No errors occurred during the installation, but there's an error messageon the DOSBox Status Window, I'm writing down the error as shown in the window: "Exit to error: Could not set fullscreen video mode 1920x1000-32: No video mode large enough for 1920x1000"

      Maybe it's something about video settings, and searching around the installation folder I've found the configuration file of DOSBox, opened it and changed the resolution to the one that I use on my computer, the game now runs ok!

      Thanks for tthe attention and keep up unearthing those hidden gems from the past!

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    3. Aha! Thanks. I wasn't aware that the video settings could cause issues on different setups. You may get the same error with a lot my DOSBox based games. I assumed the template .conf file I use had the fullresolution=desktop and apect=true (which allows for the best output for all desktop setups) but something may have changed somewhere down the line as I like to mess around with settings. I'll update all of the DOSBox games that need it as some point.

      Thanks for telling me! I would've been oblivious otherwise :)

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  2. I highly recommend to update your collection with hi-res rerelease of this game. Windows version (SVGA 640x480) of this game can be found at https://www.old-games.ru/game/download/6242.html - that small fix is necessary in order to make game CD-free and run it under Win7. Copy "\W" folder from CD to HD, change install path in "cdpath", apply the fix - and it works, at least on my PC.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll definitely check it out, but I won't have time until November.

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    2. If you're interested I can send you the hi-res (640x480) Windows version of Ecstatica 1. I downloaded it from the same source, suggested above, but I understand Russian I was able to follow the instructions.

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    3. Thanks, I have the patch already - I use the site quite often so I've figured out what all of the links mean.

      To be honest, I completely forgot about it. I'll give it a look when my workload is not so busy.

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    4. I uploaded the Ecstatica HD version here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wTp5ENBvyfj8DBKyIK9vUrwU6vu-9S0-/view?usp=sharing
      It's all set up and most redundant files and folders are removed.

      Delete
  3. i have verry low framerate in fulscreen. I have download the windowed mode files and it runs ok with them, but the windwow is very small. How can i have good framerate in fulscreen?

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    1. Version 2 uses a Windows patch from an external source (see the above comments) so I'm not 100% sure on the inner workings of it. It runs fine for me. I suggest running it as admin or using a compatibility mode to see if that helps. Alternatively, there's version 1 using DOSbox which you may find to be the better alternative.

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    2. The doss version runs fine, but windows version looks much better. I have try version 2 on my laptop now with the same result. When i run the game in fullscreen mode windows change the resolution to 640x480 and i think windows 10 hase problems in 640x480. Is there a way to upscale the window when i run the game in windowed mode?

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    3. It does run in 640x480 but it's nevertheless smooth on my Windows 10 PC. The only thing I could think of would be using DxWnd to hook some of the processes.

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    4. trying v2, had the framerate issue, but using the included windowed version files fixed that.
      To play at (almost) fullscreen while keeping 4:3 ratio i used (only for win8/10) https://store.steampowered.com/app/993090/Lossless_Scaling/ free demo version in auto mode should be enough, it basically scales with integers and respects ratio, works great so far, will try playing more later
      looks like this https://i.imgur.com/5DnnR6O.png

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    5. Good find. I might add DxWnd support on a future revision to see if it will force aspect ratio and may perhaps solve the framerate issue. Can't be sure of the outcome as it's fine on my setup but that info is good to know for those that want it.

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  4. i have made fresh installation of Windows 10 and now version 2 works great.Is there a way to maintain the original aspect ratio. The original ratio is 4:3 but version 2 uses my system ratio 16:9.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm, it's 4:3 for me. Try changing the compatibility DPI settings.

      Right click ECSTATIC.EXE - Properties - Compatibility Tab - Change high DPI settings - Tick the two boxes for Program DPI & Scaling Override

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    2. I got the framerate issue. For me, i applied windowed patch and then i Right click ECSTATIC.EXE - Properties - Compatibility Tab - Checked Open in 640x480

      With this i got fullscreen and framerates like in windowed mode.

      But i always get 16:9 not 4:3. Dont know how to change that. DPI settings dont work for me.

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  5. Wow. I had no idea you already made a package for these games. I never heard of it until seeing it in a dos compilations video.

    You're always on the ball!

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    1. Thanks! I played these two games as a kid (though I only own the second one) so I have fond memories of them. As you can tell from the review, it's one of my earlier efforts.

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  6. hello,iIn the original version of the game are included french ad german subtitles. I have the french.txt file: how to insert that in the game folder after the installation ? thanks

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    1. i found that is the main exe that set the language, So the windows version is only in english because the patched exe from russian user is made upon the enflish original exe.
      For the dos version: 1 - dowload the french version from abandone france: they have a dosbox executable installer that install correctly the dos version. 2- fron italian: on internet you find the italian version translated: copy the italian french.txt and overvrite the original french.txt. 3 for german: delete original french.txt and rename german.txt in french.txt 4 for other languanages: open the french.txt file and transalte it in your language line by line or use google translator.

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