Ecstatica (PC)

I have been waiting to play this game ever since my teenage years. I remember seeing the screenshots in one of the gaming magazines back in 1996 and immediately becoming interested. I managed to get the game from one of the local pirates, but unfortunately it was "ripped" and came without sound effects, so I tried it out a bit only to put it away until I find the full version. After a few years I completely forgot about it, which was no surprise considering the amount of great games that were coming out in the late 90s. Somewhere around 2005 however, the gaming industry began catering to the casual crowd so much that I had almost nothing more to play and was therefore forced to begin rummaging through older titles. That is when I came across Ecstatica again! Unfortunately finding a full version proved to be more difficult than I imagined, so I was forced to postpone my playthrough once again.

Finally, somewhere around 2010, I stumbled across a full un-ripped version. Unfortunately, my laptop did not have "numkeys" which were required for the game to be played, so again I was unable to enjoy it. This was also a period in my life when I was going through some serious life changes. Not only did I move to Sweden and had to learn a completely new language, but I also became involved with a girl who constantly complained about the amount of time I was spending behind my computer. To make things worse, my external hard drive where I stored my game collection broke, so I was forced to redo 2 years of research and downloading. Add to that my obsession with testing free to play MMORPGs, modding and experimenting with various game design softwares, and it becomes obvious why I just didn't have the time for any serious gaming. It wasn't until 2013 that I finally managed to get back to my old habits again, and today - finally - I finished Ecstatica!

It felt like eternity to me...

The Good

So after so many years of waiting, was the game worth playing? Well, to be quite honest, I have some mixed feelings about it, but generally I have to say it was pretty good. In fact, I would go so far as to saying that it was the best adventure game I played in 2015, although to be fair it is more of an action adventure hybrid than a pure adventure game. Still, it trumps Pepper's Adventure in Time and I have no mouth and I must Scream easily, despite its shortcomings. In short, the horror atmosphere is nothing short of amazing, lack of handholding kept me interested and engaged, the game combines horror with humor in a brilliant manner, graphics stand the test of time due to excellent art direction, puzzles are logical, enemies are genuinly frightening, there are multiple endings and solutions, voice acting is good, music is foreboding, exploration is rewarding, and you can even choose to play as a female character which adds to replayability. Considering that Ecstatica was released back in 1994, I was genuinly surprised with its presentation. Namely, the game feels and plays pretty much like an interactive movie with monsters appearing randomly, thus providing a different experience on every playthrough. This comes at the cost of game-length, but what is there is really well made and I can see myself replaying Ecstatica many times.

One thing I need to figure out is how do I get the armor! On my last playthough I defeated the main boss without it.

The bad

Considering everything that was crammed into this game, its 3-4 hour length on the first playthrough is really the only big problem. I wish it was longer and that there was more to do, but I really want to point out how well-made everything is. I mean, when you are finished, you don't feel like the developers rushed the story, or that they took short-cuts in delivering the final product. There are no loose ends and it really feels like the length was an intentional design decision in an attempt of simulating movies. The same could be said about the complete lack of some otherwise common game mechanics. Here I am talking about the game not having a health bar, a working map and an inventory system. Again, I think this was an attempt at simulating movies, and I do not feel like it took anything from the game, but it needs to be mentioned. I would argue that some of these design decisions actually add to the overall experience. Namely, your character will start limping if he is badly wounded - adding a visual aspect to the fear of death. The lack of map makes the world feel bigger and more dangerous, while the lack of an inventory system will force you to drop your weapon from time to time, just so you could carry an important item - leaving you vulnerable to enemy attacks - again adding to the horror atmosphere.

A drunken fat werewolf?! Now I've seen everything!

I could also complain a bit about the controls, since they do need some time getting used to, but they are not horrible. In fact I would argue that they are solid - especially for the year 1994. Sure, you cant run and turn while you are moving as we are used to in most modern games, but I never felt like this was the reason for dying. I also wish the puzzles were a bit more difficult, since they usually involve carrying objects from point A to point B, but again this is just a minor complaint.

These little buggers are not dangerous, but they can trip you over when you are trying to run away from more dangerous opponents.

Conclusion

There is not much else to be said about Ecstatica. It is short, but what is there is really well done with great replay value. I will give it a 7.5/10. I will definitely come back to this title, since I have not discovered all of its mysteries and I am really interested in what Ecstatica 2 brought to the table.

Final score: 7.5/10