The Last Door - Chapter 4 Walkthrough

The Last Door, Chapter 4, Ancient Shadows is a point and click horror game from The Game Kitchen, an indie company who brought this game to life through donations and kickstarter, and what a game it is. Ancient Shadows follows on from Chapter 3, the Four Witnesses, after the drama-tic (hah) events of the last chapter we find Devitt travelling to visit his old friend Alexandre in his home in the countryside. What could go wrong.

Before we begin, if you're interested you can also check out my full review of The Last Door here. 
Or... 

If you've come too far then you can find your way back to the walkthroughs for Chapter 3 here, Chapter 2 here, or Chapter 1 here.

Now that that's out the way, let's get on with the final segment of The Last Door, Season 1.

Chapter 4, Ancient Shadows

Hints without spoilers:

I don't know how to develop the envelope: There are instructions in the room on what order to do things, you'll also need a red bulb and cannot do it in darkness or white light. You'll need a way of tinting the pre-existing one, not fixing the shards on the floor.

I don't know how to work out the clock puzzles: Read the notes around the house that relate to the clock and make sure to work out the time difference between the upstairs and downstairs clock. The upstairs one needs to read the time mentioned in the notes but only the grandfather clock can be changed.

I have a blue crystal thing, now what: Look around the house, inside and out, until you notice something different in somewhere you've been before. Follow the signs from there.

What do I do with the telescope: Have a good look through it and check in your inventory to see what the view may resemble then, looking through the telescope again, click the areas that are highlighted in the item you have.

What are the strange symbols for: The three important ones unlock a puzzle in the same room you're in, look around the room then match up the symbols with the positioning of the locks.

Full walkthrough for Chapter 4

Prologue:

Click on Devitt.
Click on the table.
Click on Devitt again.
Click through the dialogue and scenes.

Chapter 4:

Click through the conversations and go through all of the dialogue options.
When you regain control of Devitt, walk all the way left to the next screen.
Walk all the way left again before entering the house.
This is the foyer, go upstairs to begin with and enter the first room.
Talk to Alexandre and exhaust all dialogue options.
Leave the room and walk to the right into the next part of the corridor.
Open the chest and pick up a hook.
Go back downstairs and into the foyer.
Exit the room via the back archway to enter the parlor.
Cross the parlor and exit via the door on the far left.
Pick up the oil lamp on the table.
Walk to the far left of the room and read the note.
Go through the door on the far right to exit out into the back garden.
Pick up the rope beside the well.
Use the hook with the rope to get a grappling hook.
Use the grappling hook with the well to receive a brass bird.
Examine the grave then head to the gate at the back, unlock it and head through.
Walk to the far right and note the door to the greenhouse with the bar across it.
Remove the bar then open the door and head inside.
Walk to the far right until you see the statues, a bottle of Vitriol is between them. Pick it up.
Leave the greenhouse and head back into the house then upstairs again.
Walk down the corridor to the right, into the next part where the chest is, then enter the room on at the far end.
In the study examine the note and invoice on the table.
Examine the fireplace then pick up the black envelope from inside it.
Leave the room and enter the final door on the back wall.
This is a photographer's developing room, pick up the Cyanide on the back table and read the note on the floor.
Examine the light hanging from the ceiling then pick it up to receive a lightbulb.
Leave and go back downstairs then out the front door.
Walk to where the greenhouse is then look to the back where you'll see the exit to the forest.
Leave through these gates into the forest.
Walk along to the right until coming across a deer.
Use the lightbulb with the deer to get a red tinted lightbulb.
Go back to the house then the photographer's room.
Use the red tinted lightbulb in the hanging light.
Put the envelope in the sink, pour the Vitriol on it then the Cyanide, finally use the tap to rinse it off.
Click through the scene then leave the room and go into Alexandre's room.
Talk to him then pick up what he drops to receive a a clock hand.
Put the bird in the clock near Alexandre before examining the clock face.
Leave the room and go back downstairs to the foyer.
Use the clock hand in the grandfather clock.
Turn the hands of the grandfather clock until they read 3:00 (hold down mouse button)
Once the clock reads 3:00 click the switch beside the clock face.
Go back upstairs to Alexandre's room.
Pick up the blue object on the floor to receive the bird again.
Examine it then open it to get a key.
Go downstairs and out into the back garden.
Use the key with the trapdoor to the cellar.
Enter the cellar and move a little to the left to examine a set of drawers.
Open the drawers and take out the shovel.
Exit the cellar and use the shovel with the grave outside.
Use the Vitriol with the lock.
Pick up the blue object to receive a canvas.
Exit out of the screen then examine the canvas.
Walk back, via the front garden, to Alexandre's room.
Read the note on the wheelchair,
Exit out onto the balcony and pick up the object in the statue's hands to pick up a cristal.
Walk all the way back to the cellar only this time walk through to the far left.
In the laboratory, read the note then walk to the right until you see an opening in the wall.
Head inside into a makeshift observatory.
Use the telescope then use the canvas to note the positioning of the constallations. 
You need to click the stars that match up with the ones highlighted in the canvas.
Check out the image below if you're having trouble.

After the puzzle, put the cristal in the telescope then look through it again.
Note the symbols that match up with the three stars you just selected.
Open the cabinet in the room and enter the three symbols making sure the Altair symbol is at the bottom. (Far right is a U shape, bottom one is a sort of trident and the far left one is a vertical line with two wavy lines through it)
Examine then pick up a syringe from the desk.
Go down into the pit and use the syringe with Alexandre.
Sit in the chair.
Give the syringe to Alexandre.
Click through the dialogue and scenes.
Walk continually to the right.

End of Chapter 4.

And there we have it... the end of The Last Door and consequentially this walkthrough. Luckily, it's only the end of Season 1 as Season 2 is currently being developed; provided they get enough backers for it to be released of course! I hope you enjoyed the game and the ultimate cliffhanger it's left us all on again, if you also enjoyed this walkthrough don't forget to comment and +1 and so on and so forth :) I hope to see you all here next time when Season 2 makes its debut! Happy gaming!

The Last Door: Collector's Edition - Full Review (Free game/Collector's Edition PC game)

‘The Last Door’ is a door worth opening as what you’ll find on the other side is a solid, spooky and extremely well crafted game that manages to be both horribly unsettling and wonderfully enthralling. 

Developer: The Game Kitchen
Genre: Horror adventure 
Release date: May 20th 2014
Platforms: PC, Mac and Linux
ESRB: Rating pending

Created by the indie company, The Game Kitchen, ‘The Last Door’ is a point and click horror game that borders somewhere between quietly creepy and in your face horrifying. This compelling game will have you intrigued from the start as the beautifully orchestrated music plays and the sharp graphics drop down into a pixelated art style that makes you wonder why the developers have opted for this low resolution feel. Discard any initial reservations you had about its appearances as this is an extremely well made, well-polished game that is more than worthy of worldwide recognition.

Story and gameplay

The game is set in Victorian England and, after an incredibly morbid prologue, your character receives a letter from an old friend with a rather cryptic message on it. Prompted by the potentially serious implications from the letter you set out to Sussex to the lavish manor house that your friend owns but upon arrival it appears empty and abandoned. As you search the estate for clues you’ll uncover dark secrets, skeletons in the closets and a mystery that will only be explained by travelling across the country in subsequent chapters. The four chapters of this game were initially released separately and they still feel like very short standalone games that all follow on from one another, though that’s not a bad thing. If anything the use of cliff-hangers is very appealing as it builds up your anticipation to continue playing and makes the game feel even more riveting. 

The use of episodes splits the game into nicely manageable segments as it will take several hours to complete the entire thing though the quality of the chapters does vary and, whilst each episode has its own strengths and weaknesses, the inconsistency makes the problems glaringly apparent. The first chapter for instance excels in atmosphere and emotion whilst being the shortest and easiest of all the chapters. In the second episode there is a greater depth of experience but some of the descriptions of items have been watered down to either simple statements or overly explanatory ones which, compared to those of the first chapter, hinders the feel of the environment. That said, these are very minor issues and as a whole  the game plays fantastically with a strong focus on suspense and anticipation rather than gore and violence. 

As is standard in point and click games your advancement is dependent on solving puzzles and, in this case, the puzzles are inventory based. This means that you’ll be frequently be searching for things you can pick up before using them on objects in the environment or combining them into something new. Often, things can be difficult to locate as the pixelated surroundings conceal things wonderfully but by scrolling over objects that can be examined a magnifying glass does appear so you’re not left helplessly confused at what something is. Overall the game gets harder as you progress which eases you very nicely into the game though there’s nothing agonizingly difficult about any of the puzzles. Though you’ll likely get stuck now and then the puzzles are all fairly logical and not in the least bit obscure so, once you figure it out, it becomes painfully clear what you had to do all along. That said, the puzzles are varied and interesting and usually revolve around trying to access some place or another as you’re generally being led on a journey to constantly discover a secret that is hidden. 

Something that is particularly appealing is the game’s tendency to change the perspective that you’re playing through by quick insights into other characters or, most importantly, dreams and flashbacks that Devitt experiences himself. This continual shifting results in a richer and deeper understanding of the storyline and also the chance to do something a little different. I imagine that a constant focus on Devitt in the present time could have easily become restrictive and monotonous so it’s a welcomed addition to an already captivating game. Breaking up the gameplay experience through the employment of these dreams, flashbacks and briefly controlling other characters is not the only trick that the developers have up their sleeve as each chapter brings something new to the table. Whilst the first game is just you on your own subsequent chapters add in other character to talk to and the introduction of conversations is surprisingly powerful. Every chapter beginning starts with something shocking or disturbing that’s entirely different to the start of the last chapter so, whilst the game is short, you do cover a lot of ground and are treated to some intimately haunting scenes. The characters are well introduced, have interesting dialogue and talk in a manner fitting of the era. There are a lot of letters and diaries present in the game that you read for backstory and they’re very manageable in length and not in the least bit dull. Often, letters contain clues for puzzles and I enjoy how they not only had an atmospheric purpose but a practical one too.

A final critic I have is to do with the controls as in order to pick up items you must first examine them using the magnifying glass. I’m still somewhat undecided about this but the constant need to examine an object with one click then pick it up with another does become fairly irksome and, at the start of the game, it tended to result in me skipping over items thinking I had already obtained them. Of course this error went away as I adjusted but I prefer the option to both examine and immediately pick up things to not necessarily make the game simpler but rather make it less irritating. Other than this the controls are very easy to operate, the camera is perfect and the inclusion of skipping to areas you have already visited by double clicking on the exit saves a few long and boring walks. In a game where you may be stomping up and down the same corridor numerous times, this can only be a good thing.

Graphics and environments

The most important aspect of a horror game is its ability to scare you, or at least make you feel uneasy and apprehensive, and ‘The Last Door’ manages this fantastically partially due to how well the environments are portrayed. Walking through a pitch black corridor with nothing but a tiny light is as terrifying as it would be in any well-made horror game and whilst it could have been easy for it to lag behind its competition it is far from doing so. The environments are extremely detailed, spooky in some places and quite lovely in others. There’s plenty to look at and interact with and great care has been taken to flesh each individual room or area with enough decorational items that simply exist to add to the overall feel of the place.

Though you are initially restricted to the manor and its grounds you’ll travel to different places throughout the subsequent episodes and not once will you feel boxed in by limiting environments. Despite the low res quality of the game there are some truly beautiful scenes that are perfectly detailed and perfectly executed. The views of distant rolling landscapes and the layered, overcast skies remind me in turn of an obscure Van Gogh painting in that there’s such little information but the balance of hues and shades still results in a near perfect representation of what it is depicting. History buffs will also appreciate the many nods to the typical Victorian lifestyle and everything from Devitt’s travelling gear to the adornments of the interiors is perfectly in tune with the era it is illustrating. 

Low resolution pixelated art styles are definitely taking more precedence in games and it goes to show that graphics simply aren’t everything. If anything I found the retro graphics to enhance the experience of this game as it played on the notion that there was something there, in the dark, something that you couldn’t quite see. The game manages to limit how much you can see, not only through actual darkness but by also removing that customary clearness and crispness of graphics that we’ve come to rely on so much. What this results in is your imagination running a little wild and the game is fully aware of this with as it applies very delicate, subtle graphical shifts that impact the atmosphere in huge ways. For a game to be able to produce a constant unsettling unease whilst not falling back on gore and high definition monsters is, for me, very impressive.

Music and audio

In a game that provides no spoken dialogue it was imperative that all remaining audio was done to perfection, and it has been. The music is strong and intense and, especially during the opening credits, it has this inexplicable ability to instil the feeling that you’re embarking on some dangerous and mysterious journey. During gameplay there are periods of complete and utter silence that may occur when entering a room or between music tracks and, when the music stops, a great sense of danger instantly washes over you. I remember one occasion where, standing in the back of an old school room the music stopped entirely leaving me alone in a silent, dead room. Then came a noise; a noise I’d not heard before in that room despite having visited there several times, it was muffled and distant but sounded distinctly like some trapped animal or cry for help. Without the ability to explore further I left immediately, even after returning to the same spot, never heard that noise again. It’s moments like this that build you up and make you feel like there’s something waiting for you in the dark, behind a corner, something that may jump out at you. It’s extremely atmospheric and these odd little sounds that come out of nowhere, like the tapping on a window, are profoundly powerful.

Overall

This is one of my favourite modern point and click game’s and I thoroughly enjoyed the care and attention that has been poured into it. The variety of environments and perspectives that the game gives you adds an additional layer of detail and stops the game from being repetitive and boring. The story itself is curious with a mixture of themes bordering strongly on the occult but mingled in with the subjects of insanity and madness which is very nineteenth century. You can tell the game is strongly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s works not only from the presence of crows who consistently feature in his works but of little details like the bird tapping on the glass in a home owned by a man who’s descended into madness whereas, in ‘The Raven’ the tapping of the raven sent the narrator into insanity. Likewise, the presence of blind black cat in one part of the story is a direct reference to another of Poe’s work; the Black Cat and there are plenty of other bits and pieces in there too, considering Poe was active during the same century the game was set it feels even more appropriate. History aside, this is an indie game with a difference and is well worth a play as it is beautifully orchestrated, wonderfully written and very well designed. You may or may not find it easy and I imagine it depends entirely on how much of the genre you play and how intuitive you are. The Game Kitchen is currently fundraising so they can complete Season 2 of ‘The Last Door’ so there’s plenty more in the pipeline if you enjoyed this fantastic game. 

The Good:

• Very atmospheric with lots of suspense. 
• Beautiful music, flawless audio.
• Decent, logical puzzles.
• Appealing graphical style.
• Nice range of environments.
• Layered, interesting storyline.

The Bad:

• A little too easy in places.
• Some chapters are weaker than others.
• Controls can be annoying.

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: I love, love love love, this game and cannot wait for the next season. It would be better had it been longer but they're bringing more out so it's all good.

‘The Last Door’ is currently available to be played free. If you want the game with additional scenes and achievements you should pick up the Collector’s Edition of the game instead for just £7 from Steam, here. More details, including where to play it, can be found on their website here.

Lilly Looking Through - Quick Review (PC game)

Initially I was looking forward to playing this game due to its charming appearance but all I was met with was a short, shallow and extremely simplistic game more suited to young children than adventure gamers. 

Developer: Geeta Games

Genre: Puzzle adventure

Release date: November 1st 2013

Platforms: PC and Mac

ESRB: E - Everyone
For a game that looks and sounds so beautiful it’s quite simply just not up to par and should be avoided by anybody wanting a game with even a smidgen of substance. There's very little character development, which is a shame, and the story itself is in no way complex or fleshed out. There are no conversations, very little speech and generally the game consists of solving puzzles with Lilly and, sometimes, Row to advance through the game. ‘Lilly Looking Through’ is supposedly a point and click adventure game, meaning it will have some puzzles to be solved that may be inventory based as is typical of the genre but for me it failed to live up to the genre.

To begin with, there’s no inventory, much to my disappointment as it meant they’d be no finding and collecting items for later item combination. The puzzles are instead performed by clicking on a very limited set of locations on the screen before watching Lilly solve the obtuse puzzle herself. In that sense, that you click on things, it's a point and click in the very literal understanding of the phrase but it lacks what makes point and clicks interesting; storyline and substance. There are only a few things you can click on and very few areas in the game leading to what is a very easy and very short game. The solutions to the puzzles tended to be obscure in nature rather than challenging and there were times where, even after finding the solution to the area, I was completely taken aback by the actions that Lilly proceeded to perform. Worse still, the puzzles are extremely repetitive with one particular colour puzzle being repeated three times which results in an increasing frustration of having to repeat the same, mostly guessed, puzzle combination you completed just twenty minutes ago. 

In case everything is just too damn confusing for you there's also a hint system you can use to highlight objects in the area that tell you what else you can click on. The game itself is incredibly short and the ending is little more than an unsatisfying cliffhanger that I would care more about if I’d found the story interesting, which I did not. Disappointingly, despite the game starting to show potential it felt as though I'd paid for half of a game rather than a full one and that its potential to get better was prematurely cut short. After a brief and unexplained appearance from another character all you'll be left with is confusion over whether the game is now over, and then a credits scene that confirms you just wasted a couple of hours of your life.

Maybe if the developers had spent more time on fleshing out the gameplay rather than focusing on the pretty pictures and ethereal soundtrack then maybe I’d be more interested, but despite raising double what they asked for on Kickstarter it’s clear that for this game beauty is only skin deep. The animations of Lilly are very well done, the environments are varied and beautifully illustrated with real attention to detail and the music is a lovely, mystical and much grander than the game itself. It’s such a shame to say this but this is quite simply not a very good game and I’m actually disappointed that I was fooled into buying it due to positive reviews and deceptive screenshots. You’ll get about an hour or two out of this game depending on how well you are at guessing your way through the puzzles but, despite there being the essence of something greater, I doubt it will be a very enjoyable couple of hours for you. On a positive note, this is a game that young children will love to play provided you are there to help them through some of the more confusing puzzles.

The Good:

• Looks fantastic.
• Very charming.
• Storyline is pleasant.
• Perfect for children.

The Bad:

• Far too easy, just plain weird rather than difficult in places.  
• Few environments.
• Repetitive puzzles.
• Extremely short game.

The Score: 4/10 

Last thoughts: "Disappointing, it didn't feel at all like a real point and click but I guess it's alright for children."

If you don’t mind short and shallow romps through lovely environments, pick up the game for $10/£7 from the developers website here or on Steam here.

Theme Hospital - Full Review (PC and PS1 game)

Theme Hospital is a comical and witty game that is quite arguably one of the best simulation games of all time and most certainly the best hospital simulator ever created. A successor to the deeply enjoyable ‘Theme Park’, Theme Hospital takes the boring job of hospital management and turns it into something incredibly addictive and with bucket loads of playability.

Developer: Bullfrog Productions (PC) and Krisalis Software (PS)
Genre: Hospital management
Release date: February 4, 1997 (PC), February 1998 (PS1)
Platforms: PS1 and PC (MS-DOS and Windows)
ESRB: E - Everyone

The game was released for the PC and PlayStation 1 though aside from some minor differences like graphical quality and no background music for the PS1 version they are exactly the same game. You’ll play across twelve different hospitals with the task of designing and managing them to success whilst fending off patients with all sorts of strange illnesses and complaints. Theme Hospital is by no means a serious game and in fact it’s a highly original game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. To get you started, here’s the intro to the game.

 

Gameplay and game content

There are twelve hospitals that you will take charge of where you are given nothing but an empty floor plan and the money to start building rooms and hiring staff. You’re given a short amount of time to build the basics of your hospital such as a reception desk and diagnosis rooms like a GPs office and a hospital ward before the time runs out, the hospital opens and patients start visiting. The staff you need to hire consist of doctors, nurses, caretakers and one or two receptionists all of whom will have a short bio such as ‘heckles poor comedians, smells faintly of cabbage, possible liability’ along with their level of skill represented by a green bar. Doctors can have specializations and as you progress through the game you’ll need additional rooms and the doctors with the skill to work in those rooms such as surgeons, researchers and psychiatrists. Consultant doctors can also train their junior counterparts to have their specializations as well as increasing their overall level of skill. Depending on how good they are, their personality and the quality of their room including its size and contents staff may move faster or slower and perform worse and better than their colleagues. 

The game starts out simple and you won’t need many different clinics or rooms as the patients that will be visiting you will only have one of a handful of illnesses though it’s when the patients start showing up that you notice the humour of the game. ‘King Complex’ patients dressed as Elvis are in desperate need of a psychiatrist, patients ailing from ‘The Squits’ from eating pizza found under the oven are sent hurrying over to the pharmacy whilst patients with elongated tongues drooping comically from their mouths are pointed in the direction of a Slack Tongue Clinic; a glorified guillotine crossed with a clothes press. Each new condition or illness you encounter will pop up at the bottom of the screen, along with any other alerts, containing a description of the cause of the illness, the symptoms and the cure and these fact sheets always make me genuinely laugh. The conditions get more and more ludicrous and obscure as time goes by and soon you’ll have patients suffering from hair all over their bodies, radiating a garish and toxic looking green glow and aliens who were once humans and who need a trip to the ‘DNA converter’. 

Your success in this game largely depends a lot on how well you can design your hospital and micro-manage your staff as in later levels you will be absolutely flooded with patients who all require immediate attention. At first the game is quite simplistic and to win the level you simply need to meet certain criteria including number of patients cured, the overall worth of the hospital, a certain bank balance, reputation of the hospital and having to treat a variable percentage of the number of visitors to your hospital. You’ll frequently encounter ‘emergencies’ where a lot of patients with the same condition will all be flown via a helicopter to your hospital and if you don’t cure them by the time the time limit runs out, they all die. This can be fairly simple to manage if it’s something like a quick visit to a pharmacy but when you’ve got eight or nine patients all requiring major surgery you’re going to have a tough time squeezing them all in before their time runs out. Then there’s epidemics to contend with where you can either admit your hospital is infected, pay a fine and take a reputation hit or try to cover it up and cure them all before anybody discovers what’s happened. If you manage to cure them all and cover up the epidemic you’ll get a comfortable compensation bonus for the ‘wrongful’ accusations. There’s always this underlying sense that the hospitals you’re running aren’t exactly trustworthy as there are many unusual methods at dealing with patients and, even more disturbing, an ‘auto-autopsy’ machine in the research department where you can send patients whose condition you don’t understand due to lack of research. The thing is, once the patient is slid into the machine, CAT scan style, don’t ever seem to come back out again, hmm… 

For every new level there’s new challenges and new problems to deal with from earthquakes to vomit waves and the constant changing up of what’s going on in the hospital adds for some really interesting gameplay. A problem with the game is the unpredictable AI of your staff who sometimes struggle to go where they’re supposed to be going, leaving handymen ignoring overflowing bins and puddles of vomit and doctors wandering the corridors whilst a queue of sick patients stacks up outside the GPs office. You really do need to keep an eye on everybody at all times by dragging your doctors, nurses and handymen to where they need to be. Fail to keep on top of things and alongside a dirty hospital you’ll have your patients deteriorating health to worry about. A face above each patient’s head as they get more and more unhappy gradually deteriorates into a ghastly skull which means they’re about to drop dead on the hospital floor only to then float to heaven or be ushered into Hell by Mr Death himself. Thankfully the AI is not always frustrating and usually staff will be on their way to where they’re needed before the announcement woman calls out that a doctor or nurse is required in whichever room. 

Your ability to manage your hospital is fine-tuned to the smallest details and you can place everything where you want to be including radiators, plants, drinks machines and benches in the corridors as well as items and machinary in the hospital rooms themselves such as the desks, bookcases and bins. You can manage your bank account by taking out a loan, paying interest of course, and even decide how much to spend on the heating of your hospital and whether or not to give your staff a raise or a monetary bonus. Not only this, you can decide how much patients pay for each treatment or diagnosis attempt such as a stay in the hospital ward or a visit to the ‘Hair Restoration’ clinic. Despite this fine-tuned managing of the books everything is very simple to use and easy to understand and it won’t take much clicking around and reading of the in-game material to figure out how to do everything. As one of those people who doesn’t like reading a whole load of facts, figures and percentages I tend to bypass the many charts in the game and still can get through it quite happily. 

Graphics and audio

Graphically the PC edition of this game is superior to the PlayStation 1 port but that’s not to say either game looks bad. The screenshots used here are from the PC version but below you can see a screenshot of the PS1 edition, just for comparison's sake. Overall the graphics are really quite decent and very clear cut. Everything is colourful, very well detailed and a bit quirky with its own sense of identity in the whole design of the game. It’s a huge step up from the slightly blurry, fuzzy graphical appearance of ‘Theme Park’ and for a 90s game it really is impressive. The voice acting mostly consisting of a female announcement voice which is both funny and good quality as she apologizes to the patients about the amount of litter and chides ‘mad patients’ for being too loud in the corridors. Staff and patients don’t ever talk and tend to communicate with you through alerts at the bottom of the screen and symbols above their head, for example if they’re confused or if they’ve just discovered a new illness or researched/improved a new piece of equipment. Everything is very clearly communicated to you via the graphics however and the camera is very flexible and not at all awkward to use.

For the PC version the music is fantastic; nostalgic and catchy it has upbeat tunes that change track as you play the game so it doesn’t become irritating after a long period of time. Whenever a patient is cured you’ll hear a cheer from an unseen crowd and boo’ing when a patient dies, leaves the hospital or is sent home which adds to the light-hearted and interactive feel of the whole game. 

Overall

This is one of my childhood games that is still so addictive, challenging and fun to play now and, even after completing it, there’s still great satisfaction in starting all over again and pouring hours upon hours of my time into it. It’s just the right level of challenging and even if you find it too easy there’s three levels of difficulty so you can always crank it up a notch and struggle with the demands of the hardest ‘Consultant’ difficulty level. I love the humour in this game and it’s not an overpowering attempt to be funny, it’s just witty here and there from the diseases, to the announcements to the weird things you find becoming commonplace like excessively decorated staff rooms and questionable healthcare practices. The customization options are brilliant, it looks and sounds fantastic and overall it’s just so playable and so memorable that I can’t help but rank this as one of my favourite PC games.

The Good:

• Witty, intelligent humour that also borders on the silly
• Hours upon hours of gameplay
• Addictive, almost worryingly fun
• Nice level of difficulty and can be very challenging
• Lots of different rooms and illnesses keeps things interesting
• Very defined appearance makes it instantly recognizeable
• Memorable music that's really upbeat and not at all annoying

The Bad:

• Patients are always freezing.
• Staff AI can be a little dodgy
• More hospitals would have been good, but only because I want to continue playing

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: "So addictive, even now in 2014 this is so much fun to play and is one of the few micro-management games I play religiously."
Note: If you’re interested I have a list of cheats and codes that will allow you to do extra things like play whichever level you want to play, for both PS1 and PC editions, and some extra bits for the PC edition such as unlocking all research and getting extra money. You can find my cheat guide here.

Playing Theme Hospital on new OS systems:

The PlayStation 1 version of the game is very easily obtained on sites such as Ebay and Amazon but the PC version will give you more trouble on newer systems, that said, it’s not impossible. By using an emulator such as DOSbox you can happily play the game as intended or, alternatively, you can use an open source ‘clone of the game called CorsixTH. This clone still requires you to purchase the original disk but it allows you to play the game on OS’s such as Vista and Windows 7. You can download CorsixTH here. 

Disney's Hercules: Action Game - Quick Review (PS1 and PC game)

Unless you are an extreme fan of the Hercules Disney film or Disney video games in general I wouldn’t recommend you add this game to your collection any time soon. It breaks my heart a little to say that as this game holds a great deal of nostalgia for me and, at the time, Disney's Hercules: Action Game was one of my PS1 gaming staples. 

Developer: Eurocom
Genre: Platformer

Release date: November 1997

Platforms: PS1 and PC  

ESRB: E - Everyone

When I first played this game I did find it genuinely fun and, on my second playthrough as an adult, I admit it has its charms but only on account of the nostalgia. When judging it based on its merits it’s hard to see beyond the boring and linear gameplay, annoying film clips and rehashed soundbites taken directly from the film. Overall, it’s an extremely short game and has very few levels that look better than they play, and they don’t look particularly exceptional.

The game is almost entirely in 2D though there are times when you have to walk backwards or forwards into an additional layer of the environment, before continuing with the regular side scrolling that the game exists on. There are ten levels overall but the last two, in the Underworld and the Vortex of Souls, are only available if you’re playing the game on either medium or hard difficulty though their addition does help to bulk the game out a little. There are a couple of levels in the game where you are unable to fight and instead must continually run forward, slowing or speeding up, whilst avoiding obstacles. One of the earlier levels features this rush type gameplay where you must avoid Phil’s hero training obstacles such as sharks, sword wielding dummies and giant stone fists that violently drop from above. This is, admittedly, quite fun to play through on the first attempt especially on the higher difficulty levels since it’s such an iconic scene from the film that you kind of enjoy playing through it, even if it is just for kicks.  

There are plenty of power ups and collectibles to collect during the levels. Your energy bar can be increased by picking up Hercules action figure dolls whereas your health can be replenished by drinking ‘Herculade’ that you probably remember from the film. Generally, you’re stuck with a regular old sword but you can also pick up power ups for it to give it magical abilities. I’m not sure where they got this idea from but I guess they can add a little creative embellishment in an attempt to make things more fun. These weapons are called ‘Gifts from the Gods’ which basically adds on stuff like a long stream of lightning that you can move about, fire balls that shoot off in any which direction and a sort of sonic blade that sends out a dangerous circular sonic blast, killing anything nearby. Finally, you can grab an invincibility helmet that makes you impervious to damage from a few seconds. There are two forms of collectibles in the game, for starters there are the letters of the name ‘HERCULES’ which are hidden throughout the level in admittedly really good hiding spots ( I haven’t actually found them all yet). Lastly, there are four vases that when found will give you the password to that level so you can replay it. 

Even when trying to find all these collectibles you’ll probably be able to complete this game in just a few hours, and it won’t necessarily be a fun few hours either. Though the game has its quirky moments that are fun for a bit it’s not really a substantial amount of enjoyment and it’s unlikely you’ll ever want to play the game again. Graphically, the game is reasonable and it has some really nice levels such as the early training levels and the dangerous jaunt through the city called ‘The Big Olive’ which has a few moments where you smile and go, ‘oh yeah’ as you remember the context from the film. The audio is a little irritating and the music is very repetitive, but good quality. The inclusion of low quality clips from the film to help explain the storyline can thankfully be skipped as they’re quite frequent and juts feel like a bulking agent to make the game last longer. Overall, there’s nothing particularly offensive about the game, it basically stands as a good little game for children or for those who enjoy knocking out a couple of hours on an old 90s Disney game without high expectations.

The Good:

• Iconic scenes from film fun to engage in.
• Decent levels, nice variety and very detailed.
• Well animated enemies
• Collectibles for the purists is always a good thing.
• Powerups mean you can cleave through enemies quickly. 
  

The Bad:

• Often you're just running to the side of the screen, continuously. 
• Repetative audio and music.
• Quite a bland experience.
• Very short.
• Lack of analog sticks means your fingers will hurt because of stubborn controls. 
  

The Score: 5/10

If you want to play this you can check out my passwords for all levels in all difficulties here.