The Quivering
Reviewed by Sara, May 2002
Translated by Sara, July 2003
Grade 10
Welcome to the Quivering!

That is how the game The Quivering begins. Oh, how I would like to hear those words again.
This is a unique game loosely based upon old horror movies. A few of the characters that appears in the game are Dracula, Jason, the Phantome of the Opera and Elvis (!). During your trip you visit the Evil Dead house and Bates Motel. Despite this setting The Quivering is not a horror game, but instead one of the funniest games I have ever played.

By mistake a portal has been created. The portal makes demons from another dimension able to come to earth. The most dangerous of them all is Big D.

You play Spud, a laid back teenage kid. The mission is to overpower Big D and send all the demons back to their own dimension of time and space.

The music is in itself really good. Unfortunately I was not able to figure out a way to adjust the volume of the music versus the voices. Therefore it was sometimes hard to hear what they said since the voices drowned in the music.

The voices and the characters are both excellent. My only objection is that, since Spud speaks with a Cockney dialekt, I think it would help many non-english players if subtitles were an option. A personal favourite is Elvis, who added splendour to the entire second half of the game just by his presence.

The graphics are very good with the exception of some of the cutscenes that where a bit grainy, even for a game this age.

The puzzles you are faced with are varied, entertaining and och original. Some of them are a bit on the hard side, but they never loose the humourus touch. Most of the puzzles are inventory based but of course... there is a maze and what do you know, this one is timed and deadly!
Actually you die a lot wich makes it a good idea to save often. This is complicated by the fact that the savings function is a machine that requires demons. As soon as you see an "Imp" (a small, cute demon) you have to take it since they are the ones used in the machine that makes your save games. This implies that you do not always have the opportunity to save since the number of imps are limited. The Imps can help you out in other ways too if you combine them with other inventory objects. That means that it is good to have a few Imps in the inventory all the time. In the beginning of the game I got really annoyed at the messy handling, but once I got used to it I did not want to have the game otherwise. The Imps are adolable little creatures!

The interface is straightforward point-and-click and the game is played from a first person perspektiv while the cutscenes are in a third person perspective.

To sum it up:

This is a wonderful and funny game. I have only one major complaint - because it was such a good game it felt too short.
The graphics and the voiceacting are great.
I would like to recommend this game to everyone who likes horror movies, humour and a good adventuregame.

Screenshots
Thank you Roger Hulley, Alternative Software for providing the screens!
Grade 10

Developer: Alternative Software
Released 1998

System requirements
Windows 95/98
or DOS 6.22
Pentium 75
16 MB RAM
SVGA




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