Contact me - marensdasein@gmail.com
Back to drafting blog posts on my phone. It's slightly bluer, slightly newer, and does all the same things the old one did but slightly faster. It's nice to have a phone that works again. That's about all thats new in my life outside of a neat haircut. I think I look good in a bob.
Didn't do much too interesting today. Checked out this old 1999 first person point and click adventure game: Dracula: The Resurrection. Having just finished reading the original novel I was curious about this videogame sequel set 7 years after the book. Mina Harker had a bit of a vampire relapse and suddenly felt compelled to go to Dracula's castle. Of course Johnathan Harker follows and game begins. What's immediately striking about the game is it's visuals. The game is terrifying; just visually apalling. Utilizing what appears to be early motion capture technology, and early pre-rendered CGI the game looks like a Robert Zemekis movie from hell. Seriously, every character is terrifying and unsettling and moves in rubbery juddery inconsistant ways that no real creature would move. I don't doubt this effect was on some level intentional, but also the dated tech is unsettling. The second thing that strikes you is how bad it is as a game. Unlike, a lot of point and click adventure games of its time it actually gives you enough direction to get started, but I found myself getting lost in the navigation, and stuck looking around desperately for the next thread to progression. Consulting a guide (ain't no way I'm going to tear my hair out over a janky point and click), I found that 9 times out of ten I missed an item that blended with the detailed backgrounds or missed a direction I could go because the navigation hotspots are too small. Then the third thing that strikes you is narrative... well sorta. I just think its kinda weird that in that first hour or so Harker kills two people, and not like in self defense or in a life or death struggle they were just in his way. Sure, they're bandits and implied to be servants of Dracula, but thats no reason to sneak up behind someone, bash them over the head with a club, and not even attempt to save them when they tumble into the water and don't resurface; or lure another away to drop a heavy chandelier on their head. It all seemed a bit out of character for Harker who, in the novel, was a largely normal English business man if a bit prone to taking risks. Also found it interesting he most resembled Keanu Reeves's appearance in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (an ironic title for a movie that radically reinterprets the text as a love story... eww). Good movie just not a great adaptation and certainly Reeves's worst performance.
Might continue playing the game. It's reasonably well recieved for a late entry into a genre well into its death throes, and with the aid of a guide letting you know which objects you can actually pick up and interact with it's not too bad. The puzzles have been reasonably satisfying to work through. Oh and also I've got an appointment set to tour an apartment Friday afternoon, hopfully I'll get good vibes from the place.
Contact me - marensdasein@gmail.com