Your older sister Rebecca is getting married to the son of a wealthy Romanian
Count. The Patterson family and some of their closest friends arrive at Castle
Malachi for the celebration; they are greeted instead by evil devastation. Of
course they all become prisoners inside the huge, dark castle and you have to
rescue them before it’s too late.
Nosferatu The Wrath Of Malachi does a good job at creating a creepy
atmosphere by scaring the hell out of you every time you turn a corner. I jumped
out of my seat on more than one occasion. For that alone I would recommend this
game to horror buffs, but there are several nagging glitches that keep Nosferatu
from attaining greatness.
The good qualities in Nosferatu include a very easy control configuration.
Any shooter veteran will find the keyboard setup familiar territory and newbies
craving a spine-tingling jolt won’t have much trouble navigating through the
castle. The music is full of haunting themes, dark chilling melodies and
descriptive event sensitive moments. The short movies that play when you reach
an area of interest are actually unsettling. In one particular part I failed to
rescue a member of my party and the quick cut-scene made my chest pound in my
throat. The monster models are not cutting edge, but their lightning speed and
viscous attack will make you shudder.
The game has a random spawn feature. If you defeat the game and wish to play
it again this randomness will undoubtedly add replay value. The castle remains
the same, but the rooms are shuffled. This also means that if you save in one
room during the game because it appears to be safe, that is not entirely the
case. When you reload you might be looking at a blood lusting hell spawn that
wasn’t there before. If you are low on health this could be a problem. If you
rescue a family member in one room only to die, that same family member might
not be in the same room when you reload. On the one hand this can prove quite
frightening when a monster appears suddenly, but it can also become a bit
irritating. The castle is large and full of twisting stairwells and long
corridors. Unfortunately this randomness makes a custom map pointless.
There are several difficulty levels, but even on the easy setting the game is
challenging. Each monster can be killed by one of several different weapons. For
instance a shadow vampire can be dispatched with a crucifix or some holy water.
A zombie can be dealt with by shooting it or hacking it with a sword. Problems
develop when multiple enemies are in one room. You must be able to swap weapons
quickly in order to avoid considerable damage. Some weapons take an eternity to
reload and the weapon scroll is a bit cumbersome.
The story doesn’t offer much complexity, but it doesn’t really have to. You
basically run around the castle searching for family members and killing every
single wicked aberration in sight. Each member will have a useful item to give
you. There are stronger, more gruesome vampires hidden in different locations
within the castle. They resemble end level bosses because they are much more
difficult to defeat and they each have a special key you must obtain in order to
progress further. One in particular was especially nasty looking like a cross
between the Rancor monster in Return of the Jedi and a deformed McFarlane action
figure.
The environments are suitable, murky and deserted, but lack any real depth.
Just enough variation was added in order to keep monotony at bay. There is a
grainy texture over the screen that resembles an old silent film, which I
thought was a very nice touch and really made the whole horror package complete.
The character models are weak by today’s standards, but each person is given a
personality with decent voiceovers. One character may be a whiner, while another
will have a humorous, nervous laugh.
All in all Nosferatu delivers enough thrills, screams and suspense to satiate
horror fans. The good qualities surpass the negative ones, and the price of
admission is very reasonable.
Gameplay: 8
Enemies are very fast, they appear from nowhere and some of them have a
violent attack. Escorting family members back and forth through the castle does
get to be a little tedious at times. A map would have been nice, but impossible
due to the randomness feature.
Graphics: 7
The environments are decent and atmospheric, but the character models appear
dated. There are also several clipping problems and poor collision in particular
areas.
Sound: 8
The excellent music and creepy effects are what really make this game scary.
Unfortunately there is no directional sound support.
Difficulty: 8
Challenging at times because of multiple enemies that are very fast with
different weapon requirements.
Concept: 7
Creepy castle, assortment of bloodsuckers set within the confines of classic
shooter style gameplay.
Overall: 8
Nosferatu doesn’t have quite as much depth as Clive Barker’s Undying, but it
does deliver some thrills despite a handful of minor flaws.
