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With all the press attention that games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt have received, you could be forgiven for thinking that violent video games are a recent development. But in reality the phenomenon is nothing new. There have, in the past, been games that are so violent that they'd never get a release in today's ESRB regulated market. And, gorehound that I am, I decided to seek out one of these games and see just what gruesome delights it had to offer.
The game I chose to take a look at it, is Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus, a role playing game which was released in the early nineties by a company called Horrorsoft. They eventually changed their name to Adventuresoft, and produced the Simon The Sorcerer series of games. The object of the game is supposedly to rescue horror hostess 'Elvira' by exploring three haunted film studios, though she only pops up from time to time to egg you on, and you get the feeling her name was slapped on to help sell copies of the game.
Really, Elvira II is all about killing monsters and getting a good eye-full of gore as you go. Every time you get killed you'll be shown your character's brutalized form of your character, perhaps with a hole in his throat or his flesh burnt to a crisp. The graphics are all sprite-based or hand drawn - there's no 3D rendering here - which makes them somehow even more stomach churning. Plus there's plenty of background gore too - you'll run into piles of corpses, dismembered heads and so forth. And none of the monsters you have to fight are particularly pretty looking, either. You'll be hacking your way through insects, zombies, and even ghosts in your quest to rescue Elvira. You even get to use the occasional spell, though the spells in Elvira II do use up ingredients, of which there's a finite supply, so there's more swordplay than anything else.
Which may sound good, but there's a catch. And that's that actually playing Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus is an exercise in frustration. It's not that there's anything wrong with the game's basic mechanics - the combat system is hardly complex, but it's passable. Nor are the monsters impossible to defeat - as you slowly level up you'll find yourself becoming more adept at dispatching them. No, what really takes all the fun out of playing Elvira II is that, by failing to perform a certain action at the right time, you can make it impossible to finish the game. Take the game's 'Insect Lair' level - you can make it all the way up to the top of the lair, only to find that because you haven't turned on the elevator at the bottom of the lair you can't proceed any further. But neither can you go back, so you're stuck. And if you didn't save your game before you entered the top level of the lair, you have to start the whole game again. And similar game-breaking scenarios crop up throughout the game.
Admittedly, Elvira II was written a good fifteen years ago, but still, you'd think that the game's playtesters would have raised this as pretty serious issue. Or maybe they did, but Horrorsoft's programmers just hate people. It's a shame too, as if weren't for this, Elvira II would be well worth playing, even today. But with this major issue, I really can't recommend Elvira II, or its prequel or sequel, which both suffer from the same problem. Suddenly, modern games seem a lot more appealing.
The game I chose to take a look at it, is Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus, a role playing game which was released in the early nineties by a company called Horrorsoft. They eventually changed their name to Adventuresoft, and produced the Simon The Sorcerer series of games. The object of the game is supposedly to rescue horror hostess 'Elvira' by exploring three haunted film studios, though she only pops up from time to time to egg you on, and you get the feeling her name was slapped on to help sell copies of the game.
Really, Elvira II is all about killing monsters and getting a good eye-full of gore as you go. Every time you get killed you'll be shown your character's brutalized form of your character, perhaps with a hole in his throat or his flesh burnt to a crisp. The graphics are all sprite-based or hand drawn - there's no 3D rendering here - which makes them somehow even more stomach churning. Plus there's plenty of background gore too - you'll run into piles of corpses, dismembered heads and so forth. And none of the monsters you have to fight are particularly pretty looking, either. You'll be hacking your way through insects, zombies, and even ghosts in your quest to rescue Elvira. You even get to use the occasional spell, though the spells in Elvira II do use up ingredients, of which there's a finite supply, so there's more swordplay than anything else.
Which may sound good, but there's a catch. And that's that actually playing Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus is an exercise in frustration. It's not that there's anything wrong with the game's basic mechanics - the combat system is hardly complex, but it's passable. Nor are the monsters impossible to defeat - as you slowly level up you'll find yourself becoming more adept at dispatching them. No, what really takes all the fun out of playing Elvira II is that, by failing to perform a certain action at the right time, you can make it impossible to finish the game. Take the game's 'Insect Lair' level - you can make it all the way up to the top of the lair, only to find that because you haven't turned on the elevator at the bottom of the lair you can't proceed any further. But neither can you go back, so you're stuck. And if you didn't save your game before you entered the top level of the lair, you have to start the whole game again. And similar game-breaking scenarios crop up throughout the game.
Admittedly, Elvira II was written a good fifteen years ago, but still, you'd think that the game's playtesters would have raised this as pretty serious issue. Or maybe they did, but Horrorsoft's programmers just hate people. It's a shame too, as if weren't for this, Elvira II would be well worth playing, even today. But with this major issue, I really can't recommend Elvira II, or its prequel or sequel, which both suffer from the same problem. Suddenly, modern games seem a lot more appealing.
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With all the press attention that games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt have received, you could be forgiven for thinking that violent video games are a recent development. But in reality the phenomenon is nothing new. There have, in the past, been games that are so violent that they'd never get a release in today's ESRB regulated market. And, gorehound that I am, I decided to seek out one of these games and see just what gruesome delights it had to offer.
The game I chose to take a look at it, is Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus, a role playing game which was released in the early nineties by a company called Horrorsoft. They eventually changed their name to Adventuresoft, and produced the Simon The Sorcerer series of games. The object of the game is supposedly to rescue horror hostess 'Elvira' by exploring three haunted film studios, though she only pops up from time to time to egg you on, and you get the feeling her name was slapped on to help sell copies of the game.
Really, Elvira II is all about killing monsters and getting a good eye-full of gore as you go. Every time you get killed you'll be shown your character's brutalized form of your character, perhaps with a hole in his throat or his flesh burnt to a crisp. The graphics are all sprite-based or hand drawn - there's no 3D rendering here - which makes them somehow even more stomach churning. Plus there's plenty of background gore too - you'll run into piles of corpses, dismembered heads and so forth. And none of the monsters you have to fight are particularly pretty looking, either. You'll be hacking your way through insects, zombies, and even ghosts in your quest to rescue Elvira. You even get to use the occasional spell, though the spells in Elvira II do use up ingredients, of which there's a finite supply, so there's more swordplay than anything else.
Which may sound good, but there's a catch. And that's that actually playing Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus is an exercise in frustration. It's not that there's anything wrong with the game's basic mechanics - the combat system is hardly complex, but it's passable. Nor are the monsters impossible to defeat - as you slowly level up you'll find yourself becoming more adept at dispatching them. No, what really takes all the fun out of playing Elvira II is that, by failing to perform a certain action at the right time, you can make it impossible to finish the game. Take the game's 'Insect Lair' level - you can make it all the way up to the top of the lair, only to find that because you haven't turned on the elevator at the bottom of the lair you can't proceed any further. But neither can you go back, so you're stuck. And if you didn't save your game before you entered the top level of the lair, you have to start the whole game again. And similar game-breaking scenarios crop up throughout the game.
Admittedly, Elvira II was written a good fifteen years ago, but still, you'd think that the game's playtesters would have raised this as pretty serious issue. Or maybe they did, but Horrorsoft's programmers just hate people. It's a shame too, as if weren't for this, Elvira II would be well worth playing, even today. But with this major issue, I really can't recommend Elvira II, or its prequel or sequel, which both suffer from the same problem. Suddenly, modern games seem a lot more appealing.
The game I chose to take a look at it, is Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus, a role playing game which was released in the early nineties by a company called Horrorsoft. They eventually changed their name to Adventuresoft, and produced the Simon The Sorcerer series of games. The object of the game is supposedly to rescue horror hostess 'Elvira' by exploring three haunted film studios, though she only pops up from time to time to egg you on, and you get the feeling her name was slapped on to help sell copies of the game.
Really, Elvira II is all about killing monsters and getting a good eye-full of gore as you go. Every time you get killed you'll be shown your character's brutalized form of your character, perhaps with a hole in his throat or his flesh burnt to a crisp. The graphics are all sprite-based or hand drawn - there's no 3D rendering here - which makes them somehow even more stomach churning. Plus there's plenty of background gore too - you'll run into piles of corpses, dismembered heads and so forth. And none of the monsters you have to fight are particularly pretty looking, either. You'll be hacking your way through insects, zombies, and even ghosts in your quest to rescue Elvira. You even get to use the occasional spell, though the spells in Elvira II do use up ingredients, of which there's a finite supply, so there's more swordplay than anything else.
Which may sound good, but there's a catch. And that's that actually playing Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus is an exercise in frustration. It's not that there's anything wrong with the game's basic mechanics - the combat system is hardly complex, but it's passable. Nor are the monsters impossible to defeat - as you slowly level up you'll find yourself becoming more adept at dispatching them. No, what really takes all the fun out of playing Elvira II is that, by failing to perform a certain action at the right time, you can make it impossible to finish the game. Take the game's 'Insect Lair' level - you can make it all the way up to the top of the lair, only to find that because you haven't turned on the elevator at the bottom of the lair you can't proceed any further. But neither can you go back, so you're stuck. And if you didn't save your game before you entered the top level of the lair, you have to start the whole game again. And similar game-breaking scenarios crop up throughout the game.
Admittedly, Elvira II was written a good fifteen years ago, but still, you'd think that the game's playtesters would have raised this as pretty serious issue. Or maybe they did, but Horrorsoft's programmers just hate people. It's a shame too, as if weren't for this, Elvira II would be well worth playing, even today. But with this major issue, I really can't recommend Elvira II, or its prequel or sequel, which both suffer from the same problem. Suddenly, modern games seem a lot more appealing.