A beautiful fusion of horror's many fantastic hallmarks. The harsh shadows, spooky mansions, the Dutch angles (the fucking Dutch angles), and of course the MONSTERS!! Vampires, werewolves, goblins, and ghouls, this game has it all. With each chapter, these elements are doused with the fedoras, trench coats, and genocidal tendencies of noir films. Or as the game calls it, The Stranger.
Throughout the game, you play as a man named Stranger, a skilled marksman that holds a grudge. A government agent who would be racist if he wasn’t killing monsters all the time. He hates the supernatural and has made it a mission to exterminate them through Spookhouse, a government emplaced taskforce that was made to quell the supernatural forces of the world. As they put it “Who will protect the world from darkness, we will”. However, despite this goal, many of the spookhouse are monsters that joined the ranks to use their special abilities to fight against like forces. This is seen as a way of “betraying monster kind” but in cases like Svetlana the Dhampir (half-human/vampire) some seemingly only want to keep the peace between everyday society and this monstrous underbelly. On the other hand, the demon Moloch is a unique case, for his reasoning for joining the team is solely out of hatred for his very existence. Now, add a dude with a prejudice for the spooky, and a general disdain for social interaction, and you got yourself some very interesting dynamics between these characters. This is what makes Stranger as a character, like seeing him pout and cross his arms like a child because he was paired up with a dhampir. He also drops the funniest rebuttals that I can only describe as part of the “real time depression + alcoholism” category. Dude is constantly pissed and depressed about his situation, and it’s just great.
The stranger is a fun character to play throughout the game as well. Gameplay wise the main feature that differentiates Stranger from other survival horror protagonists is his dual-wielding pistols that can lock onto different enemies independent of each other. This makes for some sick shootouts where you can just bask in the cold and calculated precision of Stranger's aim, all while he just stands there not moving any more muscles than he has to. This is provided you turn on the auto-lock, but considering the movement and camera angles in this game, I’d strongly advise against it. On the topic of these hindrances, how about that camera? Well, it’s the game's greatest strength … as well as its greatest weakness. The cinematic positioning of fixed camera angles does wonders for setting the tone and genre for every chapter. The low-angle shot of Svetlana and Stranger walking toward the desolate medieval castle of a vampire lord comes to mind for me. And there are plenty more shots that are positioned just right to make every room in this game look artful. But for every great camera placement that enriches the beautiful horror noir atmosphere of the game, there is a honky tonk fucker peephole that’s been nudged into a crevice of door you just entered in from (and it ain’t facing room I’ll tell ya that). Supposedly, this 2nd outcome is called a “shot”. Dramatization aside, a good chunk of the angles you are given in a room can lead to some pretty cheap game overs. One of the leading causes of such is surprisingly enough, not monsters, but rather terrain itself. Yes, this game has platforming, and while it can be charmingly goofy in a tomb raider sort of way, it more often is stiff and cheap with its kills. This paired with a bad angle can lead to jumps that feel impossible after your 10th consecutive jump, fall, impalement by spike, and then reload cycle. But even with all the jank it causes, I can’t help but love Nocturne’s camera.
There’s been a push to make games cinematic in recent years. But to me, Nocturne (and many old-ass pc games like it) have a much more seamless and interesting implementation of cinematics well beyond where the camera is placed. Whether it be the set design, atmospheric fog, traps, and puzzles that fit the genre the chapter is in, the game usually takes steps to establish its setting whenever it can. And I think there are a lot of game devs who can learn from that. So uh, bring back those fixed angles! Preferable in a more accessible way than this!!
Throughout the game, you play as a man named Stranger, a skilled marksman that holds a grudge. A government agent who would be racist if he wasn’t killing monsters all the time. He hates the supernatural and has made it a mission to exterminate them through Spookhouse, a government emplaced taskforce that was made to quell the supernatural forces of the world. As they put it “Who will protect the world from darkness, we will”. However, despite this goal, many of the spookhouse are monsters that joined the ranks to use their special abilities to fight against like forces. This is seen as a way of “betraying monster kind” but in cases like Svetlana the Dhampir (half-human/vampire) some seemingly only want to keep the peace between everyday society and this monstrous underbelly. On the other hand, the demon Moloch is a unique case, for his reasoning for joining the team is solely out of hatred for his very existence. Now, add a dude with a prejudice for the spooky, and a general disdain for social interaction, and you got yourself some very interesting dynamics between these characters. This is what makes Stranger as a character, like seeing him pout and cross his arms like a child because he was paired up with a dhampir. He also drops the funniest rebuttals that I can only describe as part of the “real time depression + alcoholism” category. Dude is constantly pissed and depressed about his situation, and it’s just great.
The stranger is a fun character to play throughout the game as well. Gameplay wise the main feature that differentiates Stranger from other survival horror protagonists is his dual-wielding pistols that can lock onto different enemies independent of each other. This makes for some sick shootouts where you can just bask in the cold and calculated precision of Stranger's aim, all while he just stands there not moving any more muscles than he has to. This is provided you turn on the auto-lock, but considering the movement and camera angles in this game, I’d strongly advise against it. On the topic of these hindrances, how about that camera? Well, it’s the game's greatest strength … as well as its greatest weakness. The cinematic positioning of fixed camera angles does wonders for setting the tone and genre for every chapter. The low-angle shot of Svetlana and Stranger walking toward the desolate medieval castle of a vampire lord comes to mind for me. And there are plenty more shots that are positioned just right to make every room in this game look artful. But for every great camera placement that enriches the beautiful horror noir atmosphere of the game, there is a honky tonk fucker peephole that’s been nudged into a crevice of door you just entered in from (and it ain’t facing room I’ll tell ya that). Supposedly, this 2nd outcome is called a “shot”. Dramatization aside, a good chunk of the angles you are given in a room can lead to some pretty cheap game overs. One of the leading causes of such is surprisingly enough, not monsters, but rather terrain itself. Yes, this game has platforming, and while it can be charmingly goofy in a tomb raider sort of way, it more often is stiff and cheap with its kills. This paired with a bad angle can lead to jumps that feel impossible after your 10th consecutive jump, fall, impalement by spike, and then reload cycle. But even with all the jank it causes, I can’t help but love Nocturne’s camera.
There’s been a push to make games cinematic in recent years. But to me, Nocturne (and many old-ass pc games like it) have a much more seamless and interesting implementation of cinematics well beyond where the camera is placed. Whether it be the set design, atmospheric fog, traps, and puzzles that fit the genre the chapter is in, the game usually takes steps to establish its setting whenever it can. And I think there are a lot of game devs who can learn from that. So uh, bring back those fixed angles! Preferable in a more accessible way than this!!