An attack by a horde of vampires sweeps across the island in the great sea of Gaiana, nearly wiping out its entire population. Young Charon survives thanks to his combat skills and the training his father gave him from childhood.
He finds his father gravely wounded on the battlefield and receives a small key from him before the man ultimately succumbs to his injuries. The key leads Charon to the cellar of his own home, revealing the entrance to a small room. Inside, he discovers a modified pistol and a valuable elemental sword. He also finds a strange mirror. It turns out that a demon named Dagon is trapped within it; the demon immediately proposes a deal: Charon will gain a portion of its powers if he uses them to kill the vampires. Driven by a desire for revenge against the creatures responsible for his family's death, he accepts the offer.
Ateria - Continent of Shadows is a Rpgmaker horror game demo created by Xorgoth: the game is basically amystery horror adventure with a single character, a vampire hunter. It features some custom activities and original gameplay elements like climbing, a custom made combat system that lets the player switch between gun and sword, anyway the additions are still rather simple and do not overwhelm the player. The graphics use edited REFMAP assets and there is a lot of attention to light, shadows and atmospherical effects.
Random Fact: although the game includes a monster encyclopedia that can reveal the strength and weaknesses of the opponents, mind that it can be only consulted when in town and not while travelling! A bit odd choice anyway.
Final Verdict: despite the short playtime, Ateria is impressive as an high quality game with great use of lightning, good mapping, many poses, sprites ans features like climbing, monster encyclopedia, slot machines, and more. There are two only issues: the first is that you will often have to travel through the forest and that's becomes boring, there isn't a lot of story, since you are just a vampire hunter hunting vampires! That's it! Anyway it's an excellent demo, and very unique adventure, considering it was released in 2008 it was certainly one of the best games of the time. It's a pity this was never completed.
No comments:
Post a Comment