I purchased The Charnel House Trilogy after digging around Steam for something relatively cheap in the "horror" and "adventure" tags. I was intrigued by the beautiful pixel art used by this retro point-and-click adventure game, and while I wasn't exactly disappointed, I didn't get quite what I was hoping to either.
The title is, as some reviewers have pointed out, misleading: The gameI purchased The Charnel House Trilogy after digging around Steam for something relatively cheap in the "horror" and "adventure" tags. I was intrigued by the beautiful pixel art used by this retro point-and-click adventure game, and while I wasn't exactly disappointed, I didn't get quite what I was hoping to either.
The title is, as some reviewers have pointed out, misleading: The game isn't a trilogy so much as three chapters of a single story.
Chapter One, "Inhale", is essentially a prologue. It gives us some insight into one of the two protagonists, Alex. It becomes clear nearly instantly that she's recently had a rough break-up, the details of which are not expounded on until much later. As "Inhale" is supposed to be setting the stage for "Sepulchre" and especially the far meatier "Exhale", there are a few moments designed to be unsettling. Unfortunately, the first of these moments, which should have stood alone and left the player feeling on edge for the rest of the game, is repeated several times in rapid succession just a minute later. The final image in "Inhale", however, is extremely well handled, just in time to re-engage possibly waning interest in the game.
Chapter two, "Sepulchre", was originally a stand-alone game, before "Inhale" and "Exhale" were later written and added to it. In it, we play a man who informs us -- or, rather, himself -- that he is Doctor Harold Lang, and he is on the train on the way to... something. Sepulchre shows its age - by the time Inhale and Exhale were written, Ashton Raze had clearly gotten his feet better under him as a writer, but Sepulchre's dialogue is often stilted and awkward. Lang's dialogue, spoken to himself, about who he is and what he's doing, brought to mind someone attempting to remember a hastily-conceived cover story, not someone struggling with memory issues.
Later in the chapter, however, as things aboard the train begin to fall apart, Lang's problems become clearer. Sadly, Sepulchre overplays its hand early and drops entirely too many hints about where, exactly, the story is headed. When Sepulchre reaches its conclusion, the player has been there, waiting for it, for some time.
Gameplay in this chapter is also uncomfortably stilted - a good deal of time is spent awkwardly traipsing back and forth between doors and the friendly conductor, Don, than the situation merits. One is left with the feeling that Lang cannot possibly do anything without first consulting with someone else first. Towards the end of the chapter, the chain of events is much smoother.
Chapter Three, "Exhale", is where this game finally gets its feet under it and starts running. We resume control of Alex, prior to the events of Chapter Two (and, later, overlapping them) and have our suspicions about the nature of the train eventually confirmed as Alex confronts shadows of past events hinted at by "Inhale". The facts about the train and its destination are quickly overshadowed by Alex's past and the people around her, and it is in these relationships and the bizarre way they are filtered by the environment of the train itself that the game genuinely becomes surprising and unnerving.
"Exhale" is definitely the main course on this platter, and it can be played on its own -- each chapter is accessible from the main menu separately -- but the game is best played with all three chapters in order.
The very end of Exhale, after answering many (but not all) of the questions raised by the game itself, adds two more very big questions at the worst possible time: too late to be expanded on, let alone answered.
There are, however, a few glaring problems with the game as is:
- One of the major twists in Exhale is, while extremely effective, also extremely unrealistic in terms of character motivation. It builds towards a highly disturbing conclusion, tosses that conclusion aside in favor of a much less believable one, then adds some admittedly effective visceral horror on top of that. The build up and the sudden shift to more personal horror were fantastic. The character motivation... not so much.
- Voice acting is spotty. Some characters are exceptionally well acted. Others are flat and lifeless. One character's voice was clearly recorded with lower-end equipment and the difference yanks you right out of immersion.
- Clues about the "mystery" of the train are too frequent, clues about the characters' backstories (equally vital to the plot, if not more so than the train) are too sparse.
- Pacing of "Sepulchre" was abysmally slow, with the conclusion being apparent barely halfway through and the remainder of the chapter feeling like a slog.
One can but hope that the sequel (slated for 2016, according to the ending of Exhale) will have more substance to it. As it is, The Charnel House trilogy is worth the price tag, but not much more than that.… Expand
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