"White Chamber" Freeware-Adventure

[Totoro]

Hello, I hope this has not been posted before, but I just did a search for the title and nothing was found, so hopefully its a new information for you.

A new freeware adventure is ready for download. It's called "White Chamber", and its some kind of spooky anime-style adventure. The makes are British so it must be good 

http://www.studiotrophis.com/wc.php

By the way, it was made with Wintermute, so its definetely interesting to take a look I think.

[Kweepa]

Haven't seen it before.
Looks awesome! Thanks for the link.
Torrenting...

[Snarky]

I played it a couple of weeks ago, and have to say it's first class!

It's a psychological/gore horror set in space. The premise is actually quite similar to 7 Days a Skeptic. You are awakened on a deserted space station with no memory of how you got there. There's evidence everywhere that the crew has been horribly murdered, you suffer gruesome hallucinations that appear to intrude on reality, and it seems there's a sinister force at work, watching your every move.

Very, very nice graphics, good sound, an above-average story, multiple endings, some pretty decent puzzles, graphic horror... the only drawback is that the game is a couple of hundred MBs to download, and >300 MB to install. So broadband users only, pretty much.

[RyRayer]

Cool. I just love horror games. I'm torrenting it too. Can't wait to play it.

[Barbarian]

Yep, I downloaded it last week, haven't had a chance to play it much, but what I did see of it so far, it' really a great game. Ã, But yes, a "huge" file to download.

Also, to play any "cut scene movies" they have, such as the game's Intro, you need to have installed DivX codecs. I don't like how DivX tries to force adware/spyware on you when you try to install, so if anyone's inerested in a good free alternative (without the adware/spyware crap) that will support/play DivX based files, you can find over at:
http://www.koepi.org/xvid.shtml

[Al_Ninio]

I personally think the graphics are quite bad.
The characters are nice, but the backgrounds... Yeesh.
But of course, graphics don't make the game, so I shall download it now to see if it's worth the eye pain.

[Kinoko]

I have to say I agree with al on that one. I kinda went 'blech' when I saw the graphics, but it was the characters for me. Still, I'll attempt to download it cause a game that big HAS to be good... surely! ^_^

[Snarky]

I wasn't sure about the character art at first, but the bold black outlines grew on me. Still don't care much for the portrait of the guy in the video, but otherwise I now think it's all awesome.

Regarding the backgrounds, I guess that's a matter of taste. I like the style a lot: anime tends to have boring backgrounds, and I admire the decision to go in a very different direction. The stylized background art matches the character art as well as the atmosphere of the game, it is very characteristic, and remains consistent throughout. The use of textures is interesting. Different techniques give some rooms an almost collage-like feel. One of my adventure game fantasies is an adventure with graphics by Dave McKean. This isn't that, of course, but it's getting there.

I hope you guys will like the graphics better when you play the game. Anyway, I'll appreciate it for looking completely different from any other adventure game I've seen.

[Kinoko]

This is gonna take me forever to download, but while it's going... can someone who's played it assure me the size reflects the worth of the game?

Re: graphics... I REALLY appreciate the effort that's gone into the art, I won't deny that. It's still very skilled and impressive in that regard. It really just is that the style doesn't appeal to me at all, and it also doesn't seem to me (at this stage, not having played the game) to reflect a 'scary' atmosphere.

Is the game scary?

[Snarky]

I think the size reflects the many background screens in high resolution, a couple of full-video animated cut-scenes, and possibly the fact that it's made with WME. (All the WinterMute games I've seen have been excessively big. May or may not have something to do with the engine.)

Is it worth it? It only took me a few minutes to download it, and it was definitely worth that. It's been my favorite indie adventure so far this year, I can tell you that. There's nothing particularly groundbreaking in it, but it's a well conceived and well executed game, with attention paid to every aspect of the experience.

The graphics... again, that ultimately comes down to personal taste. Maybe you'll like them more when you start playing the game, maybe not. In my opinion they do convey the scary atmosphere quite well, but the samples on the website don't show off the really gory or creepy stuff.

Yes, the game is scary. I don't know if it will frighten you, but it has an icky atmosphere that certainly conveys "scary" even if you're not actually scared, if you know what I mean.

[Ubel]

Wow! Sounds interesting and sure looks good. Torrenting...

[Kweepa]

Yeah, the backgrounds are a little too scrappy and collage-y to appeal to me. (I'm not a fan of Dave McKean's work - not that I'm comparing this to that, because it's not in the same league.)
Also, the main character's walk cycle is awful - very rigid. And SLOW.

The character portraits (next to the dialog) are great.
And I do like what I've played of the game so far.

[Kinoko]

I played it for a bit, and yeah, the walk cycle is a bit slow and not too smooth (which I usually don't complain about, but when some graphics in the game are of such high quality, it makes me critisize the rest more). I quite liked the beginning, but now I'm kinda bored already. I don't know, I think I just got a bit sick of all the finding keys and getting the computers up without the story seeming to advance, and then I got stuck...  I don't have a lot of stamina in games anymore when they don't hold my interest the whole way and I lost it a little with this one.

It might also be because I played Ben Jordan the morning before I played WC and that game DID scare me with those "wooOOooo" sound effects. WC was a bit too colourful and 'cyber punk' to be scary for me, even with the blood on the floors. I'm sure it GETS scary, but for now I'm just not motivated to play on.

[jetxl]

Cyberpunk indeed. It reminds me of Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller but totally different.
Unused fire extinguisher anyone?

[Crowley]

Just... good God. This is excellent. It's been a long time since I've actually been afraid to progress in a game, and The White Chamber did just that. And I spent a couple of hours playing it through even though it's far too late in the night and I've got to wake early. The underlying plot was from the better end of the spectrum you could do with this premise.

For the much debated graphics, I liked both the backgrounds and the characters, but the animation was rather lackluster. The walking seemed... lazy (on part of the character, not the animators!). And for some reason in the large rooms the scrolling was much slower than walking, making for some annoying waiting.

Now I've read that there are four different endings. I've got to try to reach those tomorrow.

[Janik]

Good game to play around Halloween.

I've just played through the entire game 3 times, and I keep getting the damned "Damned" ending (I've gotten the decaying and venomous endings too). But I can't seem to get the "redemption" ending, even with the walkthrough.

I've tried answering Yes to " Do you know where you are" and " Do you regret",
and then both No and Yes to "And risk spreading the disease", but I'm still damned. I've also tried: No, Yes, and both No and Yes to the "risk spreading" question. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

If anyone has a save game with the redemption ending and is willing to email it to me (jzikovsky at hotmail.com), I would appreciate it!

[esper]

While the game was fantstic, the redemption ending wasn't really worth it.

Spoiler

you land on a deserted island and some text scrolls. If I remember correctly, decaying was simply that you had to repeat the events on the ship over and over again, but in redemption you were finally able to break out of the cycle

[close]

Now, about the graphics. I'm the opposite of most of you. The character graphic sucked all manner of buttocks, but the backgrounds were fantastic. I'm almost afraid to try to make another game now, after having you guys down those BGs. And I must say, cyberpunkish or not, when you start hallucinating, it gets downright freaky.

I work from 11 PM to 7 AM. I had downloaded this game at work and started playing it when I got home. Although I didn't sleep all day long because I was playing it and enjoying it, when I had to go back to work at 11 pm the next night I had gotten all four endings.

[Gord10]

Spoiler

If I remember correctly, decaying was simply that you had to repeat the events on the ship over and over again, but in redemption you were finally able to break out of the cycle

[close]

No, you remember wrong the names of the endings.

Spoiler

Damned: It was the name of the ending when we had to live that things on the ship again.
Decayed: It was when we didn't want to "risk spreading the disease", and decide stay in the quarantine. I think it was the scariest ending.

[close]

And my opinions about The White Chamber: I think it was a very enjoyable and scary game. It really manages to frighten the players with its atmospehere and graphics.

[Mordalles]

wow, looks amazing! i actually saw this a few weeks ago, but couldnt download it because its over 300mb.

to people like kiniko and the rest who dont like the graphics, man, u guys are being a bit too hard. i havent seen anything better from ure side, nor anything coming close. this is a freeware game, remember.

[Snarky]

Hey! No need to get personal! 

Besides, Kinoko made Cirque de Zale, which is awesome, so attacking her skillz is not going to be a winning argument for you.