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The Cellar Reviews
Author: David Whyld
Date: 2007
ADRIFT 4.0
Reviewed by
Mirrorman
I've just finished The Cellar a short piece of IF horror. There's a spooky
cellar, a mysterious expedition that goes horribly wrong and your father who is
harbouring some kind of sinister secret.
I normally don't enjoy IF where you are just pressing enter or typing "talk to
uncle" to get onto the next bit, I seriously question why people wouldn't just
write a short story but in this one the story is well written and engaging
enough to keep me interested until the end - which is also excellent.
Personally I would have liked to have had more interaction with the story,
perhaps taking the part of the uncle on the adventure and then returning to
being the listener or something along those lines. I would even have enjoyed
rummaging around the house a bit more but you can't really criticise a game for
not giving you what you want especially as it does what it sets out to do very
well.
I enjoyed it, as a big fan of Lovecraft I liked the premise but also appreciated
the nice presentation and good descriptions. Even though it's not the style of
game I would normally go for it's a good story and well worth trying.
Reviewed by The Dominant Species (TDS)
And you're never to go into the cellar, Nevare!"
"Yes, father."
"Never, you understand! If I ever find you've gone down there-"
"Yes, father."
"Good, Nevare. I knew I could trust you. You're a good boy."
But now your father is away on business and you're all alone in the house. And
you know where he keeps the key to the cellar.
So begins David Whyld's short horror IF, The Cellar. It was created with
Lovecraftian themes in mind, it being an entry in a H.P. Lovecraft themed
competition. Lovecraft--if you don't know--was a horror writer par excellence,
responsible for the Cthulhu mythos, and more popularly, The Re-Animator.
(Although that selection probably doesn't do him justice; one should Google if
they want decent background on the superb author.)
The question is: is The Cellar something H.P. Lovecraft would be proud of?
Well, in certain ways, no. One: his droning, extended (read: purple) prose is
nowhere to be found in The Cellar, a fiction that requires a bit more finesse to
tell its story. Its story was described in the quotation above; basically, a boy
is curious as to the contents of a certain forbidden cellar. (This is never a
smart move, in real life or imagined, by the way, but it makes for good horror.)
Whyld explores this in interactive fiction effectively, although things get
bogged down a bit by conversation.
Conversation after conversation gets rather wearing, but there is a bit of light
puzzle action to break up the monotony. Unfortunately, it is a little too
little, even for short game standards. Not that the conversations were boring,
but they were too frequent and uninterrupted. Being snack-sized IF, the player
already feels as if he's being nudged in one direction; nudging him straight to
the end with dialogue after dialogue is overkill.
It would be wise, however, to keep in mind the nature of Lovecraft's writing
before giving up because of “death by lecturer.” Lovecraft's work often featured
people that went into long, drawn-out monologues that had no certain end. They
were a staple of his work. Whyld is much better at conversation, however, than
the old master. (It's no new fact that Lovecraft had the most awkward character
conversations ever; they were fragmented and disjointed, creating a madman out
of the most sane of characters.) There are quote-worthy bits of convo:
“I looked evil in the face and evil looked back at me.”
This reminds me of Nietzche's “When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks
into you.” A slightly better quotation, I think, but this is interactive fiction
not philosophy class.
There's also noteworthy descriptions, one person in the story being described as
being “a grotesque mockery of a man.” Whyld writes with intensity, as well as
precision, and clichés are either absent or blend in smoothly. That being said,
the writing style does get a little mechanical and formulaic. I predicted what
characters would say and how they would react and would be right more times than
I'd like. I wished for a monkey wrench to be thrown into the story and catch me
completely off-guard, maybe the house falling to bits or his father taking out
an axe in mid-game, but alas, that isn't the Lovecraftian way. (He had his
twists, mind you, but not the kind I'm talking about.)
As stated before, the game is on-rails, a product of its brief length as well as
narrative style. The main problem with the game is that it focuses on the story
after the story. There is a tale being unwoven that is deep and mysterious, yet
the reader only gets his knowledge second-hand. Now, this is acceptable in
static fiction, but it would have been nice to see Whyld put the player into the
shoes of the explorers who made a horrific discovery. Even if it were driven, it
would be a welcome break from rolling screens of text. Just a little more
interactivity would have put this game on the pedestal of IF excellence.
Nonetheless, this game is still recommended to anyone that wants a brief
diversion in the form of a horror. It isn't difficult by any standards, and it
isn't crappy by a long shot. It is fun and interesting, as long as you don't
take it too seriously (as in: dissecting it for literary merit).
If you haven't played it, and you like horror, I strongly suggest you give it a
try.
Reviews should be considered copyrighted by their respective authors.
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