Comments on: Retro – The Legacy: Realm of Terror

By: Shaun

Shaun — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:31:42 +0000

Thanks for this retro. I too saved my money, was lured in by the box art and awesome looking screens, to only be crushed when I couldn’t get beyond the museum/sanitarium or first few floors without dying or figuring out what to do. definitely the hardest game ive ever played. I just read another review and for the first time in 15 years or so say the so many levels I never reached. I can’t believe you sold a busted game. In fact, I feel ashamed that you did that by simple association that I had this game too.

By: Ciristhan

Ciristhan — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 04:29:09 +0000

It’s quite wonderful that you posted this review of The Legacy. It certainly reminds me of my own experiences (I should be around your age) with the game: the excitement to finally get my hands on a horror game, and then the onsetting frustration due to the game’s ridiculous difficulty. I abandoned The Legacy after long hours of futile attempts to dive deeper into the house’s mysteries without getting killed every ten minutes. But alas, the fascination for this title has never left me. Thanks for refreshing a couple of nice childhood memories!

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:29:56 +0000

I just beat the I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream game just last week! I loved the premise and the fact that it is sort of non-linear (you choose any of 5 characters stories to beat, then any of the remaining 4 etc).

I liked it alot, I have a real interest in books made into games (Pohl’s Gateway), or games continued as books (Mission Critical, Mass Effect) but the game was kinda buggy, and I used a lot of help from the walkthrough. I do highly reccomend it. Harlan does the voice of AM in the game, incase you didn’t know. He’s VERY good at it. HATE. HATE. HATE. HATE.

And yes, Nimdock’s scenario is the most disturbing (more since I’ve actually been to Auschwitz). He was Mengele’s assistant and you have to do a couple of procedures for him. If you do it right in the game, you get to have revenge

By: Senor Quack

Senor Quack — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:04:07 +0000

One of my proudest moments as a 13-year-old was coding a nicely-done Turbo Pascal cheat for this game, allowing you to max-out all character stats and even unlocking a hidden spell I discovered. If you want to make the game more beatable, have a look at some of the folders in the subdirectories. It’s been fifteen years, but I can assure you’ll find flat text files specifying the various characters’ beginning attributes somewhere you can modify easily.

I really enjoyed this game at the time, creeped the heck outta me. This, Alone in the Dark, and X-COM were my scariest gaming moments in the early 90s. Like you, I never did beat it, finding, some of the later stages too difficult for my teenage brain to solve.

By: Pushing the Rules

Pushing the Rules — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:38:58 +0000

Just started playing Legacy, works fine in Vista =).

By: Master Builder

Master Builder — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:22:29 +0000

Speaking of Harlan Ellison, here’s a youtube vid of him talking a bit about ‘I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yzK7bfVwI&feature=related

You’re probably not surprised to hear his opinion of computer games (at least at the time) was not very high. Would be interesting to see what he thought of them now.

By: Diogo Ribeiro

Diogo Ribeiro — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:56:21 +0000

Next, I shall expect a Bloodnet retrospective. Terrible pacing, overbloated character system, but quite atmospheric in some moments and not in the “this is so frustrating I feel like kicking it into the atmosphere” (although those are sometimes present).

By: RotBot

RotBot — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:42:34 +0000

@Iain: A somethingawful forumite did a complete playthrough of “I Have No Mouth…”
http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/I%20Have%20No%20Mouth/
Reading it is probably a better prospect than playing through the notoriously difficult game.

By: bonuswavepilot

bonuswavepilot — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:18:50 +0000

@Iain: I played an Amiga port (I think it was) of “I Have No Mouth…” back in the day. The story had some weird and disturbing elements, and HE himself does the voice of the evil megaputer ‘AM’. Overall though, it was kind of your standard clicky adventure thing. Lot of puzzles which would only admit of trial and error, and I remember at least once or twice getting to ‘dead end’ points, where it becomes obvious that a previous action has knackered you, and you’re going to have to return to an earlier save.

So, if you like HE’s writing, and bizarre psychogeographical stuff, you’ll probably enjoy the story itself, though the actions you must perform are underwhelming. I remember having to consult a walkthru towards the end, as there was some weird counterintuitive stuff going on (don’t be alarmed if several of the playable characters die in the endgame).

As for getting hold of it, no sign on abandonware sites? I’m sure I’ve seen it listed in my own travails thereabouts.

By: Pushing the Rules

Pushing the Rules — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:17:03 +0000

http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?gameid=619

By: Ozzie

Ozzie — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:35:05 +0000

Slightly (if not largely) off topic, but does anyone remember the PC adventure of “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” based on the story of the same name by Harlan Ellison?

I didn’t buy it, but played it half a year ago. Well, I needed a walkthrough a few times, the “choices” you have are irrelevant and you can get into dead ends, though the game always allows you to restart an episode or pick another one. You’ll need some patience, but it certainly is an interesting, unusual, morbis and quite depressing experience.
Don’t expect a great conclusion, though.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:13:08 +0000

The fear is Dark Corners of the Earth was pretty cool… especially when you realised your character was scared of heights. I liked it anyway. Only truely bad part was the stealth, I didn’t find the save points frustrating except in the wind tunnels area near the end.