I found most of my fights to be a one-sided affair as I was pummeled so much I could not run away let alone get a single hit in myself.

You will regularly be chased by werewolves and little demonic elves, all of whom seem to have excellently timed and aimed attacks that you can't break out of. The main difference here is that there is more emphasis on action. The game plays very much like Alone in the Dark, which is cited as an inspiration by Spencer. She lies in a coma deep in the bowels of the village and it's up to you to save her despite being the cause all the evil going on. The culprit is a demon with a dangerous sense of humour who was 'accidentally' summoned by Ecstatica, the local alchemist's maid (and your bi-curious love interest). The streets are ominously deserted and a quick look round reveals that all of the townsfolk have been murdered in glorious fashion. In need of rest and supplies, you decide to embark towards the nearby village of Tirich.

The game begins with your sexually confused avatar travelling on horseback at night. No matter who you choose, you'll still be referred to as 'him' and the female love interest will still love you. You can choose to play as either a man or a woman, but neither make any difference. People are impaled and tortured in gory fashion, topless nymphs dance around and in one horrifying scene, you're fanned by naked men in gimp masks. Keep playing and these deceptively childish visuals bombard you with images that explain the 18-rating the BBFC gave it in the UK. This made everything look like bizarre balloon animals created by some kind of deranged party clown but it was revolutionary in 1994. It instead used ellipsoids which allowed for far greater character animation and character models. This unique game is now largely forgotten but does it deserve to be?ĭesigned by Andrew Spencer at his self-named London studio and published by Psygnosis in 1994, Ecstatica was one of the few 3D games to experiment outside of the traditional polygon graphics.

Alone in the Dark may have been the first, and Resident Evil cemented and refined the genre but two years before that PlayStation classic Ecstatica pushed many boundaries of survival horror.

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