Nocturne (video game)

Did You Know?

• The game features separate controls for moving, aiming, and firing; a weapon must be drawn before it can be used.
• The Stranger won the Best Actor award at PC Accelerator's 2nd Annual PCXL Awards.
• The game won Coaster of the Year in Computer Gaming World's 2000 Hall of Shame.

Plot

The Stranger returns from a previous mission and is assigned a new one alongside a dhampir named Svetlana. They must infiltrate a small German village to recover a relic that grants vampires immunity to their weaknesses. The village mayor tells them a vampire Count holds the relic in a castle outside the village. On the way, they witness vampires attacking each other. After arriving, Svetlana becomes hostile and attacks The Stranger before escaping into the castle. The Count's servant reveals that the Count has mind-controlled Svetlana to groom her. The Stranger enters the castle, kills the Count after battling his minions and brides, and restores Svetlana. The village mayor then appears, revealing he is the Count's father. The father had been usurped by his son and fled to the village, killing its inhabitants and pretending to be them. He had fought the Count for ages to retake the castle, explaining the vampire infighting. He thanks The Stranger and promises not to abuse the relic. The Stranger and Svetlana leave with the Count's bride-to-be, who is not turned into a vampire. In the next mission, The Stranger investigates a town where the dead return to life. On a train, he is ambushed by werewolves with a grudge against him. After killing them, he jumps off before the train explodes. Meeting his contact and the town's reverend, he battles zombies and saves survivors. One survivor says the zombies came from an abandoned mine. Descending into the mine, The Stranger discovers insectoid-like monsters are the source. With his contact's help, he seals the mine.

Reception

According to GameRankings, critics generally liked Nocturne. AllGame awarded it four and a half stars out of five, calling the graphics possibly the best for a 1999 PC game and praising the gameplay, story, and action. GameZone gave it an 8.3 out of 10. Benjamin E. Sones of Computer Games Strategy Plus gave it four stars out of five, describing it as a unique and visually beautiful game that draws players in despite its flaws, and recommended playing it at night. Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen was less impressed, saying the game was neither terrible nor terrifying. The camera angles drew criticism; players often lost track of their character because the view shifted abruptly when moving between frames. The game was a runner-up for Computer Games Strategy Plus's 1999 Adventure Game of the Year, with staff noting its high system requirements and atmospheric horror style. It won GameSpy's 1999 Adventure Game of the Year award, which called it the best adventure game in a long time. It was also a runner-up for Best Graphics, Technical Excellence at GameSpot's 1999 awards, losing to Quake III Arena, and a runner-up for Best Sound at PC Accelerator's awards, where The Stranger won Best Actor. Computer Gaming World gave it the dubious honor of Coaster of the Year in its 2000 Hall of Shame. By October 2001, the game had sold 109,000 copies in the U.S.

Sequel

A partial sequel exists as a crossover between the Nocturne universe and The Blair Witch Project. The story involves hermit Rustin Parr, who killed seven children in Burkittsville, claiming he did it for an old woman ghost. Developed by Terminal Reality using the Nocturne Engine, the game features other agents from Nocturne. Neither of the two following volumes mentions Spookhouse, though Elspeth and Volume III's protagonist meet during a temporal breach in Volume I, a scene absent from Volume III. Volumes II and III also use the Nocturne Engine. Nocturne heavily influenced Terminal Reality's BloodRayne. The first BloodRayne game's working title was Nocturne 2, and it contains references to Nocturne, including levels set in the German castle from Nocturne's Act I. Nocturne 2 was not greenlit by Gathering of Developers, which went defunct soon after. Unwilling to share the Nocturne license with a new publisher, the developers created a new franchise with nods to Nocturne fans. BloodRayne's protagonist, the dhampir Rayne, is based on Svetlana Lupescu; her beta costume suggests she was originally Svetlana. The holy grail of the Vampires from Nocturne's Act I is the heart of Beliar in BloodRayne. The name Nocturne remained under trademark, forcing Atlus to license it for Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne in North America, and Ghostlight to change its subtitle to Lucifer's Call.