Who’s afraid of the big bad…goat?

Beyond the Threshold is one of the two graphical adventure game entries from the HP Lovecraft Commonplace Book Project organized by Peter Nepstad (author of “1893: World’s Fair Mystery”). The “competition” – there are no prizes, albeit players may vote for “Best of Show” – was held in cooperation with an upcoming physical exhibit to be held at the Maison d’Ailleurs in Switzerland. Each game was required to draw inspiration from one or more of the ideas written down in Lovecraft’s commonplace book, which not only contained these story nuggets, but also a list of so-called “horror fundamentals,” intended to stir the imagination.

The game was based on the 27th entry in Lovecraft’s commonplace book:

Life and Death
Death—its desolation and horror—bleak spaces—sea-bottom—dead cities. But Life—the greater horror! Vast unheard-of reptiles and leviathans—hideous beasts of prehistoric jungle—rank slimy vegetation—evil instincts of primal man—Life is more horrible than death.

In this first-person adventure game, one plays the role of Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt, author of the fictional book Unaussprechlichen Kulten, which is mentioned in several of Lovecraft’s stories. Here, he is trapped within his apartment by a mythical beast, and the player needs to figure out a way how to defeat it and be able to go outside again.

The game was made using the Wintermute engine, and as such, uses its default navigation controls (see my previous articles on Dead City and Sofia’s Debt). The controls are easy to learn and should not deter anyone from enjoying the game.

Compared to those other Wintermute games, Beyond the Threshold involves a bit more pixel-hunting, as sometimes the objects doesn’t react as readily as they should. For instance, The materials for the required potion are somewhat difficult to “mix,” as they had to be done in a certain order and nothing indicated that the materials were “mixed” other than the bottle that appeared in my inventory. Simply clicking anywhere on the door after choosing the Necronomicon and applying the potion does not mean the spell had been cast.

The graphics are very well done, the walls perfectly reflecting the apparent deterioration of von Junzt’s mind. Though there isn’t really a lot to see since the protagonist is essentially confined within the walls of his apartment. There’s very few objects to interact with, and the puzzles are quite easy to go through. The somber ambient music blends quite well with the game’s atmosphere, but there aren’t a lot of instances where the music is played.

Overall, Beyond the Threshold is a decent adventure game considering the length of time it was made in. I’d suggest looking elsewhere, though, for a more terrifying experience.

Short and Snappy

When the author announced La Croix Pan’s completion on the AGS forums, Vince Twelve remarked this is what new designers should aim for their first game. “Short, but with a high degree of polish, and trying out some complex scripting to add in some non-standard adventure gameplay.”

Inspecting the remains

And how. The plot is nothing new: the player is cast as the only (apparent) survivor of a squad tasked to take over a small town called La Croix Pan and defend it from the Germans. Since you’re alone and you don’t have a lot of ammo, you decide to hole up in the nearby tower and wait for reinforcements.

The game’s other qualities, however, more than make up for the lackluster plot.

La Croix Pan’s art is particularly polished as far as most new AGS games are. Though most of the structures were painted in grayscale with dabs of brown here and there, the background art helps a lot in establishing the atmosphere of the game. The sniper view was also quite realistically implemented – not too shaky but not too steady either – which should not provide any player too much frustration. Given the storyline, there’s also not a lot of objects to interact with, making the game very minimalistic, but then I’ve personally never really favored games with several red herrings, so this is fine by me.

The music is as somber as the game’s theme, further enhancing the general mood of the story.

There really isn’t a lot of puzzles to solve in La Croix Pan, since the player basically has only one goal in mind. The last “puzzle” was certainly a bit difficult, or perhaps my reaction time was slower that time (I played at around 3 to 4 am while waiting for my damned dial-up to work), but I wouldn’t rate them as cruel. The autosave feature definitely helps a lot here, as well as the quicksave/-load features.

Overall, the game is very good, and Twelve’s comment is well-justified. If you’re looking for 15 minutes of wartime action, La Croix Pan is well worth your time.