Nightmare Creatures... The name makes you think of some late night B-movie in which strange and deadly creatures wander around and kill things. Well.. You wouldn't be too far off in that thought, as you play one of two characters out to stop a genius madman who is creating monsters that terrorize and kill the population in the late 1800's.
Plagued with some problems, Nightmare Creatures gives PSX gamers a good action game, but with some technical problems that become apparent within the first few minutes of play.
Graphics 7
While the world of Nightmare Creatures is large and well detailed, the shadowed effects take away from the detailing of your surroundings. The character animations are neat to look at and watch as you play, but they suffer from being blocky and rather fuzzy in some spots. Within the first few minutes of play, you'll find that there is a severe case of image break-up that comes into play right off the bat.
Aside from that, the characters that you use have combinations that look nice on screen, and can end with a bloody finish. Nothing like watching an arm fly or a head go rolling after a nice healthy plate of spaghetti.
Sound 7
A rather interesting rock soundtrack. While it doesn't leave much to the impression on your memory, it does fit the pace of the game, and will keep you in tune with what's going on. The sound effects are important, as you'll need to hear them to know just where the enemy is striking from. If you turn this feature off, you'll find that the monsters will deal damage to you just because you don't know they are there.
Gameplay 7
Following a plot that is like a B-Horror movie, gamers are put in the persona of one of two different characters that are out to stop a madman genius from creating monsters to take over the world. From the dark streets of London to the endless catacombs, your main mission is to hack and slash your way through several different stages while finding power-ups and weapons that increase your damage.
If you were to think of a game where your main goal is to kill off whatever comes your way, but you have to do it by decapitation, then you'd have Nightmare Creatures to a key.
Most of the game is spent just wandering around the stages and killing off whatever comes your way. You have your choice with a sword weilding chica or a rather wicked staff spinning hunter. Either way, the game progresses the same way.
A little hard to control at first, Nightmare Creatures suffers from a loose interface and a combo system that doesn't quite take effect the way that it's supposed to. Beginners will play through the game a couple of times and try to get used to the combo and decapitation system that you need to learn to kill off the monsters.
Story 7
The game takes place in 1834 when London falls victim to several evil occurrences. Monster sightings are reported along with news of people mutating into ungodly creatures, and that the dead are waking from their graves and walking amongst the living.
All of London is in a panic and vulnerable to the schemes of Adam Crowley, a mad scientist and occultist enlisting the help of the Brotherhood, a devil-worshipping cult of Hecate who were conducting sinister experiments in London so as to take over the city.
Two people, Ignatius and Nadia are aware of this evil plan and must track Crowley all over Victorian London in order to stop him.
Overall 7
Nightmare Creatures isn't exactly the most innovative of games out there on the market. With the image break-up that occurs quite often, to the missing music and sound effect pieces along with a rather tough combo system to learn, you're looking at a game for experts and not so much for beginners.
Given the fact that you can find better weapons is a plus in the replay department, but there isn't much difference in the way that the game is played, so be prepared to go through on a one time basis only.
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