Customer Reviews

Scratches

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

A pleasantly spooky story from the maker of the two Dark Fall games, with some of the same strengths (lovely evocation of an England that no longer exists, some genuinely creepy moments) and weaknesses (erratic plot, bizarre use of English from a native speaker) of those two games.

The atmosphere is the strongest part of this game; the Victorian house is so lovingly recreated you can almost smell the moldy stench of rotting plaster that inhabits these places. The music and sound are a real bonus, with movie-level sound effects and score really amping up the creepiness.

The creepiness can be extreme at times, but it's of the something-unknown-about-to-spring-from-the-dark sort and not the rotting-corpse-shoved-in-your-face sort. If you've been desensitized by over-the-top gore fest movies, you might yawn at this; if you're sophisticated enough to appreciate Hitchcock and Poe, this will suit you down to the ground. Translation: there's no blood, but it could still give your kids nightmares.

As for the less wonderful stuff, well ... Some of the dialogue is downright weird in syntax and word choice. (When you use a shovel to make a hole in the dirt and put something in it, you *dig* the hole and *bury* the item, not the other way around. Shees!) Under other circumstances I'd put this down to translation difficulties, but that doesn't apply here. And there are some strange plot holes and sudden bursts of illogic that leave you scratching your head. The ending in particular is a little anticlimactic -- we didn't so much wrap up the plot as shrug and abandon it. Or is he planning a sequel?

Still, a fun game and an engrossing way to spend a rainy day. Though I wouldn't want to play it in the dark myself.

I loved this game. I was originally worried whether or not I would like it when the box listed horror and some blood as parts of the game, but I needn't have worried.

Horror? (1) The main character writes horror stories which he barely describes. (2) There is a bit of an overly descriptive diary entry by another character about an African tribe ritual concerning canibalism which he witnessed. Not my style, but easily skipped over. (3)Finally, you see a couple of skeletons. Uh huh. Been there, done that. Not horrific.

Blood? At the end of the game there was a MINOR amount on one skeleton and elsewhere a tiny bit on a table.

As a recent poster said, this game is more the spooky sounds in the night scary rather than anything else. A lot of that has to do with the musical score, which is perfect. There were several times I practically jumped out of my chair...after opening a door...(play scary music here)...about to see...(nope, not telling)...... It was great fun! And not horrific at all.

For the reviewers on several sites who have said this game is boring, there seems to be a common theme among them--they are game aficionados who know all the game authors, their subtle references to other games within the game, etc., etc. I'm not that type of gamer. I love games which let me go where I want to go, which blend in the puzzles with the story and don't bend my brain so much that I think I'm back in math class, and which are not obnoxiously hard yet are not obnoxiously easy. For those type of people, this game is wonderful. You'll thoroughly enjoy playing it, being spooked sometimes, and figuring out where to go and what to do by yourself most of the time. This game let me THINK, and most of the time let me think like a real person would, not like some game developer does. I only had to resort to a walkthrough a couple of times, and usually I need help a lot. I liked that.

So, turn the lights down low, watch out for things that go SCRATCH and bump in the night, and go back to the days when you were young and sat around a campfire telling scary stories to each other before you went to sleep. Scratches is one of those stories, so have fun!

This game is exactly what it promises to be, and then some. It's a true adventure game which requires only the ability to use a mouse and your brain. It's scary, atmospheric and leaves you guessing till the end. The story is slowly revealed as you play but some of the aspects are subtle. At the end, you have to actually think about what happened but if you've paid attention everything is pretty much revealed. The truth is in there...

"Scratches" is a game about an up-and-coming writer who finds himself living in what appears to be a haunted, old victorian mansion. After learning about the murder that occurred there years before, and hearing the awful scratching noises late each night, he becomes obsessed with findng out the truth - whatever that is...

The graphics of this game are quite realistic & there are several neat places to explore (mansion, old chapel, green house, crypt, garage, & garden). However, I found myself having to go to a walkthrough too many times - as there wasn't enough information given to let you know what to do next. This is why I have given "Scratches" 4 stars.

Overall, if you like playing mystery games, I would recommend this game. But, be aware that you may need to find a good walkthrough to help you progress. (I used the walkthrough by UHS hints & found it to be quite useful).

I went into this game hesitant because a) I usually don't care for "horror" settings and b) games where the main draw is "only three people made it!" tend to be more flawed than they are made out to be by hardcore adventure fans.

This game did everything almost everything right. The atmosphere was amazing, you really start to feel claustrophobic at some times and a sense of dread at others. This is a psychological horror game, similar to movies like Session 9 or The Blair Witch Project. In other words, if you really get into the storytelling like I did, things will get really really scary. If you don't care for the story and skip through the journals, it won't be so scary. For me personally, it worked wonders. I couldn't sleep for days afterwards.

As for the claim of some (like Sharon West below me) that the ending is poor, I completely disagree. If you like your stories spoonfed to you, then you'll hate the ending. If you pay attention to everything you witnessed, there may still be things you'll uncertain about, but for the most part you can figure out what happened. You'll want to work out your theory with others who completed the game, just like a good movie that makes you think. I don't understand these people who want to play an adventure game because they supposedly like puzzles but then hate an ending that they have to think about. Kinda ironic. Personally, after playing games like the recent Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes incarnations I found it a refreshing change to play a mystery game where they actually let YOU solve the mystery.

Puzzles are uncannily well thought out and logical. There isn't a single puzzle where afterwards you'll go "well, how was I supposed to figure that out?" Well, maybe one, but it wasn't that obscure. They are all based on real world functionality.
One other thing: it's been noticed on forums I frequent that even though the game is in a first person perspective, people who usually prefer third person adventure games are more likely to like the puzzles in this game. Interpret that as you will.

My only caveat is that the pacing is a little slow on the first day, mostly because it seems to behave as if you're not an adventure veteran.

If you're not a fan of point-and-clickers, then this game isn't going to change your mind. But if you are, this is easily the best one I've played in years.

This game has a lot of virtues and is destined to be a classic. The interface is fairly seamless and there are no contrived puzzles for the sake of adding puzzles. The highly detailed and beautiful graphics work perfectly together with an amazing sound track and special effects to set a sinister and forboding mood. The game really shines in this respect, and I must say, I have never experienced better visuals or audio in a game of this genre. The mystery itself is quite original and revealed in bits and pieces. Things start to get scary after a while, and I found myself on edge, afraid to open doors or even turn around, for what I might find. The mystery was so captivating that I wanted to know what happend, but I was also afraid to find out. The only shortcoming, in my opinion, is that not everything you need to do or find, is intuitive. I found myself stuck in a few places, but had no problem finding a walkthrough to help me out. Overall, this is truly one of the most captivating, scary and enjoyable adventure games I have ever played. If you like adventure games and don't mind getting scared out of your wits, this is for you.

One brief sentence sums up "Scratches" nicely: Not for the faint of heart.

A computer game -- especially one with relatively simple graphics -- has never scared me so much. It's not necessarily what you see, but what you don't see, that counts. This is in keeping with the way horror movies used to be. "Scratches" employs the psychological effect that leaves the horror mainly to your imagination. This is truly what makes the game work. I am in shock and awe that anyone could play this game without being scared. Maybe if you turn the music and sound effects off, but in a dark room by yourself with the speakers turned up, this game will give you a heart attack! There are several jump scenes that leave your nerves shredded. My palms were sweaty and I was glancing over my shoulder more than once. I mean, crawling around in a dank, dark basement in the dead of night, trying to find the source of an eerie scratching noise? What could be more fright inducing than that?

For fans of the adventure game genre, be aware that "Scratches" doesn't compare very well with other titles like the "Myst" series. This game plays up the horror and suspense aspect in a way your typical point-and-click game does not. "Myst" is mysterious; "Scratches" is a nail-biter horror show.

Despite all the good, there is some bad. First, the game would have been just as good without the profanity and blasphemy sprinkled throughout. That was a needless addition. As some other reviewers have already pointed out, the game also lacks the logic of Myst. I was forced to resort to a walkthrough more than once. The final resolution of the puzzle in question often left me scratching my head and wondering how in the name of all that's holy I was supposed to figure that out on my own. The ending is weak, too, although the lead-up is incredibly. I had a hard time clicking that last time, knowing what lurked in the shadows. If a game can build that much tension, it is definitely a success.

Again, "Scratches" offers many positives with just a few negatives. Definitely not for the faint of heart. I wouldn't let my kids play it unless I was right there with them, especially given the sinister ending. Overall, though, definitely worth checking out if you thrive on suspense.

The victorian house which serves as the setting for this game is absolutely stunning. The colors, the textures, and the details are amazing. The layout of the house, unlike some other games with similar settings, is realistic and easy to remember.

The premise of the game and the mystery that reveals itself have the potential to be very interesting: cursed African artifacts, a maid who witnesses what she believes to be the esteemed doctor she works for burying his wife in the garden, forty years later a writer who rents the home in hopes of finishing his novel.

Unfortunately, this game falls short in every other area. I am a lover of games such as this one, and there is no way that I would have had the patience to finish this game if I hadn't looked up a walk through for the game online.

I can appreciate a game that does not spell out for you or make it obvious as to what the next step should be, but this game takes it too far in the opposite direction. I found it annoyingly tedious walking around the sprawling mansion and grounds clicking on every hot spot trying to figure out what I was supposed to do.

The majority of the game involves finding a key that unlocks a place where you find another key and using the telephone to call your real estate agent Jerry to discuss what has happened. The dialogue is strange and redundant and the accents are obviously fake.

But by far the biggest disappointment was the abrupt ending. I don't want to spoil it, but I was incredibly frustrated that after so many hours of gameplay and not knowing what to do, nothing was explained at the end.

In summary, this game had the most beautifully designed setting of any game I have ever played and the most disappointing plot I could have imagined.

If you are an obsessive drawer opener and poker around in crooks and crannies and pride yourself in finding a way behind expected routes rather than following them, even if it disrupts linear game play, this adventure game is for you. If not, don't go near it.

However, if you are of this turn of mind, it was, as the other reviewers attest, incredibly immersive and creepy. Having finished it, I have no temptation to go back and play the ending again, or review any of the compulsory midnight explorations or encounter a certain carved wooden object, in any form, ever again. In fact I was happy to uninstall it from my computer the minute I'd finished it, just in case it should try to get up to something on its own in the middle of the night (which for a game as static looking as this is high praise).

I've played the Darkfall games with a mixture of excitement and frustration, and this game outcreeps them both. I'm not sure I liked it, and I know that I couldn't play through some of the sequences with the sound effects on, but it was a triumph of its genre, even for a wuss like me. Have fun with it.

I have to agree with many of the other reviewers that the one word that describes this game is "tedious." Also, it is about as frightening as a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Have you ever read a book where you keep thinking, "this has got to get better," but is never does and the ending leaves you thinking, "huh, what was that all about?" That, in essence, is this game.

To be fair, some may enjoy this game and to give you perspective, games that I liked are: Black Mirror, Syberia I & II, and The Longest Journey; games I disliked are: Dark Fall and The Omega Stone.

One final word of warning, if you have a computer using a Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading technology, you will need to install a patch from the Nucleosys website. Failure to do this will cause the game to lock-up when you least want it to. Install this patch BEFORE you play the game. There is a small warning in the description of the patch download that says, "please note that any current savegames are not supported." This means that if you install the patch after you have saved any of your game plays, you will lose all of them and have to start the game over (more tedium)!