Egyptian history and mythology fascinate Americans. Whether it’s creepy mummy movies or traveling exhibitions of treasures recovered from the tombs of pharaohs, we shell out for tickets. Egyptian culture permeates Nightfall, Altor Systems’ new first-person adventure game. In Nightfall, you become trapped in an ancient Egyptian tomb with 14 sprawling levels ahead of you, your only hope of escape some notes and clues a long-dead archaeologist left behind. These scattered eighteenth-century scribblings are your sole link to another person; you’ll have no other human contact in this game.
So what hes before you? Mile after mile of exploration and puzzle solving, as you wander through tunnels to examine artifacts, monoliths, hieroglyphic wall carvings, and elaborate burial chambers. The pharaohs prepared chambers like these to enhance the afterlife, surrounding themselves with treasures and comforts. The places and events Nightfall depicts are fictitious but based on sofid research, so you get the realistic feel of an enormous tomb.
One outstanding aspect of the game is that you can jump right in. There’s a great deal to see and explore in this 3D underground. A simple virtual hand, which you control by mouse or keyboard, permits you to enter the world quickly, without the foss and bother of learning to navigate. The cursor points forward, up, down, right, or left to show you the way, depending on where you place it on the screen. The game has few limits: If a tunnel or chamber exists, you can enter and explore its every aspect.
Of course, you can’t go into some chambers until you solve a puzzle that gives you access. Most of the solutions are easy enough, involving language comprehension, hand-eye coordination, or completing sim- ple construction projects. The game encourages lateral thinking, including the use of random objects in unintended ways to solve puzzles. Can’t open a door? Stack objects and climb over it. You’re less likely to get stuck on a particular brain-buster if you use the game’s own objects.
Or you can skip the puzzles entirely. A lot of the scenery is accessible without requiring you to open secret doors. And for those who want to explore without bothering to solve anything, the game CD includes saved-game files for levels 2 through 13 . Nightfall also comes with editing tools and source code, in case you wish to customize the game or make your own 3D levels.
Nightfall has other unique qualities. Its physics aren’t true to life as they are in most 3D games. For example, you can climb by pointing your virtual hand and clicking. Ordinarily you point and click to pick up an object, but some objects — such as projections embedded in a wall — are too heavy or firmly fixed to move. Clicking them with the virtual hand allows you to lift yourself as if using your hands to climb a wall. Or you can hitch a ride by grabbing a moving object that drags you along behind it.
Altor claims that Nightfall has “visual force feedback,” which supposedly gives you the feel of bumping into obstacles and picking up things of different weights. But this little feedback gizmo is pretty much a wash. The mouse doesn’t leap out of your hands or shudder from impact the way some analog or digital controllers do.
In spite of its many good qualities, the game has one unfortunate drawback: its lack of support for all hardware acceleration, Myst, Amber, and Morpheus fans will enjoy Nightfall, but the game will appeal mainly to people who crave simple exploration of exotic locales, with or without the mental exertion of puzzle solving.
Lee, John. (May 1999). Nightfall. MacAddict. (pg. 62).
Altor Systems
Games
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2014-11-10 / 
2023-04-22 / 
6019412a2596f795be384f9976a7562fc85228a4 / 
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