Waxworks (1992 video game)

Not to be confused with Waxworks (film).

Waxworks
252px Amiga Cover art
Developer(s)	Horror Soft
Publisher(s)	Accolade
Designer(s)	Michael Woodroffe, Alan Bridgman, Simon Woodroffe
Platforms	Amiga, DOS
Release date(s)	1992
Genre(s)	Role-playing video game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Waxworks is a first-person, dungeon crawl-style role-playing video game (RPG) created by Horror Soft. The game was released in 1992 . It was originally an Amiga game, but was also released for DOS. This was the last game made by Horror Soft before they became Adventure Soft, the company that made the Simon the Sorcerer series.

Plot

Many years ago, a Gypsy witch named Ixona, stole a chicken from an ancestor of the player. The ancestor is said to have chopped off Ixona's hand as punishment for the theft. Ixona retaliated by placing a terrible curse on the ancestor that would take effect whenever twins were born into his family line; one twin would grow up to be good, while the other would become evil. This continues to the present day and the player's twin brother, Alex, is next in line to inherit the curse.

At the start of the game, the player's uncle Boris has died and left them with his Waxworks, as well a crystal ball, through which his spirit communicates with the player and helps the player when summoned. In a letter, he tells the player that they must rid the family of Ixona's curse in order to save Alex. To do this, the player must use the Waxworks to travel through four time periods and locations, and defeat the evil twin of each time/location. These locations include Ancient Egypt, a zombie-infested cemetery, Victorian era London and a mine overrun with plant-like mutants.

Eventually the player learns that the only way to break the curse is to prevent it from being cast in the first place. After all four evil twins are defeated, the player will be given four artifacts. Each artifact was once owned by one of the evil twins which they encountered before being purified by their owners' defeat: the High Priest's amulet, the Necromancer's ring, Jack the Ripper's knife, and a vial of the Plant Monster's poison. They will also be granted access to the final waxwork in the game, which takes them to the precise time and place where the curse was originally pronounced. In this waxwork they are shown the events leading up to the start of the curse. Following instructions given beforehand by Uncle Boris, the player must then use three of these objects (sans the ring) and a crossbow found in the waxwork to kill Ixona before she can place the curse. As a result, the curse is never cast and is effectively erased from existence for every afflicted generation.

After the curse is undone, Alex is found unconscious in a corner of the Waxworks, at which the player uses the ring to revive him. Upon waking, he tells the player about a strange dream he had, in which he witnessed the events of the final waxwork and Ixona's death. However, in the dream, Ixona muttered something right before she died. Seemingly as a result of her muttering, the ancestor, who originally incurred Ixona's wrath, was transformed into a demon. The meaning of the dream is never made clear, possibly hinting at a potential sequel and the game ends with Alex and the player returning home peacefully.

Gameplay

Waxworks is a first-person, dungeon crawl-style RPG. The game is divided into five different time periods: Ancient Egyptian Period, Medieval Transylvania Period, Victorian England Period, Industrial Mine Period and Ixona's Period. Three of those time periods have a mixture of puzzle-solving and combat, while the Victorian England and Ixona ones are more puzzle-solving oriented. Once a time period is completed, the player loses all experience points and weapons, creating a new challenge for each time period.

In each time period, the player moves through a series of tight corridors using a bitmap sprite-based point-and-click interface picking up items, solving puzzles, avoiding deadly encounters and engaging in combat with various opponents. During combat, players can target their opponent's individual body parts, such as head or arms. The player can use Uncle Boris' crystal ball to get hints and occasional healing items. The main objective is to collect a special item from the evil twin ancestors before venturing into the Ixona Period to undo the family curse.

Development

The game uses the AGOS engine, which is a modified version of the AberMUD 5 engine. The story for Waxworks was developed by Dick Moran. Original music was composed by Jezz Woodroffe who worked with John Warfield for the sound design. Producers Todd Thorson and Mark Wallace worked with the help of David Friedland and Tricia Woodruff, who managed the technical resources.

Reception

Computer Gaming World criticized the small game maps, overemphasis on combat, and the IBM PC version's use of an Amiga-like 32-color palette instead of 256-color VGA graphics, but liked the "very atmospheric" soundtrack. The magazine concluded that despite flaws, the game was "better than most" CRPGs, and that "for those who revel in the macabre" ... Waxworks continues to satisfy the bent toward the supernatural". The game received 5 out of 5 stars in Dragon.

External links

• Waxworks at MobyGames
• Screenshots from Waxworks Amiga Version