Calm Falls is the first released game from Kelven and might be the first german Silent Hill inspired RPG-Maker game.
Reviews View More
This review contains spoilers
Calm Falls is one of the early German RPG-Maker horror games, that I've first got from one of those old Screenfun CDs or something like that.
For its time, it was pretty much a technical masterpiece. At least compared to the other games from the German scene at this time. But to be fair that wasn't a big achievement, because as long as you had an ABS, especially with guns, you were technically more advanced than 99% than anything that was out there, because there were games that didn't even make good usage of switches and variables. From nowadays perspective, there are several things to critic about it or more like, it did not age very well.
But let's talk about the game itself.
You start as the protagonist Steve, wandering around through a foggy forest until he finds the town of "Calm Falls" while Silent Hill 2 music is playing. Entering a hotel, he does not find a single soul and after looking through the building for some time and returning to the main hall, the building looks like it has been abandoned for years. He later on also meets various other characters, like a little boy, a woman claiming to be his wife and another woman named Amy. In the end, it turns out that the little boy is actually his son, the woman claiming to be his wife, is actually his late wife and Amy is the name of the nurse that is caring for him in the hospital, as he is treated there because he had a brain tumor.
Graphically, it is ok. It is Kelvins style, before it evolved to his current, more refined, one. The maps itself vary in quality, with some parts of the map actually looking well-made, while others look illogical. You might be able to brush that off, considering that this is all some kind of dream.
The puzzles were fine I guess, nothing too special and pretty much your generic horror game puzzles. When it comes to the gameplay itself, the battle system is far from perfect. You basically cannot engage in close combat without getting hit yourself and when shooting a gun, your bullets travel very slowly, that you can almost outrun them yourself. The non-existence of a strafing mechanic also makes shooting in some of the smaller rooms and hallways a bit harder than needed, but you can also cheese the game by going into a room, shot, hit, leave and repeat. The bosses itself were also ok, but nothing you'll remember... Actually, even though I played through it the last few weeks (had a break in between), I can't remember half the bosses fought anymore.
From today's view point, I'd say it's an okayish game, but nothing more. Can't talk about the remaster, though.
For its time, it was pretty much a technical masterpiece. At least compared to the other games from the German scene at this time. But to be fair that wasn't a big achievement, because as long as you had an ABS, especially with guns, you were technically more advanced than 99% than anything that was out there, because there were games that didn't even make good usage of switches and variables. From nowadays perspective, there are several things to critic about it or more like, it did not age very well.
But let's talk about the game itself.
You start as the protagonist Steve, wandering around through a foggy forest until he finds the town of "Calm Falls" while Silent Hill 2 music is playing. Entering a hotel, he does not find a single soul and after looking through the building for some time and returning to the main hall, the building looks like it has been abandoned for years. He later on also meets various other characters, like a little boy, a woman claiming to be his wife and another woman named Amy. In the end, it turns out that the little boy is actually his son, the woman claiming to be his wife, is actually his late wife and Amy is the name of the nurse that is caring for him in the hospital, as he is treated there because he had a brain tumor.
Graphically, it is ok. It is Kelvins style, before it evolved to his current, more refined, one. The maps itself vary in quality, with some parts of the map actually looking well-made, while others look illogical. You might be able to brush that off, considering that this is all some kind of dream.
The puzzles were fine I guess, nothing too special and pretty much your generic horror game puzzles. When it comes to the gameplay itself, the battle system is far from perfect. You basically cannot engage in close combat without getting hit yourself and when shooting a gun, your bullets travel very slowly, that you can almost outrun them yourself. The non-existence of a strafing mechanic also makes shooting in some of the smaller rooms and hallways a bit harder than needed, but you can also cheese the game by going into a room, shot, hit, leave and repeat. The bosses itself were also ok, but nothing you'll remember... Actually, even though I played through it the last few weeks (had a break in between), I can't remember half the bosses fought anymore.
From today's view point, I'd say it's an okayish game, but nothing more. Can't talk about the remaster, though.