Arcanes : Online Mystery Serial

[Eliphas]

Hi everyone, taking advantage of this forum for fans of horror and puzzle games, I share a discovery that I've made a few years ago (I was still a young child) and who managed to initiate my passion for the fantastic Lovecraftian universe. The game that I'm about to introduce is named "Arcane", a true mysterious adventure who takes place at the beginning of the XXth century. Well, enjoy the description.

/!\ This game isn't recommanded at all for people who enjoy game without any storyline and with teleported naked guys everywhere. If you are, better go download one of these crappy story on the forum. Thanks.


ARCANE :
"In the beginning only chaos existed, and the old ones ruled over the entire universe. But as eaons passed new gods came into existince and an Epic struggle followed, and the Great ones were stricken down and banished beyond the frontiers of the universe. Rage has consumed these great ancients ever since, and they have only one obsesion, restrore their reign of chaos."

• Gameplay : Point & Click
• Developer : Sarbakan
• Company : Warner Bros
• Genre : Flash Game/Horror/Mystery


Overview :
Arcane is an online video game serie developed by the Canadian studio "Sarbakan" between 1999 and 2004, in which you embody, for 12 episodes, the role of the skeptic Prescott Bridgemann, the wise Gregor McDermoth and his daughter Ophelia, a team of investigators of supernatural evolving in a charming cartoon universe of a rare beauty, contrasting with the dissimulated horror of an intriguing storyline.
Inspired by Lovecraftian literature, Arcane will transport you in the early twentieth century singular by its extraordinary nature, the fate of mankind may well depend on your ability to solve puzzles, and thus deflect the evil plans of a strange organisation named the Elder Star.

• Recaputilation : (WARNING ! Contain spoiler of the first Season)

• Links :
-The Miller Estate (Season I)
Episode I
Episode II
Episode III
Episode IV

-The Stone Circle (Season II)
Episode I
Episode II
Episode III
Episode IV
Episode V
Episode VI
Episode VII
Episode VIII

Spoiler below!

It seemed important to share it with the community, knowing that there are few fans of Lovecraft and point & click games, I hope this will please you, anyway I recommend it to everyone.
Regards, Eliphas.

[Bridge]

No fullscreen (guess it doesn't matter because you can just download the files, but still)? Might check it out later though.

[Eliphas]

Fullscreen versions updated. Enjoy.

[Deep One]

Seems very interesting, I'll try it.

[HateSolstice]

I'll check this out later tonight when I get home. I do enjoy me some point 'n click adventure games, and some Lovecraft-inspired stories.

[Bridge]

It's not very good. First of all, you should never convert bitmaps into vector images and just go with it; it's the mark of an amateur animator. Either trace it or draw it from a reference if you're going to be working in Flash because its greatest feature is the ability to work with vector graphics and worse yet the bitmaps they used were very low-res which makes them just look more awful. Also, only some of the interactable items are vectorized which means it's extremely difficult to tell what items you can pick up, and the game is on a timer which means you will have to hear "What am I supposed to do with that?" and "Impossible" until you find something you can use or die. If it were better designed the timer might provide some real tension but now it's just annoying. There are also some technical problems with the coding I don't want to go into because the developers aren't reading this but having designed and programmed a few games using Flash & ActionScript myself and animating for quite a few years this is just lazy.

[Eliphas]

Uhhh. The Miller Estate was made in 1999.

[Bridge]

Uhhh. The Miller Estate was made in 1999.

Between '99 and '04. What difference does it make anyway?

[Eliphas]

No. The Miller Estate was made in 1999, The Stone Circle around 2004 and the studio in 1998. First, this is their very first game, it may possibly explain the graphic quality although dubious, however, acceptable for a first game it is certain that the result is there and even if (Indeed) we can swing 50 lines of criticism to show how it is poor, we just can't ignore the quality of the work when comparing this game (made in 1999) to games of 2010 which reaching of a slightly more interesting graphic quality for or an initeressant scenario.


For my part I do not learn the flash langage and I don't care about this, I care about the production. I don't think that visual quality is something interesting from the perspective of a virtual creation like games or movies, a dumb Hollywood movie isn't better than an other because "OLOL THER IZ EXPLOZION IN 3D". Arcane graphics are quite "strange" it's a fact, but not awful, and furthermore It compensates with the story and the music (especially in the Stone circle). For my part I find that this "defect" makes the game much more interesting. It's my feeling, if it really bothers you to play it then either, do not play.