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Nightmare Creatures for PlayStation 1
Nightmare Creatures for PlayStation 1 combines a horror adventure with close combat in London in 1834. The Brotherhood of Hecate has flooded the city with monsters. You choose the monk Ignatius Blackward or the swordswoman Nadia and search for the man behind the outbreak, Adam Crowley. You travel through streets, sewers and docks, where werewolves and other disfigured creatures emerge between the buildings. Each character has their own attack techniques, performed with different button combinations.
Blocking, stepping aside and keeping the right distance matter when an enemy strikes back. You also search breakable objects, collect useful items and look for passages to make progress. The adrenaline meter gives exploration its own rhythm: defeated monsters replenish it, while spending a long time wandering makes it drop. If it runs out, you lose health. Along the way, you therefore need to decide whether to investigate another side path or find an opponent first.
You play alone with a PlayStation controller; the directional buttons are supported. After completing a level, Save Level And Continue lets you save to a memory card in slot 1. This also preserves your collected equipment and remaining lives. Password And Continue instead provides a code for the next level, with preset equipment. Codes and memory-card saves are therefore not quite the same. This combat adventure does not include two-player cooperative play.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 1 games are PAL editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose disc for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
With Nightmare Creatures for PlayStation 1, you receive a loose disc. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of Nightmare Creatures
The French studio Kalisto made Nightmare Creatures during a period when its background in smaller action and puzzle games was giving way to larger original projects. Dark Earth and Ultimate Race Pro were also released alongside this game in 1997. In a later retrospective, founder Nicolas Gaume describes that group of projects as an important step for the company. Nightmare Creatures gave Kalisto its own horror world, featuring a nineteenth-century city and two heroes who confronted their opponents directly.
The music was composed by Frédéric Motte, who also worked under the name Moby. In an interview, he explains that this was the first time he could make metal music with real guitars for a game. He also wrote dark ambient music for the levels. The original PlayStation release used CD audio tracks for this. That combination of guitar music and ominous sounds fitted a game that sought to convey both street fighting and the menace of a deserted city.
The first Nightmare Creatures was released on PlayStation in 1997 and later received a sequel. That second game followed Herbert Wallace and changed several gameplay elements. The original remains recognisable for its choice between Ignatius and Nadia, their individual moves and the adrenaline meter. The story also uses the city's past in its own way: the Great Fire of London and Samuel Pepys's diary become part of an invented history of forbidden experiments. The game thus connects real names with its monsters and secret brotherhood.
Similar games for PlayStation 1
Nightmare Creatures II for PlayStation 1 continues the violent fighting against deformed monsters, but has you control Herbert Wallace rather than choose between Ignatius and Nadia. The sequel therefore has a different protagonist and background. In the first game, your choice determines which attack combinations you use, while the adrenaline meter keeps encouraging you to fight. Both mix horror with physical attacks; their stories and progression systems are not interchangeable.
MediEvil shares the close combat, exploration of eerie environments and many unusual enemies. Sir Daniel Fortesque travels through a humorous fairy-tale realm, however, while Nightmare Creatures presents a bloodier London. In MediEvil, you collect different weapons and fill the Chalice by defeating enemies. Nightmare Creatures focuses its combat more strongly on your chosen hero's moves and replenishing adrenaline as you travel.
Resident Evil also has you investigate what lies behind an outbreak of monsters. You explore a mansion, combine objects and conserve scarce ammunition for dangerous encounters. Nightmare Creatures more often places several direct fights in succession and gives both heroes their own melee weapon with attack combinations. The camera differs too: Resident Evil uses fixed viewpoints, whereas in Nightmare Creatures you follow behind the character through streets and sewers.
Like Nightmare Creatures, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver features a ruined three-dimensional world and battles against supernatural beings. Raziel also switches between the material and spectral worlds to open routes and solve puzzles. Nightmare Creatures organises its adventure into separate levels through London and uses the adrenaline meter to maintain pressure. Soul Reaver more often asks you to examine the surroundings again after gaining a new ability.
Like Nightmare Creatures, Tomb Raider combines exploration, jumping and hazards in three-dimensional environments. Lara Croft climbs larger structures and solves spatial puzzles, with firearms providing her main defence. Nightmare Creatures places much more emphasis on fights within arm's reach and the timing of blocks, dodges and attack combinations. While Lara can study a route at length, Nightmare Creatures' falling adrenaline meter also makes standing still for too long a risk to your health.
