Elvira II - Technical Ecstasy

This has been a strange week. Firstly, by accident, I found out that ScummVM isn't properly playing the music in the Amiga version. It's a slight difference, but it does make a difference in the end quality when you're playing the game for hours. Remember, there's about half an hour of music here. This game isn't as creepy as the first one, but losing a bit of what's left does hurt the game. I'm not sure why this is an issue, since I was under the impression that the soundtrack used some form of MOD music.

The second is that the version of ScummVM I was using introduced a bug, namely, that sometimes you can stop regenerating mana. This resulted in me loosing a bit of progress. I was going to switch to an Amiga emulator, but I didn't want to restart the game completely when I'm basically a third of the way through at this point. And it does have the minor problem of the game having to constantly load from the drive. That's on an emulator specifically designed to run this.

As to why I didn't switch to the DOS version, the Adlib soundtrack sounds terrible and while I could use the Roland MT-32, that would reset my progress and I've already done enough of that. I'll repeat this in the review at the end, do not play the Amiga version, play the DOS one and set up the MT-32 soundtrack. 

For about the first hour and a half of this session, I made slow progress through the Kiss of the Spider stage, basically saving whenever I managed to take out a mosquito. It was cheap, but considering that my only other option was to try to weather out a monster I had no counter to...well, I wasn't playing fair anymore. I was exploiting any advantage I could get.

This resulted in me learning two combat tactics. Something ScummVM made a lot easier, though it's still possible in the Amiga/DOS versions is that you can back up before a monster attacks you. In Kiss of the Spider and the crypt stage, this means as long as you have space behind you, fighting is easy. Well, against regular enemies, mosquitoes can't be run away from. This is why you switch to berserk mode in combat settings, because for the most part, the enemies on these stages have attack speeds set in stone. Meaning, the increased attack frequency of you and your enemy only changes your attack frequency. It completely changes the combat in Kiss of the Spider from annoying to actually tolerable.

Kiss of the Spider is a blobber level, if said blobber thought that the appeal was wandering around a dungeon occasionally picking up items you can use for spells. Admittedly, this is the first floor, but I felt less than enthused about making my own map for this game, so I just used someone else's. Not really to find anything, just to look around. For instance, on the north side of the map, there's another cave with a gem and a mushroom, much like the one near the start, which basically serves to double up my use of herbal healing and whatever the gem's for.

On the opposite corner of this is a room containing a red mushroom and swarms of ants and ant larva. The idea being that you kill a bunch of them, then take the red mushroom when there's a lull...but sometimes the larva spawning from the left don't allow you to attack them for no reason. It's also not guaranteed that taking the mushroom will allow you to actually take it. Something funny about this, and at this point I'm starting to suspect ScummVM might be the issue. The red mushroom is a regent for the Antidote spell...which at this point is basically an emergency "I am not screwed" item.

The last room in this part of the map is a little cavern with a lake. I can cast Breath Underwater with any edible item, including the gum I've been carrying around the entire time. In the lake is a water insect I can take out. My reward? At the bottom is a rope. Then I could get out of the water...if I wasn't too weighed down. To get out with my stuff, I'd need a Buoyancy spell, which requires the calcified remains of a marine creature. I check a walkthrough, and that's in the catacombs. Good thing I only need the rope for the Bind Demon spell. I'll get back to that.

At this point most of this level is just fodder for me and some regents for spells. I assume. Oddly, and I suspect this is another issue with ScummVM, sometimes items just don't go into my inventory. As in, they disappear into the ether. Since the crystals are just quartz, judging by the manual's spell ingredient list, those just cast Detect Magic, and really, how many times am I going to need that spell?

Floor 2 is more of the same, except now the ants are wandering around. On one occasion I couldn't hit it, but otherwise they're just there. The library in the horror house implied that all this is just realistic FX. Funnily enough, from what I know of film production, having as many realistic fake insects as we have right now is less a sign that we're some technical geniuses and more a sign we're about to lose a crapload of money. You know, before demons from hell possessed them and started killing all our production staff. Now we need to convince the police that neither me nor Elvira are responsible for killing everyone. 

I'm level 7 now, which means I can finally cut through the last of the haunted house set. That's right, we're finally playing Doctor Frankenstein. There's a barometer in the house which serves as the regent for the Summon Storm spell. Cast it on the roof next to the attached copper rod, and there's power inside the lab. Go down, crank the right lever up, then throw the switch. Elvira congratulates me, before telling me that it's Herman Munster's evil cousin. Uh...technically? At this point, now I can cut the wires attached to his head. Don't think about how that works once the power's actually gone into him.

At this point, it's not obvious how to proceed, because the game assumes you'll realize that there was a door behind him. Inside is Elvira. Psyche, it's actually a doppelganger that bursts into flames and leaves behind the magic bag. Elvira tells me to hurry up and save her, while I then go down to the basement to try to give the bag to the Indian. No dice. Well, back to the Kiss of the Spider.

Since most regular enemies are either a few shots and done or ones I can walk past sometimes, I'm just going to mention notable rooms. (Ants sometimes don't acknowledge you, I don't know why) First, east side, just past a spider's web, is a giant scorpion. If it hits, poison, but once again the tried and true tactic of hammering the attack button works. He's guarding a scroll of binding, something I need for the Summon Demon spell.

Outside of a big cavern, this is about it for this floor, but there is good news. I'm level 8 now. This means I can now cast, Absorb Magick, which actually makes me immune to magic attacks; Freezing Blade, which gives me extra damage; Illusion, copy the looks of the next thing I meet; Trueflight, which makes my attacks hit the best area of the enemy to damage. The first looks to be the most useful, but knowing how useful Courage actually was, maybe not.

Floor 3 is more of the same. Now there's not really any regularly placed enemies outside of dedicated rooms and the worms that pop out of the ground. Just mosquitoes that randomly pop up and ants which are sometimes hostile. I find this giant ant room, which I hope is the queen thus less random enemies. This one doesn't break like the others, as I'm not prevented from attacking. Unfortunately, I end up not getting the poison mushroom thanks to that glitch. Good thing I'm not really concerned about that anymore...

Outside of the usual fights and caves, there's this section where you have to go down then go up in order to reach the rest of the level. It feels unnecessary and just confused me. Remember, I'm already checking a map someone else made. There's also a point, just before the transition to the fourth floor, where you have to cut one of two strands of web to get across a chasm. I picked right and it was right, but left sends you straight down to a spiky pit.

Floor 4 actually has regular enemies again, but that's not important. We have the boss, the big spider. I've kept calling it an alien picture because, well, outside of those giant mosquitoes, this could just be an ordinary alien planet. It still could be, but it has a giant spider now. He'll stay over there unless you attack him with a spell, then out he comes. The important thing is that guy on the right. He has something in his pocket and that looks important, but it's just out of reach. Clearly, a job for telekinesis. So, where's the magnet?

Answer, I've had it all along. Or rather, I've had access to it all along. It's the cassette player in the typing pool, which I probably didn't even mention. I think this is something to do with the mechanism of the cassettes, but I haven't listened to a cassette in like fifteen years and even then that was because I had a cassette of Rage - Perfect Man and no CD copy. Anyway, I guess I should make some fireballs to take out the spider to. There's a fifty/fifty shot that he's a fight or a puzzle.

The webbed up corpse is the director, which the game helpfully tells me once I have his wallet. Inside is an unusual key, which, if it's appearance this late in the area is a clue, is a hint that it's the elevator key. Unfortunately, the trip has cost me a bit of mana. Between the telekinesis spell and the ice bolts to bring down the webs, I'm down to sixteen PP, which is just enough for two fireballs. 

I think I need more than two fireballs. I prepared four, and I'm not sure that's enough. He's not that hard to hit, but he's hitting back and I'm willing to be he's poisoned me. Naturally, the first time I die. The second time, once I've gotten my magic juice charged back up...the game glitches out when I start spamming fireballs at the damn thing. The third time though? That works like a charm. I even have spells left over somehow? Do they multiple when I'm not looking?

Despite not looking like it, this does reveal this area's fake Elvira. What, you thought she was real this time? Ha! This one is on the web and turns into a giant wasp when you click on her. Now, normally, I'd just slaughter the thing and presumably get the next piece of magic, but this thing won't let me hit it with my sword. Which means, more waiting around for mana to regenerate. And I thought that Shadowcaster had a brutal waiting time back when I first played it.

I clear out some of the rest of the area, since it wasn't like there was anything else going on in this section by this point. Beyond the mushrooms, I'm really struggling to see what I'm actually going to need at this point. How many uses of Detect Magic am I actually going to need? Heck, considering that the number of uses isn't tied into how many regents I find, that means that I'm well beyond what I'll need.

The wasp dies to about three fireballs, and then Elvira shows up to berate me for not knowing that it isn't her. Anyway, the wasp leaves behind a tomahawk, likely the one I'll need to actually win the game. From here, I just have to go down and then find the elevator on the third floor. Oh, and discover that the wasp actually poisoned me. Huzzah. I also have to manually go down all the levels because the key to the elevator is stuck in the fourth floor lock and I forgot to take it. Since my original trip up to the fourth floor was one way and once you reach the wasp it's all downhill...

That's it for this session. The map I'm using describes all the rooms as just containing crystals and mushrooms, which I don't need more of, so I'll only come back here to get the rope. The Tomahawk can be used as a weapon and the Indian janitor doesn't acknowledge it at all. I'm level 9, but that only gets me Bind Demon and Cure Wounds...which I will need, considering that the final stage is the big one. Will it be the best...? Probably not, but you never know.

This Session: 4 hours

Total Time: 7 hours 35 minutes