Ecstatica is an interesting beast, although I was familiar with this game already, and played the DOS version for a bit, a long time ago that is, I never actually delved into it properly, didn’t even finish it.
Now, since the thread about this game got my attention, I said, “Eh why not?” So here we are, goes to show, that if you want me to cover a game, all it has to be, is that the game has to at least be mildly interesting to me, either on the technical aspect, or on the premise department, this requirement can be both very easy and extremely hard at the same time.
As it has become the running gag… Yes windows version, 0 problems (for once), however, I needed to do some little patching to make it easy for myself to take screenshots.
And, another disclaimer, I didn’t use the version from The Repo, I got this one from B man (if you know, you know).
By the way, can confirm it looks better than the DOS version.
Alright, lets get on with it, shall we?
Story and Setting
The year is 928 A.D, our story takes place somewhere in Northern Europe, in the small town of Tirich, where something nefarious is taking place.
By playing with unknown forces that shouldn’t be messed with, sorceress Ecstatica has “accidentally” unleashed a demon and his minions upon the land, in quotations, cause this could have been easily prevented.
You, a traveler who just happens to be going through the region and is now stuck in town, must find a way to fight against the darkness which has enveloped the land.
Because… You are the only one who bothered to do it really.
The game barely gives you anything.
By playing with unknown forces that shouldn’t be messed with, sorceress Ecstatica has “accidentally” unleashed a demon and his minions upon the land, in quotations, cause this could have been easily prevented.
You, a traveler who just happens to be going through the region and is now stuck in town, must find a way to fight against the darkness which has enveloped the land.
Because… You are the only one who bothered to do it really.
The game barely gives you anything.
Presentation
Alone in The Dark, but with circles, well “ellipsoids” as the math nerds would call them, as this is an early 90s 3D game, and it was a time of experimentation, if anything, it worked in its favor, as its a quite memorable artstyle, as bizarre and silly it might look at first glance, by the end, I must say, that it grew on me.
The environment is fully 3D, with fixed camera angles as you move around.
In this game, there are all manner of creatures, most of which wouldn’t be out of place in your regular D&D campaign, they just happen to be made out of circles, but, there is quite a bit of recoloring for recycling enemies, however that isn’t really an issue.
For NPCs, its pretty much the same, but, many do maintain some individuality, except for very few exceptions (which kinda make sense in-universe), as primitive as the 3D graphics may seem.
The environment is fully 3D, with fixed camera angles as you move around.
In this game, there are all manner of creatures, most of which wouldn’t be out of place in your regular D&D campaign, they just happen to be made out of circles, but, there is quite a bit of recoloring for recycling enemies, however that isn’t really an issue.
For NPCs, its pretty much the same, but, many do maintain some individuality, except for very few exceptions (which kinda make sense in-universe), as primitive as the 3D graphics may seem.
All in all, is your standard European Fantasy affair, with some slight Greek mythology mixed in as well.
When it comes to tone, its all over the place, even though, you will see this game classified as survival horror, and sure there is horror to survive, as well as a lot of gory imagery (for 1994 3D standards), as well as something I didn’t expect, which is that the game has instances of full frontal nudity.
The game also has instances of crass humor, like the male character sometimes stopping, and taking a piss, or running into a bear which is drunk and keeps farting, or a little girl blowing raspberries and bullying the monsters.
Or the game over screen, in which you see the monsters hanging out and talking as if it was another day in the office.
When it comes to tone, its all over the place, even though, you will see this game classified as survival horror, and sure there is horror to survive, as well as a lot of gory imagery (for 1994 3D standards), as well as something I didn’t expect, which is that the game has instances of full frontal nudity.
The game also has instances of crass humor, like the male character sometimes stopping, and taking a piss, or running into a bear which is drunk and keeps farting, or a little girl blowing raspberries and bullying the monsters.
Or the game over screen, in which you see the monsters hanging out and talking as if it was another day in the office.
Just chilling with the boys.
Were they going for mature, or immature? I wasn’t really sure.
The game is subtitled “A state of mind,” and it does mean it, to describe this game, the best word that comes to mind is: bizarre.
For the music, there aren’t that many tracks, most of them are generic and for the area, there is one specific when you encounter a monster or something supernatural, and there is one specific for the area in which the farting bear is, and that’s it for the ones I can remember at the time of writing.
There are a lot of animations, mostly of the monsters messing with your character, as well as ambushing you in multiple manners, and a lot of unique ways to get yourself captured or killed.
As for the protagonist, there is a male and a female model, both have their own armored variants, and there are two animal forms to which they can get turned into.
The game is subtitled “A state of mind,” and it does mean it, to describe this game, the best word that comes to mind is: bizarre.
For the music, there aren’t that many tracks, most of them are generic and for the area, there is one specific when you encounter a monster or something supernatural, and there is one specific for the area in which the farting bear is, and that’s it for the ones I can remember at the time of writing.
There are a lot of animations, mostly of the monsters messing with your character, as well as ambushing you in multiple manners, and a lot of unique ways to get yourself captured or killed.
As for the protagonist, there is a male and a female model, both have their own armored variants, and there are two animal forms to which they can get turned into.
Voice acting wise, your character will talk a few times, likely to tell you there is nothing to pick up, or give some thoughts from time to time, for NPCs, they just give some unique dialogue when you meet them (which is likely a hint on what you need to do), and then just repeat some other lines when you return to their area.
Something that was impressive, is that the dead bodies don’t disappear, they stay where you killed them for the rest of the game.
As I said before, you get some lines from the monsters, only in the game over screens, but, you also get to talk with the villain as well, a surprisingly polite guy.
All in all, quite good voice acting overall.
Something that was impressive, is that the dead bodies don’t disappear, they stay where you killed them for the rest of the game.
As I said before, you get some lines from the monsters, only in the game over screens, but, you also get to talk with the villain as well, a surprisingly polite guy.
All in all, quite good voice acting overall.
Mechanics
The game doesn’t have a title screen, you boot it, you either see or skip the intro of your character getting into town, and off you go, either you open the menu and load a save, or continue your adventure.
The game defaults to the male character, but you can start the game as the female character from the menu if you wish, the gender you play has no effect on anything gameplay wise, it is aesthetic only.
For controls, its mostly played with the Numpad, and the only other controls are the function keys, and Escape to bring up the menu.
Movement wise, its tank controls, you rotate your character with Num4 and Num6, you move forward with Num8, backwards with Num2, I am used to playing games with the Numpad so I had no problem, for someone else it might be difficult to get used to.
Then you got the function keys, from F1 to F4 its stealth mode which makes your character move very slow, from F5 to F8 its walk mode which is the neutral stance, and from F9 to F12 is running mode.
According to the manual, stealth mode is meant to sneak around without alerting monsters, it isn’t worth it, just hit F9 and forget about the running modes for most of the game. Running is just better overall, the only thing you have to worry about, is that if you turn around too much while running, your character will trip and fall (some areas have pebbles you can trip with as well), which does nothing more than waste time. You might need to slow down in some parts, but for the most part, you can forget about this.
For inventory, you have two hands, that’s your inventory, with Num1 you pick up with your left hand, with Num3 you pick up with your right hand, weapons usually default to the right hand, you use the same keys to put down whatever you got in that specific hand.
Key items, are used automatically when you get to where you are supposed to use them so don’t worry about that, do be mindful where you leave them, cause they will stay there until you move them again.
For combat, you press Num7 to attack with your left hand, or Num9 to attack with you right hand, if you don’t have anything in that hand, your character will just punch, if you have a weapon, one of them will be a quick overhead, and the other a slower swipe with more reach, you can feint by tapping the button and do the full attack by holding it, you use Num5 to dodge, don’t worry, doesn’t matter where you are facing, it gives you IFrames regardless.
If you get captured, just press whatever action key to free yourself once the animations are over.
The game defaults to the male character, but you can start the game as the female character from the menu if you wish, the gender you play has no effect on anything gameplay wise, it is aesthetic only.
For controls, its mostly played with the Numpad, and the only other controls are the function keys, and Escape to bring up the menu.
Movement wise, its tank controls, you rotate your character with Num4 and Num6, you move forward with Num8, backwards with Num2, I am used to playing games with the Numpad so I had no problem, for someone else it might be difficult to get used to.
Then you got the function keys, from F1 to F4 its stealth mode which makes your character move very slow, from F5 to F8 its walk mode which is the neutral stance, and from F9 to F12 is running mode.
According to the manual, stealth mode is meant to sneak around without alerting monsters, it isn’t worth it, just hit F9 and forget about the running modes for most of the game. Running is just better overall, the only thing you have to worry about, is that if you turn around too much while running, your character will trip and fall (some areas have pebbles you can trip with as well), which does nothing more than waste time. You might need to slow down in some parts, but for the most part, you can forget about this.
For inventory, you have two hands, that’s your inventory, with Num1 you pick up with your left hand, with Num3 you pick up with your right hand, weapons usually default to the right hand, you use the same keys to put down whatever you got in that specific hand.
Key items, are used automatically when you get to where you are supposed to use them so don’t worry about that, do be mindful where you leave them, cause they will stay there until you move them again.
For combat, you press Num7 to attack with your left hand, or Num9 to attack with you right hand, if you don’t have anything in that hand, your character will just punch, if you have a weapon, one of them will be a quick overhead, and the other a slower swipe with more reach, you can feint by tapping the button and do the full attack by holding it, you use Num5 to dodge, don’t worry, doesn’t matter where you are facing, it gives you IFrames regardless.
If you get captured, just press whatever action key to free yourself once the animations are over.
Monsters will either spawn in where you don’t see them before you reach the screen, ambush you, or just wait for you in specific areas.
Combat is a bit wonky, mostly because is hard to tell if you are looking in the right direction to connect your attacks (this is also a problem when trying to pick up objects), thankfully, once you hit, there is always feedback from the monster getting hit with an animation.
Its quite easy to stunlock, as well as getting stunlocked, you can also find some nice rhythm of dodging and attacking for specific monsters, remember fly like a butterfly sting like a bee.
You can also run away and hide, but, why do that?
Something you are gonna suffer a lot, is the ambushes by the very annoying werewolf, he has a lot of spawn spots from which he can ambush you, although you can kill him to permanently free yourself from him by hitting him for five minutes straight (this is not an exaggeration), it isn’t really worth it, you can instead just hit him enough to make him back off, and for you to get on with your business.
Combat is a bit wonky, mostly because is hard to tell if you are looking in the right direction to connect your attacks (this is also a problem when trying to pick up objects), thankfully, once you hit, there is always feedback from the monster getting hit with an animation.
Its quite easy to stunlock, as well as getting stunlocked, you can also find some nice rhythm of dodging and attacking for specific monsters, remember fly like a butterfly sting like a bee.
You can also run away and hide, but, why do that?
Something you are gonna suffer a lot, is the ambushes by the very annoying werewolf, he has a lot of spawn spots from which he can ambush you, although you can kill him to permanently free yourself from him by hitting him for five minutes straight (this is not an exaggeration), it isn’t really worth it, you can instead just hit him enough to make him back off, and for you to get on with your business.
This strategy works on most monsters, and the same permanently getting rid of them is in effect, besides some specific monsters that will just show up around the game regardless (like the little pigs).
You don’t have an actual health bar, you will have to look at your character, they have different animations when hurt, there are no healing items in the game, don’t worry, you slowly regenerate health as you go, monsters regenerate health as well when not engaged with you.
You don’t have an actual health bar, you will have to look at your character, they have different animations when hurt, there are no healing items in the game, don’t worry, you slowly regenerate health as you go, monsters regenerate health as well when not engaged with you.
There is no action command per se, your character will just do things automatically, by either being at the trigger, or having the correct item(s) and being at the trigger.
Most of the game, will be you looking for items that will allow you to get to new areas, there are hints scattered around the game map.
There are a few red herrings, and ways to screw yourself permanently, so save early, save often, and rotate saves.
The game can be quite short, if you know what you are supposed to do.
Most of the game, will be you looking for items that will allow you to get to new areas, there are hints scattered around the game map.
There are a few red herrings, and ways to screw yourself permanently, so save early, save often, and rotate saves.
The game can be quite short, if you know what you are supposed to do.
Final Thoughts
Ecstatica is a quite interesting and bizarre game, it is truly worth experiencing at least once.
The artstyle alone makes it standout so much, with the circles being the thing people remember the most about this game.
It is quite impressive how they managed to make it so bodies didn’t fade away, and not even once did I notice a dip on framerate, makes me wish modern developers cared about optimization to this extend.
You can actually kill most of the NPCs if you want to, why? I don't know, but you can.
I actually don’t have much else to say about the game.
Did I like it? Sure, even though I found the werewolf, the ambush moments, and how obtuse it is at times (it tells you what you need, but good luck finding it), quite annoying, I enjoyed it overall.
The whole game is a bunch of fetch quests, but I did like it, the humor is very hit or miss, but the characters have a lot of personality, those game over screens made me chuckle a little bit.
By the way, it has multiple endings.
So yeah, Ecstatica is a game.
Check out the thread about the game.
The artstyle alone makes it standout so much, with the circles being the thing people remember the most about this game.
It is quite impressive how they managed to make it so bodies didn’t fade away, and not even once did I notice a dip on framerate, makes me wish modern developers cared about optimization to this extend.
You can actually kill most of the NPCs if you want to, why? I don't know, but you can.
I actually don’t have much else to say about the game.
Did I like it? Sure, even though I found the werewolf, the ambush moments, and how obtuse it is at times (it tells you what you need, but good luck finding it), quite annoying, I enjoyed it overall.
The whole game is a bunch of fetch quests, but I did like it, the humor is very hit or miss, but the characters have a lot of personality, those game over screens made me chuckle a little bit.
By the way, it has multiple endings.
So yeah, Ecstatica is a game.
Check out the thread about the game.
MS-DOS Game 'Ecstatica'
I have no experience with MS-DOS games. I discovered Ecstatica (1994) through OneyPlays and I'm trying to find more information on it, particularly about the game's monster AI. I'm specifically impressed with the werewolf: he's got great path-finding, unique animations for ambushing the...
retrogametalk.com
Pros
- + Memorable Artstyle.
- + Characters And Monsters With Personality.
- + Impressive Technical Achievements For Its Time.
Cons
- - Tonal Inconsistency.
- - Wonky Combat And Controls.
- - Its A Glorified Fetch Quest.
7
Gameplay
My only problem with it, is how hard it is to gauge how far something is from your character, making combat an exercise in frustration, the limited inventory is also an annoyance.
7
Graphics
Circles! Even though they don't have something akin to proper textures, its quite impressive for its time, and, let's be honest its memorable, most people remember this game cause of the circles.
4
Story
What story? I had to put it together by reading transcripts from dialogues in the Ecstatica Wiki, it isn't that great but its serviceable, I guess.
7
Sound
The music is alright, serves well to keep the atmosphere it wants for the current scene, voice acting is good, a bit of recycling of both, its pretty good overall.
2
Replayability
Once you know what you are doing, you can speedrun the game in less than 1 hour, the fun of exploring and finding new things, only lasts 1 playthrough, 2 at most.
7
out of 10
Overall
Ecstatica is a very bizarre game, very impressive for its time, yet, its so difficult to talk about it. Most people will remember it because of the artstyle, is very tonally inconsistent, the story is next to non-existent, has wonky combat and controls, is tedious having to go from fetch-quest to fetch-quest, yet, its so fun to play, has a lot of personality, and you can notice a lot of attention to detail, overall, Ecstatica is an anomaly worth experiencing at least once.
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