All work and no play make Tracy a dull girl. All work and no play make Tracy a dull girl. All work and no play make Tracy a dull girl.
Sorry, I just finished playing a few hours of the new Phantasmat Crucible Peak game, and I think I'm channeling the spirit of Jack Torrance, Jack Nicholson's character from the thriller The Shining... one of my favorite Christmas movies. Yes, I'm that girl.
What better way to fill the time between watching Ralphie shoot his eye out and watching Clark Griswald fantasize about his...ermm... pool, then to throw on one of the creepiest movies of all time, set in a snowy isolated resort... just like Phantasmat Crucible Peak.
Immediately, shivers ran down my spine as I sank my teeth into this horror story. After years of dreaming up a vacation in the snowy alps, your character arrives, spraying powder, and whizzing down the slopes without a care in the world... that is... until the avalanche.
Caught in its clutches, you claw your way down an icy ravine and follow a path marked with nothing but bones and debris from travelers who struggled before you. Much to your relief, you find yourself on the doorstep of a mountain resort, with the hopes of warming yourself by a hot fire and counting yourself extremely lucky.
But... you soon realize that luck might have nothing to do with it when you witness the residents of this place vanishing into thin air like ghostly apparitions, and you find yourself plagued by hauntingly disturbing visions.
Isn't it just so beautiful?! Phantasmat Crucible Peak has you in its clutches from the moment you hit play until the very last breath.
The graphics are drop dead gorgeous, with flickering firelight dancing off the walls, and shadows haunting every crevice. The textures of the icicles as they strain toward the floor, the crisp blankets of heavy snow, and the lines in the weathered wood all add up to a wonderfully immersive experience.
The soft sighing of the wind through the mountains haunts you at ever step, only to have a piercing cry from an overhead predator break the hypothermic lull. That crisp crunching noise you hear when you're treading through a silent winter's day makes you feel like you're the only living creature left in the world as you desperately search for a way to escape this mountain purgatory.
The music sneaks up on you with perfect clarity. Starting with distant and echoey piano tones as if someone is playing in another room in a big house, and ending with long drawn out pulls on the violin. It's just the right amount of scintillating stimulation for your ears to push you to the edge without you even realizing it.
All these components had me swooning with delight... until that thing that looked like the gopher from Caddy Shack popped up in my face.
Um... what is that... and what is it doing on my Shining-like game?? Don't get me wrong... I love the gopher from Caddy Shack.... and this thing looks just like it... but what is it doing in my scary game?
It seems to just be some kind of way to break the tension in a cute, adorable way that makes me want to put it in a hamster ball and roll it down the stairs. Stupid rat... go away... go bother some other hidden object game... one with cute animals and pink ribbons... not this beautiful, awesome scary game... oh please....
Sigh... anyhow... Phantasmat: Crucible Peak was just one rat short of perfect for me. The hidden object games were challenging but nothing I couldn't handle. The puzzles were on the harder side, but I plowed through them... or hit the skip button when no one was watching.
All in all, Phantasmat: Crucible Peak is a great addition to the holiday hoard of hidden object games that are deluging us at the moment. Now excuse me, I'm sure I saw a stick of dynamite or two back at the resort I can use... "In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir, gopher'."