John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles

Blackstone Manor was built by a tycoon early in the 20th century. In the 30s, the tycoon's daughter married a prominent psychiatrist, who turned the place into a mental institution and ran it as such until his death in 1959. "Now" the old asylum has been purchased by an historical society and renovated as a museum of psychiatric history. Unfortunately, something is rotten in Blackstone and that something seems to revolve around the asylum. You play Oliver Metcalf, the son of the asylum's founder and superintendant. As the game begins, you discover that your young son is missing. The trail leads to the asylum, where you learn that your father's spirit is holding your son hostage in a hidden room. You have until dawn to find him, or your father's ghost will infect him with evil._The Blackstone Chronicles_ is a first person, point and click adventure based on a series of novels by author John Saul. There are pros and cons to this. In its favour, the world and the characters are well-developed, the Lovecraftian atmosphere stunningly realised. Working against this is the lack of backstory provided. It's obvious that we've come in somewhere in chapter two--maybe even chapter twenty-two. There were tantalising references to a time before that I couldn't help but feel were a bid to sell books. It's hard to play this game without asking oneself, "What the heck was that about?" and wanting to know the answer.If you can leave that alone, though, _Blackstone Chronicles_ is a pretty good older game. To find your son in the time alloted, you must explore many parts of the asylum and gain the help of the spirits of the former inmates by hearing their stories and returning to them things which have been lost. As you go, you gain access to more and more parts of the place and learn its quite nasty history.This is where the game gets disturbing, with good reason. _Blackstone Chronicles_ gives the player a lot of well-researched history of mental health "treatment," and what you learn is shocking and horrible. This isn't a game where you're afraid of things that go bump in dark corridors. What gives you a sick feeling is the realisation of what otherwise civlised people will inflict on the mentally ill in the name of achieving a cure. Carrying that sick feeling around with you makes the game overwhelming at times.If you can get past that, the game is pretty good. The puzzles are mostly collecting and applying inventory to persuade various spirits to talk to you. The conversations give you information necessary to progress. As such, gameplay is fairly easy. There are timed puzzles and you can die--certain inventory items are cursed and acquiring them leads you into traps. I generally dislike this sort of thing, but _Blackstone Chronicles_ handles it very well. If you fail at a timed sequence, you're given the option to simply repeat it, get a hint, or get the solution. So you don't have to do each one more than a couple times. Inventory items are easy to locate. Navigation is dicey at times, however; there were a couple puzzles early on that I almost missed because I couldn't figure out how to turn in the right direction. The voice acting is fair and the conversation trees are easy to follow. Graphics are good for their time, although some of the movies--used mainly to zoom in and out of areas--are jerky on a newer system.I ran _Blackstone Chronicles_ on XP with no problems, but you do need to install the version of Quicktime that comes with the game._Blackstone Chronicles_ took me about 15 hours to complete and I could only play a couple hours a night because of the disturbing subject matter. If you can handle a game that makes you think about things you'd rather not think about, give it a try.

I remember playing this game when I was younger and was terrified of what was going to happen even though you never see anything scary. But the reality of what used to happen to people when sent to asylum is enough to keep your hair standing up.

Considering the time this game came out, it was great. I can only imagine what they could do with it if this was remade today.

Blackstone Chronicles is one of those games that I have mixed feelings about, overall. It takes place in an old, evil mental institution, that is soon to be turned into a museum. You play Oliver Metcalf, the son of the last institution superintendent, who must explore the Blackstone Asylum in search of your son, whom the spirit of your dead father has taken out of spite. Oliver is forced to play his dead father's twisted game in order to get his son back, before he is lost to evil forever. You will need to talk to the spirits of inmates who were tortured at Blackstone, who will give you help along the way. As in typical adventure games, there are many objects you will have to pick up and puzzles you will have to solve. The game has a few challenging moments, but overall isn't too difficult.What few "real" characters there are in the game, they are played by real actors. The acting is decent, especially by the man who plays Oliver's disturbed father. The inmates, though only voice-overs, are convincing, and tell some interesting stories about their lives in the asylum. The game is a psychological horror game, where you won't see a lot of violence, but instead is told to you in detail. Blackstone Chronicles is very disturbing, and not for everyone. Unlike other games that involve institutions and "crazy people", this one is definitely the most bothersome, because it's quite realistic. Unfortunately, back before modern science, there were institutions that did questionable "cures" for the mentally ill. I don't know if it was as extreme as described in this game, but it still makes for horrifying visuals. This game almost plays out more like a movie, than a typical game, since, like I already said, it is a psychological thriller and not your typical "Let's kill some monsters" horror game. The monsters in this game are human.The reason I have mixed feelings about this game is because the plot is clever and well-developed, the characters have alot of depth, the graphics and scenery are full of detail, and the acting is above par. The subject matter is just very intense, disturbing, and a little hard to take in, in all the storyline details. For the average adventure fan, I think this might be a bit much to handle. I actually do enjoy this game, and I have played it a couple times, but this is no walk in the park. I think it could have been improved by sparing a few spoken details. I think in some ways games are becoming almost too mature, and they just hardly seem like games. This is an example of that. Since Blackstone Chronicles is based on a series of 6 mini-novels, I think the story would've been better as a movie. It was difficult for me, (and probably others), to be so involved in a story like this. Blackstone Chronicles is definitely not for the faint of heart, and there are similar games out there that I would definitely recommend over this one. Horror games need some sort of comic relief, and there is none in Blackstone Chronicles. It's one of those games that I kind of enjoy at the time, but then I thinking back on it, it leaves me with sort of a troubled feeling. So, all in all, this game is a mixed bag for me. If you're not easily disturbed, then try it out and see how you like it. If you're not a big fan of horror, torture, and medical references, I would strongly advise playing something else.

I read the previous entry and its right on...the game is very disturbing and very real I might add. I learned much about these psycho-medical methods when I was in college learning psychology...but aside from the disturbing torture descriptions for the faint of heart, all should find some amusement in this game. As a fan of horror I found this game to be second only to Puzzle of Flesh...another fantastic game.