THE CHZO MYTHOS

What makes a good film? Why, I would say editing and direction, for no film is good without a good lot of those. But, what makes a great film? Why, I would say an interesting plot and memorable characters.

And erm... why am I talking about this? Because the Chzo Mythos is not a film, or even a series of films.... It's a bunch of adventure games. BUT THEY ARE A BUNCH OF WOW ADVENTURE GAMES WHICH ARE BETTER THAN ANYTHING HOLLYWOOD HAS PUT OUT IN THE PAST TEN YEARS!

The Chzo Mythos is a tetralogy of games revolving around some strange, ancient, supernatural horror. It's your basic point-and-click (with the option/risk of dying, something quite strange in the genre) puzzle-solving, AGS-scripted affair but what sets it apart from other games is the sheer scope of its plot. The series spans many centuries and each successive addition manages to expand the plot more and more.

The entire thing kicks off in 5 Days A Stranger, where you play Trilby, a 'gentleman thief' who breaks into a house only to find that you can't break out of the house. Supernatural events ensue. It's a simple premise and the game has only around 10-15 rooms but Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, the game developer/designer, manages to use each and every one of them so effectively, sooner or later you just get caught up in the whole thing and suddenly the little pixel blob graphics take on a life of their own and everything manages to become unnaturally spooky. The dialogue is witty and funny and Trilby, as the only one who keeps his head while everyone loses theirs (metaphorically), is a pretty endearing character. The gameplay is fantastic. The puzzles are just the right level of difficulty and the controls are smooth and suit a laptop's touchpad pretty well. All in all, it's a very, very enjoyable game with subtle nods to classic horror films here and there. What a perfect introduction to the world of adventure gaming! Ahhh.....

The 2nd installation, 7 Days A Skeptic, is where everything reaaaallly speeds up and takes off. This time the supernaturality is happening in... space! That's right! Space horror! A genre that has not been fully explored methinks (remember how good Solaris was? TARKOVSKY NOT SODERBERGH PLEASsseE) and a shame it is too. The inherent claustrophobia of being on a spaceship makes it the ultimate setting for TERRORIZATION BY A WELDER! Anyway, it's set around 4 centuries after 5 Days and you play a psychiatrist (Kris Kelvin much?) on a ship of DOOM. It's wonderful, it's magnificent, it's like Event Horizon done right! The puzzles are harder this time around and some of them border on headbanging. There are also really wicked moments of... DOOM. There are actually MANY instances in which you can die and in some sequences you even have to run and shoot, which feels weird in a point-and-click but serves to kind of up the DOOM factor (MOVE FASTER YOU PIXEL SON OF A BITCH) and makes the whole thing even scarier. Scary as hell, in fact. I was jumpy for two full hours after playing this. The controls are kind of fucked up for this one as they were probably optimized for mouse-play and none of the characters in this are even remotely as cool as Trilby. However, everything else is superior to the first. The story loses some of its humour but gains terror momentum fast.

The 3rd part of the series diverts from the usual 'blah blah days a blah blah' title-formula with a brand new fangled title called Trilby's Notes. Ahh... good old Trilby! How I love thee! Anyway, this time you get to play a more mature, less cavalier Trilby who has been recruited into some kind of special government agency investigating the occult. Set a couple of years after 5 Days, this one is to The Shining what 7 Days was to Event Horizon. With a new 'shadow realm' full of blood and guts and meat and scary dudes that you can phase in and out of (that makes for some really jumpy scream-out-loud moments) and the incorporation of a more text-based interface than its previous two counterparts, the puzzles are magnificently hard. Trilby's Notes is also, hands down, the freakiest game of the lot (unlocking doors with LIMBS???) and maybe the best of the lot. The story is fleshed out even more with significant nods to Hellraiser and the beginnings of the CHZO MYTHOS BACKSTORY start to drip in and it's really quite good.

The last of the tetralogy is 6 Days A Sacrifice and it's set smack dab in the center (chronologically) of 5 Days and 7 Days. 196 years on each side, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, this time you play a severely injured building inspector. Definitely the most ambitious of the lot, this one tries to tie up all the loose ends in the previous three games and give it a satisfying, crunchy ending. There's a lot of time-travelling, a lot of flashbacks and even a sort-of sex scene. The plot becomes all twisted and a little philosophical (just a little) in a Hellraiser-meets-Donnie-Darko way and the puzzles are just mindbogglingly hard. Trilby also makes a re-appearance in this one and, although I won't spoil the plot for you, there is a HUGE nod to God-Emperor Of Dune here which I didn't quite enjoy because I love good ol good ol Trilby. This is the game where the series reaches for CLASSIC status and kind of gets there for awhile before falling off into the GREAT GAME pit.

There are also a couple of text-adventures that can be downloaded along with 6 Days that try to swell the story even more. They are also pretty good. If a little short. And painfully easy. They're worth it just for the story, really. It's a good story.

Anyway, THE CHZO MYTHOS is a bunch of games that beg to be played. And played chronologically. In a day. Taken separately, each game is a fun, well-made adventure game. Good games. Taken together, the whole thing becomes MASSIVE ENTERTAINMENT. GREAT game. There is such a heavily cinematic feel to all of it that you can't help feeling like you're watching a fantastic Hollywood horror film DONE RIGHT. Like The Exorcist or something. As written by Junji Ito. With Ewan McGregor as lead. It's a well-written, excellently directed story that you can really lose yourself in... for a day or so. Unless you absolutely refuse to check any walkthroughs, for in that case, my friend, YOU WILL GET STUCK. I guarantee you WILL get stuck and bang your head against the wall forever.

Whatever. All the games can be downloaded HERE and by God, you should download them RIGHT NOW. DOWNLOAD ALL AND PLAY NOW and donate the cash you're going to spend on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Redux Redux Redux OR WHATEVER to Ben Croshaw.