Ecstatica (1994) Review: Venerable Ordeals

[@johannesparkmann3899]

i am so happy i found your channel, its a treasure trove in this hellhole of zoomer reaction phase thumbnails we call youtube

[@TheStowAway594]

Wow those animations are incredible, they have so much expression to them, that's something you only seem to get with hand done animations. The whole game looks really neat, shame it's so frustrating to play.

[@Metoollhead]

This game left quite the impression on me and my brother when we were younger, despite not getting too much into it. Thanks for giving it a thorough examination!

[@BrBetim]

Excellent channel! That Warhammer Fantasy reference definitely caught me by surprise

[@Haukipesukone]

I recall browsing through a gaming magazine and fantasizing about playing Ecstatica when it came out. Alas I didn't have a PC back then.

[@ItsAGorillaStudios]

This channel's aesthetics are fantastic. With its mix of ancient mysticism and modern technology, it reminds me of this game called Void Pyramid. It's free on Android as well as Steam and was apparently on Ouya originally. It'd be a perfect fit, methinks.

[@Gilgamechasaur]

Thanks. I keep a spreadsheet of stuff covering some 150 or so games from the 90s up to present. Will add to the list. The visuals do look really interesting.

[@the_ecips9692]

So, to be honest, this developer was way ahead of his time with this style of engine. And while there are a lot of arguments that make me believe we'll never get rid of polygons in graphics, I am still a fan of Euclideon's "unlimited detail" cloud point rendering tech (because its effing amazing and did "UE5 graphics" like 10+ years ago, check out that "Forest" demo! Yes, it's a scan, and DAYUM it still looks better than most scanned VR environments I see today). So, this elipsoid tech does remind me of that, which makes this man a genius in my books. TL&DR; Great video, I will check out the game and its sequel :-D Love me some 3D retro gaming action.

[@wilsonkierankitsune]

No wonder the wolf is after her ^^. Wolf looks more like an ape to me. Happy I found your channel, these obscure games are interesting to hear about

[@Metallic_Sn0w]

Great to see old games being dug up and explored, love your work

[@Maggerama]

Once, I did let my cousin play Esctatica - just to see him scared and all. The first thing he did was understand how dodging works - then he killed the wolf with his bare hands. Took him 30-50 minutes, I think. I was just sitting there picking up my jaw from the floor. Speaking of killing the tension. Still love the game and agree that it was ahead of its time in many aspects. The atmosphere is so uncanny, further boosted by the juxtaposition of horrific violence and wacky ellipses. One of my favs of all time.

[@Maggerama]

Oh yeah, gotta add that your statement "the sequel improved upon it in every way" is super-false. Try it out and find out I ain't lying.

[@Gilgamechasaur]

Sorry, it's been, but from the top of my head when I looked it up there were a lot of improvements, specifically controls were better, graphics were improved to SVGA, and the music went from midi to redbook audio, but I recall a lot of people thought the change of tone made it a lot worse, which is why I did the first game. Might return to it at some point.

[@Maggerama]

@@Gilgamechasaur Also, constantly respawning enemies and the abundance of shitty combat with them. Honestly, the former killed it for me. I could deal with intakill traps and obscurity, it's a thing Esctatica did well, but that was just a bothersome hassle. And the carefully crafted, slow-paced atmosphere of the original was shattered, naturally. From what I know, the sequel was unloved by its creator, and the game he shelved to make this trash looked so much more interesting. I don't remember the name, but I guess you'll eventually look it up. There was something ghetto-blasing and super-violent in the making.

[@Maggerama]

In the end, Psygnosis is to blame, I suppose. Oh, one key word for the road: stunlocks.

[@graemebloodworth8991]

I love to see old forgotten game brought back up like this. great job!

[@Skyrilla]

Hey Gilga... I have a feeling this is going to be a Civvie thing. You start out with a small following, but you end up being unique and entertaining enough that you will explode within a year, at least, I hope for you, but, unlike Civvie, I hope you get to stay in touch with your following. Uhhh oh, okay have you ever played Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri?

[@Gilgamechasaur]

Hey buddy, thanks a lot. I hope so too. To be honest, I wasn't even familiar with a lot of the content creators people have mentioned, but as I've made more stuff I've leaned into inserting more of myself and my interests into the vids, which I think people like. Specifically I do hope to do more story based things. The reception for Azrael's Tear was incredible. Terra Nova, the early looking glass game... a little clunky, and only played very briefly. I think I mentioned it in one of the earlier vids too. It's definitely very interesting. Right now things at work are super busy, but I have something interesting planned, one on an rpg most people have never heard of, and another eventually a sort of series on games that defined how I think about games, like Daggerfall and Morrowind.

[@FourheadWeapon]

I don't know how to explain it but this game's look reminds me of the early days of computer animation where people looked like clunky caricatures of humans. and idk why but that's comforting to me.

[@badwolf66]

Excellent Ecstatica review, you nailed it, Ecstatica was a big part of my childhood I never gave up playing even after the many deaths but it was all trial and error until finally I beat the game back in 2000 I think it was, I was 9 or 10 at the time depending on the month. I still have dreams about this game, like it I'd telling me there is a lot more to explore but I know I've searched and done everything. Ecstatica was so influential on me that I made my own LittleBigPlanet level based on it, I based it in the village I lived in too, I uploaded footage of it onto my channel if you want to have a look. I do hope we get an Ecstatica 3 or a reboot but it doesn't look likely, is Andrew Spence even alive?!

[@Gilgamechasaur]

That's amazing. Last I can tell, he left behind gaming after Urban Decay got cancelled and works as a programmer at the Dynamics Research Group of the University of Sheffield.

[@HYPERMASCULINE]

Only remembered that I'd seen this before in magazines at 4:45 .. not sure why but this scene did the rounds back then

[@Gilgamechasaur]

Probably because it's pretty brutal. Control gets taken away from you while you're pummelled helplessly. 2d sprites lack that visceral quality, so it stands out.

[@Cykotyk]

You have the vibe of Bad Movie Bible in all the best ways, I hope to see you grow.

[@dallinehlers9612]

I watched all of your videos, please do more!

[@caiqueviola3359]

man loove the old games you dig up love your channel and your voice. this game rememberme a lot of Silver.

[@MikAlexander]

Had it for my 486! Loved it. Completed it at 10 years old! Second one on the other hand was way too hard.

[@abyoyo]

I subscribed because I like your style.

[@CrashHeadroom]

I cant help but think nintendo kind of looked at this for some ideas when making ocarina of time. I got heavy beta hyrule square vibes from the town in this.

[@miaouew]

I love the little goblins.

[@StarBlue42]

Did you make your segment transitions yourself? Or have they been taken from other games? Your style is really cool.

[@Gilgamechasaur]

Thanks. I made the transitions myself, using a combination of open source tools: the the image editor Gimp, Stable Diffusion and Shotcut video to piece it together. The imagery sort of comes as a melding of a lot of influences that I've always loved, combined with imagery and ideas that come out of a story setting I've been thinking about for over a decade but haven't done much with on account of real life ...

[@StarBlue42]

@@GilgamechasaurNice! it totally has the ascetic of an old PC game

[@klimychbarin]

2:33 Tomb Raider (2013)

[@gamgeenee2]

actually, ducking is really, really effective.

[@Fefe1036]

I'm lost on youtube again and i love it thank you whoever u are Andrew Spence and Gilgamechasaurus ps : I wiish I could erase my memories of this vid and experience the game all fresh and innocent/ (preferably young) then age and watch me stumble on this youtube

[@d1halberdgnoll963]

Who you calling an ellipsoid bruh?!

[@DrymouthCWW]

No waaaaay...oh how i tried to get this running properly when i was a kid...ellipsoid heaven