Correction: I called Mike Wilson (co-founder of Ion Storm and Devolver), Mark Wilson. His name is not Mark, it is in fact...Mike. I'll see you next year when I remake this video.
The intro in which you play Darktide until it crashes and you move to something else is in fact the exact sequence of events that led me to watch this video.
I wanted to say effectively the same. Like grim's videos have always been good but damnit they've gotten like WAY better in the last year or something. Always an event when a new grimbeard video comes out 🖤
You have successfully converted me from having no knowledge of this game to also being irritated that there hasn't been a sequel. Congratulations, I have joined you in this tar pit.
I've always liked the idea of worlds not having an overarching antagonist calling the shots. It's interesting to have a place where creatures are causing havoc simply because that's what they do. Thanks for the vid Grim Beard!
It hasn’t even been a month since I started watching your reviews, and I have been binge watching these. Your writing is so good and balanced with just the right amount of comedy. My favourite review is of Deus Ex. Thank you for the high quality content.
Thank you for all your hard work, dear GrimBeard. This one is close to my heart. Take good care, don't ever give up. Like your painted nails, they give character. From Corfu island, Greece, Merry Christmas.
This is genuinely the best written, funniest, most enjoyable video you've ever released, and I'm so looking forward to what you've got coming next. Keep up the great work Grim daddy!
Many years ago now, I discovered a goth gamer boy with a sleepy bird voice. He spoke very passionately about a game called Nocturne. It's been a while since then, and I've had a chance to watch this little goth gamer boy hone his craft. I can't wait to see what he does next.
Ikr? They look even better on older hardware for some reason. You can get them to look a little better on newer systems by locking the framerate, but they look so much better on old hardware. Whoever saw this game back in the day must've done rapid spit-takes when they looked at the screen
@@RetroDeathReviews666 The thing that impressed me the most at the time was the realtime casting of shadows. I do not remember another game from that era that did them so, so well. Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare tried its hand at it but really not as good.
@@forgot7en Right? In general even still imo, the game uses shadows to a genuine art form. It's up there with the likes of Thief Deadly Shadows, Doom 3, Blade of Darkness and some others that used some of the coolest looking shadows/lighting I've ever seen in games. Same with the blood, and the cloth physics (at least when they're not clipping and freaking out) I think Alone In The Dark NN looked great for the time too, but I agree, not quite as good as Nocturne.
@@RetroDeathReviews666 The thing that the Nocturne/Blair Witch trilogy engine does with its shadows looks so much more organic than TDS, D3 and BoD were rendering, and many other games In the next generation. Those games, while indeed dark and appealing, produced shadows that were too clean-cut. They generally also were, ironically, too dark, producing this harsh contrast, not just because they tended to be too dark and sometimes even pitch black, they also had very harsh edges. They looked like paper-cutouts of shadows, it's like the game is copying the original model and flattening it against surfaces to give the illusion of a shadow. But in the Nocturne engine, even though they are being rendered at a low resolution and appear pixelated, they seem so much more organic and dynamic. It really looks like there is a real light casting real shadows off of people, creatures, objects, etc, and the shadows themselves look soft and ethereal, as opposed to hard paper cutouts. It just feels so much more convincing and immersive to me. Those other games certainly still look fantastic in their own right, there's real artistry at work and I've always been someone who appreciates the artistry that goes into making dark environments look great. It's one of the reasons I love classic survival horror games, and it's so clear to me that Nocturne/Blair Witch games handled their visuals uniquely among their peers, and it took the industry quite some time to incorporate realtime shadows in the same way. Not that there weren't games that did it, for example Silent Hill 3 uses the same technique and does it even better. But looking at Resident Evil Code Veronica as a mainstream example, rendered shadows are limited. Often obvious light sources aren't even considered for rendering shadows at all. There could be huge fire next to you, and there's normal lighting, but a shadow of your character or enemies aren't being cast at all. Then there was RE4, which looked so flat even in its most eerie eras, and often the only shadows are literally blobs under their feet as if it's a PS1 game. Code Veronica actually looked so much better because it did have real time shadows, and it's one of the reasons the HD version looks so damn good, but it's a shame it wasn't universal or even consistent. You could walk into a brightly lit room, but shadows aren't being cast in the right direction. Sometimes a room or a hallway doesn't even appear to have any lamps or whatever, but it still looks relatively bright, and there's a cast shadow for no reason. Sometimes you're in a room with multiple obvious light sources but only one or two of them cast shadows. Sorry for rambling, I obviously pay way too much attention to this stuff lol
Dejavu.... I swear that Nocturne was the first Grimbeard review I ever watched. Its what put me onto this channel many YEARS ago! You had less than 5k subs and I remember being stoked when discovering such a super underrated quality gaming review channel.
@@GrimBeard I coulda swore a video on Nocturne was how I found your channel, but maybe it was a Strat-Edgy video and yours was in the suggested. Either way hell yea more GrimBeard
@@GrimBeard I'm also always discovering older reviews from you and then all of a sudden they're gone, you gotta be fuckin' with us. Either way, your vids and whole channel are one of a kind, keep it up!
Really glad to see a HD remake of this review!! Now an HD remake of the game itself wouldn't be *as* good, but still very welcome. I hope you'll look at the BWP game too :3
The story of Nocturne and the setting just sounds like such a good book idea, and it's so damn sad that there might never be a sequel. I've never heard about this game, nor played it, and yet the charm of the game is not lost on me. Great video!
I fall asleep to your videos every night, but now I watch them during the day while gaming too because they've gotten so good. Eventually your voice will replace the voices of all the demons in my head!
I just had quadruple hernia surgery and am watching this from my hospital bed, wincing as my laughter pulls at my freshly-stitched wounds like a kid on Christmas. edit: it's great really. ty for this video grimbu
I actually shouted at my TV when you said you were covering The Darkness next. I'm too cheap to be a Patreon and suggest that one myself, so I'm glad someone else did. But I will be sipping piss out of my fancy new Grimbeard mug while I watch the next review.
Incredible video, my dude. The pace between "setups", substantial information, quick puns and "payouts" to more elaborate jokes is top tier. Your writing skills are through the roof. Really hope you are proud and accomplished, because you deserve to feel like so.
I swear I have to be one of maybe two or three people that are still absolutely fascinated by the concepts brought forth by Nocturne and by extension the Blair Witch Volumes. A prohibition-era x-files-esque government department of monster hunters that work with monsters just SLAPS and I so freaking wish there were ways to dig into any old concepts that the devs surely left behind. Thank you for making this incredible video showcasing one of my faves
It's such a cool concept. The original FEAR game was supposed to follow up on a similar premise. Essentially a supernatural SWAT team that hunts down ghosts, vampires, and other crazy supernatural stuff. Like I know there plenty of works that establish this government sactioned organization, but I really want one that nails that "just another day on the job" vibe. No big bad guys, just a bunch of linked cases.
@@forgot7en Jumped the shark like so many other shows. Same problem Dragon Ball Z has. You start off with realistic enemies, but then your characters get too good at killing those and they wind up fighting stronger enemies, in the case of Supernatural it was full-on demons to angels, to archangels, Lucifer himself, then it just got worse from there. If they had shown that monsters were still a massive threat because of how numerous they were, I think they could have kept from escalating, but writers can't really do that. They need to one-up their last monster with something more dangerous.
You're one of my favourite game reviewers out there and I regularly re-watch your whole output. Thanks for all the work you do. I especially love the shift you've made over time to opening each video by exploring the history and previous works of the developers who created the game, and the initial pitch that led to it. A lot of gaming essays default to just explaining the context of the time and genre in which a game RELEASED, which is good for understanding how audiences reacted to it but IMO, is the wrong foot to start on when picking apart what the game is going for and the decisions that were made along the way. Starting out with that perspective, and then explaining fully what the story of a game is before diving into the gameplay or technical aspects, is what gives your videos a really unique perspective. Where, regardless of whether you end up liking a game, you give each one the chance to speak for itself and show off whatever creative spark is unique to it, rather than comparing it against our unspoken collective standards for whatever a game in its genre should be.
As always another video game immersive analysis (review just doesnt cut it) pouring with unique style and particular choice of topics that end up being highly entertaining. I might start painting my nails, black, just as a way to say you are doing a great job man!
Oh boy, another Grimbeard banger video to sit down and watch with tea and snacks. Legitimately one of my favorite content creators on the internet, and inspiring me to get off my ass and make stuff too. Let's go.
I haven't played most of these games, but this guy's work is top notch - the intros, music, commentary. Have this Content Creator of the Year award - 🏆
Thank you for covering this game with such passion as mine for this game, R.I.P. Lynn Mathis, the voice of Stranger. Played back in 1999 when it wasw released, I was 23, there was no much coverage on RUclips about this until I found your video :))
You deserve billions of views, naturally, but I love the cozy feeling of your videos and community. Its like that great local spot not many people know about.
This is one of those games that I always wanted to play. I had a demo of it, but at the time, my PC wasn't up to the task. The concept of it always sparked my imagination though in the same way that the SCP foundation and the Hellboy comics do now. Makes me want to build what would have been a top end PC for say 2000 just for this kind of thing without having to mess with VMs or weird arcane patches. As usual Grim, great editing, great humour, great music, great video!
The cloth physics would've aged perfectly if there weren't any graphical/performance issues on current hardware. I never played Nocturne, but I played The Blair Witch Project Volumes 1-3 and everything stated here about the visuals is consistent in all four games, and to a certain extent BloodRayne too. The cloth physics and realtime rendered shadows were absolutely mind-blowing at the time! And the way the blood and gore are done, the way blood sprays and splatters and pools around is so god damn satisfying. It's one of those graphics engines that make you think "they were really ahead of its time" because a whole generation of gaming would go by before real time shadows became commonplace, and even then, most games' real time shadows still didn't look nearly as good as they did in TerminalReality title. And the cloth physics; oh my god. Footage recorded on current hardware really doesn't show how incredible they really are. Another feature which Grim Beard didn't mention here (maybe doesn't happen in Nocturne, but does in the Blair Witch trilogy) is how corpses will not only remain where you killed them, but also they will turn into 2D sprites when you go off-screen. When you come back you might not even notice it but even though they're 2D sprites THEY STILL CAST SHADOWS AS IF THEY WERE STILL 3D MODELS. It's like the game is turning corpses into objects dynamically just so it doesn't break continuity and immersion. They really didn't need to do that. I mean, compare it to Resident Evil 3, those graphics were so rudimentary and barebones, they didn't even bother with real time shadows. But TerminalReality were doing things that were not only graphically impressive for its time, it was absolutely perfectly suited for the genre, and as far as I can remember, there were no other games or series that put THIS MUCH attention to detail -- not in terms of models and textures, but the physics of how these graphics interacted with each other. Cloth physics interact almost perfectly with the character model, blood is so satisfyingly rendered, shadows are beautifully cast, lighting and lens flares perfectly emulating how flashlights look in dark and misty environments, holy balls. It's ridiculous to me that in the classic survival horror genre, everyone always talks about Resident Evil, Silent Hill, maybe Alone in the Dark and even Parasite Eve, but if there's another game that deserves just as much praise and appreciation is definitely The Blair Witch Project Volume I Rustin Parr, and arguably also Volume II The Legend of Coffin Rock. AMAZING horror games, man, with phenomenal voice acting and great storytelling. Volume III was not as good though. It was bad. Very bad. But that graphics engine, man. Oh man.
Whether I'm interested in the game being reviewed or not, I'm excited about every video you upload. I love your writing, enjoy your takes, and adore your sense of humour.
One game I hope you cover at some point is Urban Chaos, a 1999 proto GTA 3 Tomb Raider mix where you play a sassy black woman stereotype cop and a gruff middle aged vigilante trying to stop a gang connected to a cult led by an ancient warlock.
I found this channel on the 6th of December and am convinced these here videos are my personal christmas gift. I hope Para-Pug remembers the memory of cold and that he gets a blanket.
As someone who happened to have an embarrassingly long 1v1 struggle with a home invading bat, I appreciate Bat Round-ups. Because I discovered bat wrangling is it's own art form requiring more brain sweat than simple "shoo, go away!" tactics to be effective.
I checked to see if you made videos, I love seeing scientists showing their work & I hoped you had some bat videos. Just dropping this comment here in case you were thinking of making stuff for your channel. I'd love to see good bat content.
I know I'm late to the comment party, but I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your work. It's a great mix of thorough information and dark humor. Not to mention you always cover games I'd either always knew about and never got to try, or ones I already greatly enjoy. I appreciate everything you do, and keep up the great work! Glad to see a longer Nocturne review.
One of those games that lived in the imagination for years thanks to a guidebook I had for it found in an old gaming magazine, before I finally played it and it lived up to it perfectly. That we never got more will always be a shame.
Also the story of you finding the game in a store randomly as a child, not knowing anything about it before but being enthralled by it is both nostalgic and a bit sad, because I don't think that sort of thing is really possible these days. That sort of serendipitous find of stumbling on something that so nichely appeals to you in your average shop just seems impossible.
I was skeptical when I saw that you revisited one of my favorite reviews of yours, but I've got to say that this version is even better and more insightful than the last.
I really like this redux review, I'm all for you reviewing whatever the hell you want, but I just want to put out there that a ridiculously in depth Harvester redux review would be right up my alley. :D Keep on gothin', John Grimbeard.
Man, I love hearing Grim get excited about shit I never would have ever heard about without him. Also, I love how that "damn, he won't be in Rush Hour 3" blooper joke is just a thing that everyone of a certain age knows.
I'm not prone to hyperbole, but that line "... with eyes that would soon have the power of one" at 18:10 made me actually spit out some of my coffee, and this coffee was expensive.
The idea of this game and series is so charming to me, and I even find it creeping its way into things like the Blair Witch games and Bloodrayne to add to that. It's a fun well of ideas sorely wasted. I think that interview clip with the dev talking about the Ghostbusters symbol study hurt the most. So candidly admitting that it's all because of brand recognition just feels quite sour. Amazing vid, very excited for the Darkness as someone who really enjoyed those games and comics as an edgy teen!
Such a gem of a game. So glad you decided to remake this review, even better than your original one. That one was what got me into the game. And inspired me to make my own review a few weeks ago ;P
I thought that was a weird coincidence. I think a collab is in order in the future :) Fan of both channels, looking forward to seeing more game vids buddy 🤘
Those pre-rendered backgrounds are really atmospheric - something about them: eerie, liminal space'y... Amazing. Thank you for your work and this video - I'm so glad there are people like you on YT 😊
They are not almost completely separate from each other, Nocturne and Rustin Parr are literally in the same setting. BloodRayne is the only one that seems detached at first, but if you pay attention to dialog, both Rayne and Mynce literally work for Spookhouse, and to a point Rayne believes she's being helped by Darkman over radio transmissions.
@@forgot7en No, they work for the Brimstone Society, a different, more ''esoterical'' order of supernatural hunters, they do however go to Castle Gaustadt, seeking for the Yathgy stone, now revealed to be the heart of a very ancient and powerful devil, Hedrox steals the relic from the Mayor (Count Voicu) and kills him, also he wrongly uses the relic, maybe the same way the mayor expected his son to do (ressurrecting the devil and dying in the process). TLDR: it's in the same universe, different organization, same Castle, Vampire Lord and Relic from Nocturne's First Act.
I just wanted to say your content is some of the best underground reviews I’ve ever been recommended I hope one day you get really popular because your editing, humor, and the games you’ve shown me are on point
The old review of Nocturne was fine, but this new re-review of Nocturne is entirely justified by (if nothing else) the fact that it reveals the Wishbone - Nocturne connection. Is the hyper intelligent dog Wishbone some sort of paranormal creature that Spookhouse will someday hunt down, or is Spookhouse (and perhaps all of our reality) nothing more than the mental construct of a bookish Jack Russell Terrier? I hope Nightdive Studios insists that this key question is addressed when it bankrolls Nocturne 2.
you've improved and honed your skill at making these videos that you've vaulted past 97% of other similar content creators. I mean you're up there with the big boys now, Sseth, Yahtzee and Action Button
Woah, I remmeber playing the demo to this game way back when. It had zero context and just dropped you into one of the levels. What a head-spin. Awesome video, was great to see this weird, rough gem in all its janky glory.
Nitedive is one of those wishlist devs for a new Nocturne that I feel a sense of foreboding as much as excitement at the possibility. That developer always does such an incredible job with the games they somehow resurrect through whatever arcane dark magic that goes into making games. They also absolutely will not stop slamming their heads into a project for however long it might take until a game reaches a state they could deem as acceptable and ready for release. Likely some sort of possession going on there, I've seen it happen a million times. I'm still hopeful that their System Shock game will eventually see the light of day, and if that is a home run then perhaps we should all just hit them up on Twitter and beg as hard as possible as one gigantic, incessant gamer voice.
I feel like this one's been a long time coming, and it absolutely did not disappoint! my only exposure to Nocturne outside your videos was a glowing review from Just Adventure (RIP) I read over a decade ago, and the subsequent sad experience of discovering there was no reasonable way for me to play it. so thanks for doing this awesome video and, I guess, giving younger me a little closure on that!
I was a young teen when this came out and my brother in law and I were absolutely blown away by the lighting physics in this. There was a time when that kind of shit was enough to blow you away... take it all for granted you Gen 💤
In my experience as a kid in the 90s, everyone hated tank controls and static cameras in all of these games. It was just something we put up with. Some people hated it more than others, but I never remember anyone actually saying these things were actually good back then.
This type of review format is probably the best I've found on RUclips. It's nice to come across a review of the game itself as a complete product rather than another channel that's basically an aging gamer capitalizing on nostalgia to give out an extended ear beating about some abstract concept or how a certain game gave them the feels. Especially as review channels are beginning to saturate this platform to the point of absurdity. Underneath the humor and ongoing intro gags...this channel shows a rather incredible amount of professionalism. Honestly, I hope this channel either takes off or ends up as one hell of a portfolio for a lucrative media career. Good luck and Godspeed sir.
This might legitimately be the best video you’ve made. I’m not sure what it is, the genuine love you have for the game, the unrealized potential of the IP, and the game at the center of it, it all just CLICKS. This video truly fucks, grim. Way to go
Its so crazy I've played most of the games you've reviewed. These videos transport me back to my pc gamer days, couple friends and me staring at the glowing CRT, waiting to be amazed by that new game. I kept a pentium 4 with winxp and couple CRTs so I can relive all that, but its just not like that anymore. Shitty world has changed, music is crap, friends are now old geezers, i've got kids n stuff, no amount of blunts can change that. But yeah, watching these vids somehow does the trick, so TLDR, thanks for these.
Hell yeah, another Grim Beard video. I get even more hyped when I see the 1:33 timestamp. Got some popcorn and downed that video in 1:30, speed run baby. The foreshadowing of The Darkness case on the desk, classic.
the "doing weird things to try and save scripted to die NPC's in 2000s games" is something i feel can bring generations together i remember i once figured out in the offical star wars episode III video game, in the mission when anakin goes to Mustafar, you can spare the techno union guy if you kill all the other seperatist leaders in a specific order, dor some reason it just skips to the cutscene as if you got them all
Hey @GrimBeard , I still have my copy for PC. I remember seeing it in my local Electronics Boutique when I was picking up a keyboard and mouse for my Dreamcasts webbrowser2.0. the box art was what sold me, so I sprang for the clams to try her out. I was 12, I believe.
This was a wonderful review! I had never heard of this game before, but it's Vibes quickly reminded me of World of Darkness, particularly VTMBloodlines, which was more than enough to gather a lot of goodwill from me. The review made me want to play it, jank and all. Thank you for giving this game it's time on the spotlight!
Blair Witch Project games from the early 2000s use the same engine and are very similar; I'd definitely recommend checking them out as well, especially the first one (it's a trilogy; each of them is quite short, 3-4 h tops). I remember playing these games back when they came out, shame we'll probably never see any sequel to Nocturne... it's a cool premise, gotta say. I really like horror games set in the 20s/30s.
Hey Grim, I want to say having your videos on repeat during the Christmas rush has made it tolerable and stopped me from feeding myself into the printer at work. Hearing you mention Heavy Metal FAKK 2 was great, it's definitely a game you should cover in time simply for its vibe and soundtrack. It's a game that's close to my heart, as it's one of the games I remember playing on my chunky old Windows XP rig, back in the days as a kid posting on a Bionicle forum and downloading Rob Zombie songs off Limewire (House of a 1000 Corpses lets goooo). Thank you for an amazing year of videos, I hope you have a merry Christmas, happy holidays, and I look forward to whatever you do next year!
I'm so thankful for making the chanell lore accessible for the new users. I could never understand what is going on in Civvie11 videos. But here it's cool and easy to grasp even thought I'm with the channel for less then 2 videos
Correction: I called Mike Wilson (co-founder of Ion Storm and Devolver), Mark Wilson. His name is not Mark, it is in fact...Mike. I'll see you next year when I remake this video.
Merry Christmas, I hope your doing well.
Best Wishes to from germany in this dark time. Hope you have your stash of kickstart orange citrus and everything else you need.
Oh thank god.
I was wondering how I'd get my next Nocturne fix.
oh Hi Mark
Check The Devil Inside game. It's almost completely forgotten (only a few gameplays on yt) but I think you may like it in some weird way a lot
The intro in which you play Darktide until it crashes and you move to something else is in fact the exact sequence of events that led me to watch this video.
Karmic resolution
A common tale, I'm sure
I don't know how you do it, but you consistently have some of the best writing anyone puts out on this strange platform. Editing always on point too.
Thanks hehe 👉👈
It's his giant... manhood
Came here to say the same just after the intro. Loved the "writing class" joke right after the awkward exposition/flashback dump. Slayed me.
Not to mention, just everything about Parapug speaks to some genius world building skills
I wanted to say effectively the same. Like grim's videos have always been good but damnit they've gotten like WAY better in the last year or something. Always an event when a new grimbeard video comes out 🖤
You have successfully converted me from having no knowledge of this game to also being irritated that there hasn't been a sequel. Congratulations, I have joined you in this tar pit.
I've always liked the idea of worlds not having an overarching antagonist calling the shots. It's interesting to have a place where creatures are causing havoc simply because that's what they do.
Thanks for the vid Grim Beard!
Yeah, I like monsters that are just a part of the (super)natural world like they are sentient creatures with their own lives outside of the story.
It hasn’t even been a month since I started watching your reviews, and I have been binge watching these. Your writing is so good and balanced with just the right amount of comedy. My favourite review is of Deus Ex. Thank you for the high quality content.
Yo me too! I love this guy.
same here ... but you know he is crazy no doubt about it, its not just an act ...
This channel helps me remember why I love video games, in a era where it’s really easy to forget. Thanks Grim.
Thank you for all your hard work, dear GrimBeard. This one is close to my heart. Take good care, don't ever give up. Like your painted nails, they give character. From Corfu island, Greece, Merry Christmas.
We(the fans) are still watching for this game to come back :(.
This is genuinely the best written, funniest, most enjoyable video you've ever released, and I'm so looking forward to what you've got coming next. Keep up the great work Grim daddy!
Seconded. This vid was goddamn excellent.
ONFG.
Many years ago now, I discovered a goth gamer boy with a sleepy bird voice. He spoke very passionately about a game called Nocturne. It's been a while since then, and I've had a chance to watch this little goth gamer boy hone his craft. I can't wait to see what he does next.
That isn't a sleepy bird voice, that is a gay sassy autist voice.
this comment
Those cloth/trenchcoat physics have actually aged really well.
Ikr? They look even better on older hardware for some reason.
You can get them to look a little better on newer systems by locking the framerate, but they look so much better on old hardware. Whoever saw this game back in the day must've done rapid spit-takes when they looked at the screen
@@RetroDeathReviews666 The thing that impressed me the most at the time was the realtime casting of shadows. I do not remember another game from that era that did them so, so well. Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare tried its hand at it but really not as good.
@@forgot7en Right? In general even still imo, the game uses shadows to a genuine art form. It's up there with the likes of Thief Deadly Shadows, Doom 3, Blade of Darkness and some others that used some of the coolest looking shadows/lighting I've ever seen in games. Same with the blood, and the cloth physics (at least when they're not clipping and freaking out)
I think Alone In The Dark NN looked great for the time too, but I agree, not quite as good as Nocturne.
@@RetroDeathReviews666 The thing that the Nocturne/Blair Witch trilogy engine does with its shadows looks so much more organic than TDS, D3 and BoD were rendering, and many other games In the next generation. Those games, while indeed dark and appealing, produced shadows that were too clean-cut. They generally also were, ironically, too dark, producing this harsh contrast, not just because they tended to be too dark and sometimes even pitch black, they also had very harsh edges. They looked like paper-cutouts of shadows, it's like the game is copying the original model and flattening it against surfaces to give the illusion of a shadow.
But in the Nocturne engine, even though they are being rendered at a low resolution and appear pixelated, they seem so much more organic and dynamic. It really looks like there is a real light casting real shadows off of people, creatures, objects, etc, and the shadows themselves look soft and ethereal, as opposed to hard paper cutouts. It just feels so much more convincing and immersive to me.
Those other games certainly still look fantastic in their own right, there's real artistry at work and I've always been someone who appreciates the artistry that goes into making dark environments look great. It's one of the reasons I love classic survival horror games, and it's so clear to me that Nocturne/Blair Witch games handled their visuals uniquely among their peers, and it took the industry quite some time to incorporate realtime shadows in the same way.
Not that there weren't games that did it, for example Silent Hill 3 uses the same technique and does it even better. But looking at Resident Evil Code Veronica as a mainstream example, rendered shadows are limited. Often obvious light sources aren't even considered for rendering shadows at all. There could be huge fire next to you, and there's normal lighting, but a shadow of your character or enemies aren't being cast at all. Then there was RE4, which looked so flat even in its most eerie eras, and often the only shadows are literally blobs under their feet as if it's a PS1 game. Code Veronica actually looked so much better because it did have real time shadows, and it's one of the reasons the HD version looks so damn good, but it's a shame it wasn't universal or even consistent. You could walk into a brightly lit room, but shadows aren't being cast in the right direction. Sometimes a room or a hallway doesn't even appear to have any lamps or whatever, but it still looks relatively bright, and there's a cast shadow for no reason. Sometimes you're in a room with multiple obvious light sources but only one or two of them cast shadows.
Sorry for rambling, I obviously pay way too much attention to this stuff lol
Yep, it was very close to what we're now accustomed to. Incredible work.
Excellent review man!
Dejavu.... I swear that Nocturne was the first Grimbeard review I ever watched. Its what put me onto this channel many YEARS ago! You had less than 5k subs and I remember being stoked when discovering such a super underrated quality gaming review channel.
did I do this one before? 🤔
@@GrimBeard I coulda swore a video on Nocturne was how I found your channel, but maybe it was a Strat-Edgy video and yours was in the suggested.
Either way hell yea more GrimBeard
@@GrimBeard I'm also always discovering older reviews from you and then all of a sudden they're gone, you gotta be fuckin' with us.
Either way, your vids and whole channel are one of a kind, keep it up!
Ah man my first video of his was Bloodrayne, I remember it clearly. Good times.
He talked about it and showed some game play footage maybe that's what causes your deja vu.
Really glad to see a HD remake of this review!!
Now an HD remake of the game itself wouldn't be *as* good, but still very welcome. I hope you'll look at the BWP game too :3
The story of Nocturne and the setting just sounds like such a good book idea, and it's so damn sad that there might never be a sequel. I've never heard about this game, nor played it, and yet the charm of the game is not lost on me. Great video!
It makes me happy to see Nocturne still remembered even to this day. Well done Grim! Well done!
@GrimBeard12 Wow! Ok! Thanks!
I fall asleep to your videos every night, but now I watch them during the day while gaming too because they've gotten so good.
Eventually your voice will replace the voices of all the demons in my head!
I just had quadruple hernia surgery and am watching this from my hospital bed, wincing as my laughter pulls at my freshly-stitched wounds like a kid on Christmas.
edit: it's great really. ty for this video grimbu
I actually shouted at my TV when you said you were covering The Darkness next. I'm too cheap to be a Patreon and suggest that one myself, so I'm glad someone else did. But I will be sipping piss out of my fancy new Grimbeard mug while I watch the next review.
Ah, so it's going to be a *good* day
A damn Good Day!
always my reaction when I see
new hour long grim videos
Incredible video, my dude. The pace between "setups", substantial information, quick puns and "payouts" to more elaborate jokes is top tier. Your writing skills are through the roof. Really hope you are proud and accomplished, because you deserve to feel like so.
I swear I have to be one of maybe two or three people that are still absolutely fascinated by the concepts brought forth by Nocturne and by extension the Blair Witch Volumes. A prohibition-era x-files-esque government department of monster hunters that work with monsters just SLAPS and I so freaking wish there were ways to dig into any old concepts that the devs surely left behind. Thank you for making this incredible video showcasing one of my faves
It's absolutely criminal that this franchise died with a wimper. I want to see Spookhouse and Doc Holliday again, man.
It's such a cool concept. The original FEAR game was supposed to follow up on a similar premise. Essentially a supernatural SWAT team that hunts down ghosts, vampires, and other crazy supernatural stuff. Like I know there plenty of works that establish this government sactioned organization, but I really want one that nails that "just another day on the job" vibe. No big bad guys, just a bunch of linked cases.
@@combatbenyamin That kind of used to be Supernatural with the Winchester Brothers before the show went biblical.
@@forgot7en Jumped the shark like so many other shows. Same problem Dragon Ball Z has. You start off with realistic enemies, but then your characters get too good at killing those and they wind up fighting stronger enemies, in the case of Supernatural it was full-on demons to angels, to archangels, Lucifer himself, then it just got worse from there.
If they had shown that monsters were still a massive threat because of how numerous they were, I think they could have kept from escalating, but writers can't really do that. They need to one-up their last monster with something more dangerous.
I swear I remember this being one of the first videos I ever seen of yours. Thanks for the review!
I know. Maybe it was Civvi?
modelo effect
@@GrimBeard based beer
You're one of my favourite game reviewers out there and I regularly re-watch your whole output. Thanks for all the work you do.
I especially love the shift you've made over time to opening each video by exploring the history and previous works of the developers who created the game, and the initial pitch that led to it. A lot of gaming essays default to just explaining the context of the time and genre in which a game RELEASED, which is good for understanding how audiences reacted to it but IMO, is the wrong foot to start on when picking apart what the game is going for and the decisions that were made along the way.
Starting out with that perspective, and then explaining fully what the story of a game is before diving into the gameplay or technical aspects, is what gives your videos a really unique perspective. Where, regardless of whether you end up liking a game, you give each one the chance to speak for itself and show off whatever creative spark is unique to it, rather than comparing it against our unspoken collective standards for whatever a game in its genre should be.
As always another video game immersive analysis (review just doesnt cut it) pouring with unique style and particular choice of topics that end up being highly entertaining.
I might start painting my nails, black, just as a way to say you are doing a great job man!
The history of that Roosevelt guy actually had me laughing out loud. Loved it
He would have been a doctor if he hadn't been dying of polio all the time.
@@Bhazor He stopped doing that in 1863
Oh boy, another Grimbeard banger video to sit down and watch with tea and snacks. Legitimately one of my favorite content creators on the internet, and inspiring me to get off my ass and make stuff too. Let's go.
I haven't played most of these games, but this guy's work is top notch - the intros, music, commentary. Have this Content Creator of the Year award - 🏆
Thank you for covering this game with such passion as mine for this game, R.I.P. Lynn Mathis, the voice of Stranger.
Played back in 1999 when it wasw released, I was 23, there was no much coverage on RUclips about this until I found your video :))
You deserve billions of views, naturally, but I love the cozy feeling of your videos and community. Its like that great local spot not many people know about.
This is one of those games that I always wanted to play. I had a demo of it, but at the time, my PC wasn't up to the task. The concept of it always sparked my imagination though in the same way that the SCP foundation and the Hellboy comics do now. Makes me want to build what would have been a top end PC for say 2000 just for this kind of thing without having to mess with VMs or weird arcane patches. As usual Grim, great editing, great humour, great music, great video!
This video is singlehandedly getting me through my night shift, thank you for your hard work!
The cloth physics would've aged perfectly if there weren't any graphical/performance issues on current hardware. I never played Nocturne, but I played The Blair Witch Project Volumes 1-3 and everything stated here about the visuals is consistent in all four games, and to a certain extent BloodRayne too. The cloth physics and realtime rendered shadows were absolutely mind-blowing at the time! And the way the blood and gore are done, the way blood sprays and splatters and pools around is so god damn satisfying. It's one of those graphics engines that make you think "they were really ahead of its time" because a whole generation of gaming would go by before real time shadows became commonplace, and even then, most games' real time shadows still didn't look nearly as good as they did in TerminalReality title. And the cloth physics; oh my god. Footage recorded on current hardware really doesn't show how incredible they really are.
Another feature which Grim Beard didn't mention here (maybe doesn't happen in Nocturne, but does in the Blair Witch trilogy) is how corpses will not only remain where you killed them, but also they will turn into 2D sprites when you go off-screen. When you come back you might not even notice it but even though they're 2D sprites THEY STILL CAST SHADOWS AS IF THEY WERE STILL 3D MODELS. It's like the game is turning corpses into objects dynamically just so it doesn't break continuity and immersion. They really didn't need to do that. I mean, compare it to Resident Evil 3, those graphics were so rudimentary and barebones, they didn't even bother with real time shadows. But TerminalReality were doing things that were not only graphically impressive for its time, it was absolutely perfectly suited for the genre, and as far as I can remember, there were no other games or series that put THIS MUCH attention to detail -- not in terms of models and textures, but the physics of how these graphics interacted with each other. Cloth physics interact almost perfectly with the character model, blood is so satisfyingly rendered, shadows are beautifully cast, lighting and lens flares perfectly emulating how flashlights look in dark and misty environments, holy balls.
It's ridiculous to me that in the classic survival horror genre, everyone always talks about Resident Evil, Silent Hill, maybe Alone in the Dark and even Parasite Eve, but if there's another game that deserves just as much praise and appreciation is definitely The Blair Witch Project Volume I Rustin Parr, and arguably also Volume II The Legend of Coffin Rock. AMAZING horror games, man, with phenomenal voice acting and great storytelling.
Volume III was not as good though. It was bad. Very bad. But that graphics engine, man. Oh man.
Whether I'm interested in the game being reviewed or not, I'm excited about every video you upload. I love your writing, enjoy your takes, and adore your sense of humour.
One game I hope you cover at some point is Urban Chaos, a 1999 proto GTA 3 Tomb Raider mix where you play a sassy black woman stereotype cop and a gruff middle aged vigilante trying to stop a gang connected to a cult led by an ancient warlock.
That sounds like madness, I'm in.
I found this channel on the 6th of December and am convinced these here videos are my personal christmas gift.
I hope Para-Pug remembers the memory of cold and that he gets a blanket.
As a wildlife biologist that studies bats, the bat roundup made me very pleased
As someone who happened to have an embarrassingly long 1v1 struggle with a home invading bat, I appreciate Bat Round-ups. Because I discovered bat wrangling is it's own art form requiring more brain sweat than simple "shoo, go away!" tactics to be effective.
As someone who once shat into a jar and then mixed it up with some sugar and vinegar I strongly recommend to all who would listen: don't try it.
That sounds like a cool job. I'd be so excited to say what my job is if that was my job
I checked to see if you made videos, I love seeing scientists showing their work & I hoped you had some bat videos. Just dropping this comment here in case you were thinking of making stuff for your channel. I'd love to see good bat content.
There's quite a bit of bat content if you like Rollercoasters of the suspended kind.
I know I'm late to the comment party, but I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your work. It's a great mix of thorough information and dark humor. Not to mention you always cover games I'd either always knew about and never got to try, or ones I already greatly enjoy. I appreciate everything you do, and keep up the great work! Glad to see a longer Nocturne review.
To me this channel is what nocturne is to you, never found anything else with the same great vibes
Excellent way of putting it yeah
Based take
One of those games that lived in the imagination for years thanks to a guidebook I had for it found in an old gaming magazine, before I finally played it and it lived up to it perfectly. That we never got more will always be a shame.
Also the story of you finding the game in a store randomly as a child, not knowing anything about it before but being enthralled by it is both nostalgic and a bit sad, because I don't think that sort of thing is really possible these days. That sort of serendipitous find of stumbling on something that so nichely appeals to you in your average shop just seems impossible.
Daaaamn Nocturne. When I was a kid this game was like the peak realism in games.My PC barely run it but the mood and atmosphere were incredible
I was skeptical when I saw that you revisited one of my favorite reviews of yours, but I've got to say that this version is even better and more insightful than the last.
I really like this redux review, I'm all for you reviewing whatever the hell you want, but I just want to put out there that a ridiculously in depth Harvester redux review would be right up my alley. :D Keep on gothin', John Grimbeard.
Man, I love hearing Grim get excited about shit I never would have ever heard about without him.
Also, I love how that "damn, he won't be in Rush Hour 3" blooper joke is just a thing that everyone of a certain age knows.
I'm not prone to hyperbole, but that line "... with eyes that would soon have the power of one" at 18:10 made me actually spit out some of my coffee, and this coffee was expensive.
(villainous laughter)
Grim you definitely have a talent for writing, thanks for making these.
The Goth Gamer himself comes at us with yet another masterpiece
The idea of this game and series is so charming to me, and I even find it creeping its way into things like the Blair Witch games and Bloodrayne to add to that. It's a fun well of ideas sorely wasted.
I think that interview clip with the dev talking about the Ghostbusters symbol study hurt the most. So candidly admitting that it's all because of brand recognition just feels quite sour.
Amazing vid, very excited for the Darkness as someone who really enjoyed those games and comics as an edgy teen!
This games lore and story is so good in a weird way. I need more
Never stop making these wonderful reviews please
Such a gem of a game. So glad you decided to remake this review, even better than your original one. That one was what got me into the game. And inspired me to make my own review a few weeks ago ;P
I thought that was a weird coincidence. I think a collab is in order in the future :) Fan of both channels, looking forward to seeing more game vids buddy 🤘
Grim, you provide me a short pause from my depression and loneliness. Thank you. I wish you the very best.
I worked hard to emotionally prepare myself, but 24 seconds in I'm already having to pause cause I was laughing too hard.
Those pre-rendered backgrounds are really atmospheric - something about them: eerie, liminal space'y... Amazing. Thank you for your work and this video - I'm so glad there are people like you on YT 😊
I kinda love how TR stealthily built an interconnected universe over three different franchises almost completely separate from each other.
They are not almost completely separate from each other, Nocturne and Rustin Parr are literally in the same setting. BloodRayne is the only one that seems detached at first, but if you pay attention to dialog, both Rayne and Mynce literally work for Spookhouse, and to a point Rayne believes she's being helped by Darkman over radio transmissions.
@@forgot7en No, they work for the Brimstone Society, a different, more ''esoterical'' order of supernatural hunters, they do however go to Castle Gaustadt, seeking for the Yathgy stone, now revealed to be the heart of a very ancient and powerful devil, Hedrox steals the relic from the Mayor (Count Voicu) and kills him, also he wrongly uses the relic, maybe the same way the mayor expected his son to do (ressurrecting the devil and dying in the process).
TLDR: it's in the same universe, different organization, same Castle, Vampire Lord and Relic from Nocturne's First Act.
@@harbinger7115 There's so many layers!!
Genuinely my favorite content creator on RUclips right now. First time commenting on a RUclips in years just to say keep up the good work!
The gravity boss is BRUTAL in this game.
Sometimes it's hard to tell if you're going to fall off a ledge or not. The unusual camera angles can be a real pain in the ass.
Great video! The Mulholland Drive edit had me dying
And I can't wait for the day you release your new songs!
God, this game is sick as shit.
There’s GOTTA be some freak at Nightdive who wants to remaster this, right?
Your oddball delivery is honestly super disarming and always gets a chuckle out of me
Interesting to see a more longer and deeper review of this game.
I just wanted to say your content is some of the best underground reviews I’ve ever been recommended I hope one day you get really popular because your editing, humor, and the games you’ve shown me are on point
The old review of Nocturne was fine, but this new re-review of Nocturne is entirely justified by (if nothing else) the fact that it reveals the Wishbone - Nocturne connection. Is the hyper intelligent dog Wishbone some sort of paranormal creature that Spookhouse will someday hunt down, or is Spookhouse (and perhaps all of our reality) nothing more than the mental construct of a bookish Jack Russell Terrier? I hope Nightdive Studios insists that this key question is addressed when it bankrolls Nocturne 2.
Only content producer that can hold a candle to Noah Caldwell's essays. Thank you for this marvelous video you beautiful human being
you've improved and honed your skill at making these videos that you've vaulted past 97% of other similar content creators. I mean you're up there with the big boys now, Sseth, Yahtzee and Action Button
Woah, I remmeber playing the demo to this game way back when. It had zero context and just dropped you into one of the levels. What a head-spin. Awesome video, was great to see this weird, rough gem in all its janky glory.
Nitedive is one of those wishlist devs for a new Nocturne that I feel a sense of foreboding as much as excitement at the possibility. That developer always does such an incredible job with the games they somehow resurrect through whatever arcane dark magic that goes into making games. They also absolutely will not stop slamming their heads into a project for however long it might take until a game reaches a state they could deem as acceptable and ready for release. Likely some sort of possession going on there, I've seen it happen a million times. I'm still hopeful that their System Shock game will eventually see the light of day, and if that is a home run then perhaps we should all just hit them up on Twitter and beg as hard as possible as one gigantic, incessant gamer voice.
I feel like this one's been a long time coming, and it absolutely did not disappoint! my only exposure to Nocturne outside your videos was a glowing review from Just Adventure (RIP) I read over a decade ago, and the subsequent sad experience of discovering there was no reasonable way for me to play it. so thanks for doing this awesome video and, I guess, giving younger me a little closure on that!
Was having a bummer of a birthday, this really made my day. Thanks, Grim
Happy Birthday!!!
Happy Birthday!!!
I love your videos Grim Beard, thank you for the quality content, hilarious jokes, and tackling these games I won't ever have the time to go into.
The restraint it must have taken to not mention Twin Peaks when a military guy called Briggs showed up. Proud of you
It's here! Years ago, when you become my RUclips notification, I knew this would come. It's just as euphoric as I imagined.
I was a young teen when this came out and my brother in law and I were absolutely blown away by the lighting physics in this. There was a time when that kind of shit was enough to blow you away... take it all for granted you Gen 💤
I think this video is one of your golden classics. The love you have for Nocturne makes this feature length video a blast to watch and re-watch!
In my experience as a kid in the 90s, everyone hated tank controls and static cameras in all of these games. It was just something we put up with. Some people hated it more than others, but I never remember anyone actually saying these things were actually good back then.
These were the same people calling Wind Waker 'kiddy' because of the art style.
I definitely heard people saying that it made things more tense in Silent Hill and helped make Harry feel like he wasn't an action hero.
It's because you were a kid in the 90s and not in your 20s
my favourite ytuber uploads and my birthday?? epic
I'm glad ParaPug is doing... doing.
Literally watched your BloodRayne review yesterday. Thank you Dire Moustache.
Keep up the good work
Warhammer 1 through 39,999 lmfao 😂
This type of review format is probably the best I've found on RUclips. It's nice to come across a review of the game itself as a complete product rather than another channel that's basically an aging gamer capitalizing on nostalgia to give out an extended ear beating about some abstract concept or how a certain game gave them the feels. Especially as review channels are beginning to saturate this platform to the point of absurdity. Underneath the humor and ongoing intro gags...this channel shows a rather incredible amount of professionalism. Honestly, I hope this channel either takes off or ends up as one hell of a portfolio for a lucrative media career. Good luck and Godspeed sir.
Fitting that your reimagining of the video that got me into this channel would be your best work yet.
This might legitimately be the best video you’ve made. I’m not sure what it is, the genuine love you have for the game, the unrealized potential of the IP, and the game at the center of it, it all just CLICKS. This video truly fucks, grim. Way to go
Once again, another masterpiece of a video. Thanks a lot, Grim!
Thank you for covering this. Because of who you are, I almost thought you had already done a video on it.
Its so crazy I've played most of the games you've reviewed. These videos transport me back to my pc gamer days, couple friends and me staring at the glowing CRT, waiting to be amazed by that new game. I kept a pentium 4 with winxp and couple CRTs so I can relive all that, but its just not like that anymore. Shitty world has changed, music is crap, friends are now old geezers, i've got kids n stuff, no amount of blunts can change that. But yeah, watching these vids somehow does the trick, so TLDR, thanks for these.
Love getting a notification while I'm at work and knowing that I'll have a new Grimbeard video to look forward to when I get home. Can't wait.
Everything you described liking about this game's story is exactly what i love about the original Hellboy comics.
Hell yeah, another Grim Beard video. I get even more hyped when I see the 1:33 timestamp. Got some popcorn and downed that video in 1:30, speed run baby. The foreshadowing of The Darkness case on the desk, classic.
Your original nocturne video is how I found you many years ago, god I love your channel
As a HUGE fan of rats and a large fan of bats also, your rat round up is always a favorite.. and now the bat round up is a great addition too! :D
Your content truly has only gotten better. I'm glad you keep shelling out amazing videos for our entertainment. Thanks!
the "doing weird things to try and save scripted to die NPC's in 2000s games" is something i feel can bring generations together
i remember i once figured out in the offical star wars episode III video game, in the mission when anakin goes to Mustafar, you can spare the techno union guy if you kill all the other seperatist leaders in a specific order, dor some reason it just skips to the cutscene as if you got them all
Hey @GrimBeard , I still have my copy for PC. I remember seeing it in my local Electronics Boutique when I was picking up a keyboard and mouse for my Dreamcasts webbrowser2.0. the box art was what sold me, so I sprang for the clams to try her out. I was 12, I believe.
How you described the games setting and way of conveying a story that jumps around in time, reminded me a bit of Killer is Dead
This was a wonderful review! I had never heard of this game before, but it's Vibes quickly reminded me of World of Darkness, particularly VTMBloodlines, which was more than enough to gather a lot of goodwill from me. The review made me want to play it, jank and all. Thank you for giving this game it's time on the spotlight!
Blair Witch Project games from the early 2000s use the same engine and are very similar; I'd definitely recommend checking them out as well, especially the first one (it's a trilogy; each of them is quite short, 3-4 h tops). I remember playing these games back when they came out, shame we'll probably never see any sequel to Nocturne... it's a cool premise, gotta say. I really like horror games set in the 20s/30s.
Hey Grim, I want to say having your videos on repeat during the Christmas rush has made it tolerable and stopped me from feeding myself into the printer at work. Hearing you mention Heavy Metal FAKK 2 was great, it's definitely a game you should cover in time simply for its vibe and soundtrack. It's a game that's close to my heart, as it's one of the games I remember playing on my chunky old Windows XP rig, back in the days as a kid posting on a Bionicle forum and downloading Rob Zombie songs off Limewire (House of a 1000 Corpses lets goooo). Thank you for an amazing year of videos, I hope you have a merry Christmas, happy holidays, and I look forward to whatever you do next year!
Always great to see another one of your videos and as a bonus (for me) a fellow Selected Ambient Works listener, Merry Christmas
I'm so thankful for making the chanell lore accessible for the new users. I could never understand what is going on in Civvie11 videos. But here it's cool and easy to grasp even thought I'm with the channel for less then 2 videos
I haven't watched the whole video yet but seeing some coverage over Terminal Velocity makes me giggle. That game was very fun.
Great Video as always I love how you go into the history and the devs
Based af