THE RING: TERROR'S REALM (DC)
First impressions count for a lot in horror games, because setting the tone effectively is crucial in establishing a spooky atmosphere. You’ll get an idea of the kind of experience The Ring offers from something as simple as a single sound effect. In this instance, a farcical squelch noise upon interacting with the menu. Something so minor shouldn’t seem so disheartening, yet you know as soon as you hear it that what you’re in for is going to be a non-entity amongst a genre blessed with Resident Evils and Silent Hills.
Releasing two years after the brilliantly scary Japanese film, and two years before its American remake would bring The Ring to the attention of the wider world, the Dreamcast would host a survival horror game adaptation. Released in Japan in early 2000 and localised for the United States a few months later, Terror’s Realm would require a lot of ingenuity to replicate the chilling, heavy atmosphere of the film. Asmik’s efforts, unfortunately, amounted to a desperately poor Resident Evil clone, one that’s hamstrung by low-rent presentation, lethargic controls and a story translation that is terribly articulated.
Two sides to The Ring: the ordinary lab and its dark, dangerous virtual version make for a considerable contrast
The story kicks off with Meg Rainman discovering her boyfriend Robert has died in gruesome circumstances, along with three other scientists. Coincidentally, she then starts a job in the same lab Robert worked at (the Centers for Disease Control), finding herself in a frankly ideal position to snoop around and investigate his death. Discovering a program on his computer called RING, Meg finds herself teleported to and fro between the lab and a Silent Hill-like ‘Otherworld’ version of the facility, shrouded in darkness and populated by dangerous beasties. It’s a messy affair that utilises very few of the film’s iconic elements. There’s barely more than a mention of the phenomenon that sees those who watch a seemingly cursed video dying seven days later. Whilst Sadako (the girl in the well) makes an appearance, Terror’s Realm fails to lend her any resonance.
A combination of exploring the base, chatting with the occasional co-worker and then tackling the RING world sounds appealing enough, but both sides suffer a myriad of complications. Exploring the labs will immediately test your sanity due to the absolutely ear-melting music, which stabs away stridently with a mind-numbing level of repetition. A frustratingly vague plot makes progress hard work at times, with large amounts of the dialogue translated lazily. Characters repeatedly claim to misunderstand each other’s statements and deliver a catalogue of empty, place-filler lines. It’s hard to imagine the original script being anything so facile, but something was certainly lost in translation.
A combination of exploring the base, chatting with the occasional co-worker and then tackling the RING world sounds appealing enough, but both sides suffer a myriad of complications. Exploring the labs will immediately test your sanity due to the absolutely ear-melting music, which stabs away stridently with a mind-numbing level of repetition. A frustratingly vague plot makes progress hard work at times, with large amounts of the dialogue translated lazily. Characters repeatedly claim to misunderstand each other’s statements and deliver a catalogue of empty, place-filler lines. It’s hard to imagine the original script being anything so facile, but something was certainly lost in translation.
The game fails utterly to capitalise on its source material and furthermore chooses an ill-fitting location in which to stage a survival horror based on The Ring. The mention of the smallpox virus references Koji Suzuki’s novel, but the science conspiracies and lab settings represent the worst of the Resident Evil wannabees of the time, with clinical, boring rooms and a humdrum, uninteresting set of characters. There’s no craft to the scares and little effort has gone into the majority of the puzzles. Whilst exploring the offices early on can prove mildly diverting, quests are rarely anything more elaborate than finding a key, and even then they’re often nearby and in plain sight. The music comes nowhere close to capturing the tone of the scenes (or indeed the horror genre more broadly), whilst the voicing sounds crunched and the acting is appalling.
Meg’s movement is incredibly wooden and sluggish, whilst her responses in combat are so slow that, though the enemies are lumbering enough to evade through running, they can occasionally trap her in corners for extended periods with their repetitive attack patterns. Meg’s torch allows her to illuminate dingy passageways, though often it’s worth switching it off, as enemies will struggle to locate her.
Meg’s movement is incredibly wooden and sluggish, whilst her responses in combat are so slow that, though the enemies are lumbering enough to evade through running, they can occasionally trap her in corners for extended periods with their repetitive attack patterns. Meg’s torch allows her to illuminate dingy passageways, though often it’s worth switching it off, as enemies will struggle to locate her.
Survival horror fans may get a kick out of organising their inventories and pouring over the map, but without stronger gameplay and a scarier atmosphere, things never really kick into life. Strange design choices are difficult to defend: being told to find a hidden elevator near the end of the game, there’s no mention that you’ll need to restart a generator on a different floor, first. Attempting to access switches or desk drawers feels excessively awkward at times, as Meg has a habit of snagging on absolutely everything. Some interaction spots are either obscured by furniture or require Meg not only to stand very close to them but also face square on, or else they won’t register. She’ll need a powerful weapon to shoot down certain blocked doors, but bizarrely, there are several instances of this that demand a different gun each time.
Whilst perhaps not its worst facet, Terror’s Realm is nevertheless hindered by weak visuals. Aping Dino Crisis’ mix of cinematic camera angles and panning shots, the room layouts come across as solid if uninspired, dominated by liberal quantities of pop-in, scenery tearing and clipping so overt that you can see straight through most of Meg’s shades and, rather awkwardly, her skirt. Whilst Meg is reasonably animated (though her backwards hops are genuinely hilarious), the same can’t be said for the rest of the cast, nearly all of whom look ridiculous. It isn’t just the human characters either, the enemies are bizarrely ill-fitting, with Meg even declaring at one stage that she has to defeat a “giant monkey” to attain a key. The monster designs, including the crap and underwhelming bosses, are laughable.
Whilst perhaps not its worst facet, Terror’s Realm is nevertheless hindered by weak visuals. Aping Dino Crisis’ mix of cinematic camera angles and panning shots, the room layouts come across as solid if uninspired, dominated by liberal quantities of pop-in, scenery tearing and clipping so overt that you can see straight through most of Meg’s shades and, rather awkwardly, her skirt. Whilst Meg is reasonably animated (though her backwards hops are genuinely hilarious), the same can’t be said for the rest of the cast, nearly all of whom look ridiculous. It isn’t just the human characters either, the enemies are bizarrely ill-fitting, with Meg even declaring at one stage that she has to defeat a “giant monkey” to attain a key. The monster designs, including the crap and underwhelming bosses, are laughable.
The translation offers a few laughs here and there, but also weighs down the player with large chunks of erroneous, nonsensical conversation
It’s a really short game, too. Save for getting lost due to vague narrative signposting, it’s possible to finish Terror’s Realm in six hours first time through, with no additional difficulties or scenarios to bolster this. Quickly finished and quickly forgotten, The Ring fails to make good on the considerable potential held by its source material. A survival horror doomed by a lack of quality and execution throughout its design, it ends up just another naff film tie-in. It’s no Code Veronica. It’s not even Blue Stinger. Dreamcast gamers keen on horror would be wise avoiding the curse and looking elsewhere for their chills ‘n’ thrills.
OTHER JAPANESE HORROR GAME ALTERNATIVES REVIEWED