Nightmare Creatures is one of the many survival horror games that were released in the wake of Resident Evil. The game was released in 1997 for the PS1 and PC, and in 1998 for the N64. I’ll be taking a look at the N64 version of the game.
The information I’ve found on this game calls it a survival horror game. I’m not too sure that fits. While it has a creepy atmosphere and there are monsters, “survival” isn’t really a big deal in this. Nightmare Creatures plays more like a third-person Doom or Heretic game. Mostly because of the heavy emphasis on combat.
This is one of those games that I think I knew about back in the 1990s. There were a lot of horror games getting released, but I don’t remember anyone talking about this one. That has more to do with the games that my friends and I were playing at the time. If we wanted a horror game, we normally went for Resident Evil or Silent Hill.
I do like the idea of this game. It leans into the occult side of horror, which wasn’t used as often in the 1990s. Sure, there were games that did that, but most of the ones that I remember were about zombies, vampires, or Japanese horror. Anyway, let’s get into Nightmare Creatures and see what it has to offer.
TLDR: Good graphics and a solid story almost make up for the gameplay.
Narrative
The story for Nightmare Creatures isn’t as complicated as I thought. I was expecting something that was more Lovecraftian, which isn’t exactly what you get. It does lean into the occult. This is something that I really like because it is a little different from some of the other horror games from the mid 1990s.
The story begins in 1666 when a devil-worshipping cult has grand plans for world domination. Their plan is to create superhuman soldiers, but they end up creating monsters, which are conveniently called nightmare creatures. Isn’t that just great?
Apparently, one of their members decides he isn’t all that interested in the whole monster army thing, and burns down the cult’s headquarters. He was probably fine with superhumans, but the monsters were a bit far. I mean, he didn’t want to be seen as evil or anything like that.
Most of the game takes place in 1834. Believe it or not, the whole fire thing didn’t actually stop anything, because there are now monsters roaming around London. Our big bad guy is Adam Crowley, who is based on Aleister Crowley. Everything falls on two people to save the world, probably because no one else really cares or thinks this stupid cult is going to actually win.
I do like the story. It is different enough from the other horror games to stand out, especially on the N64 where there weren’t too many games like this. The whole occult thing is pretty fun, and I do like the villains. The story is hurt by not having cutscenes, which is more of a technical issue.
Gameplay
Nightmare Creatures has some problems with its gameplay. The controls take some time to get used to, and they can be a little awkward because of the N64’s controller. It really isn’t a survival horror game. This plays more like an action-adventure game that just happens to have a horror theme.
The game uses tank controls, which isn’t all that different from other survival horror games from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Because the game takes place in the 1800s, most of your attacks are melee. You do get guns, or ranged attacks, but there is limited ammo. Having limited ammo is something you’ll find in many games like this, but I feel like it makes more sense here given the time period.
Your weapons get upgraded during the game. There are two playable characters, one with a staff and the other with a sword. It doesn’t really change the gameplay much, but it is nice to have more than one option.
Unlike most survival horror games, the player is encouraged to fight. There is an adrenaline bar that needs to be filled so you don’t lose health. This is why I was questioning this game as a “survival horror” game. It has more in common with an action-adventure game.
The controls take some time to get used to. It isn’t that they’re bad or not responsive. They’re just overly complicated, and you have to wrangle the N64 controller. It doesn’t help that you have to fight with a camera that tends to have a mind of its own.
Overall, this is a fun game to play. If you’ve tried all the other horror games on any of the retro consoles, then give this one a try. I would say that Nightmare Creatures is middle of the road, and is closer to the two Castlevania games on the N64 than it is to games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill.
Visuals
Nightmare Creatures has pretty good graphics for a mid-1990s N64 game. The character models look good for the time, and the game has great atmosphere. Its camera is the biggest issue I have with the game’s graphics. The dam thing has a mind of its own!
The game has a creepy atmosphere. It is a very dark game to play on a modern TV. I had to turn up the brightness to see what was going on. Just keep that in mind if you want to play this.
The monster and character models look pretty great. These are 1997/98 graphics, so they won’t look amazing, but they are good enough. There are some nice blood effects as well. This isn’t something you normally see on a Nintendo Console, so it is fun to see this.
The camera is a freaking mess! It is the hardest opponent in the game because you can’t kill it, and it will always be there. It really impacts the gameplay and takes away from the rather spooky atmosphere of this game.
Sadly, the cutscenes aren’t very good, which is something you could say about many of the N64 games. There are some text crawls that replace the cutscenes. They’re fine for what they are. If you’re playing an N64 game, you kind of know what to expect from it.
Overall, the graphics are a bright spot in this game. There are issues with the game’s camera, but that really isn’t as big of a deal as it could’ve been. You can adjust to the crappiness of the camera. Nightmare Creatures has great atmosphere, and the character models look good.
Reviews of Nightmare Creatures at the Time
The N64 version of Nightmare Creatures didn’t get great reviews. They were average to bad for the time. I looked at four publications for this section.
Game Informer was the most positive with an 8/10. They had three people review this game, and each seemed to like it. One said that the graphics are “a little better on the N64.” They also said that you should “rent it first,” but the same reviewer who said this also called the N64 version “boring.”
GameSpot gave the game a 6.7/10. The biggest issue this reviewer had was with the camera. They liked everything else, or at least said it was an improvement over the PS1 version of the game. The reviewer said that this isn’t a perfect game, but it was “an improvement over the PS1 version.”
IGN gave the game a 7.4/10. They praised the graphics and the overall improvement over the PS1 version of the game. The reviewer didn’t like the camera at all, and called it one of the annoyances that, if fixed, then “this game could have been much better than it is.”
Nintendo Power gave this game a 6.6/10. This was the average of the five people who reviewed it. The scores were all over the place, as the game got a 5.6, 5.7, 6.7, 7.4, and an 8/10. They called the controls “awkward” and continued by calling the controls “the real nightmare.” The camera, animations, and frame rate were also criticized.
I was actually surprised to see that Nintendo Power was the most critical of the publications. It is probably because they weren’t comparing it to the PS1 version. The camera was the biggest issue for the reviewers, which I totally agree with. There are some things I didn’t experience while playing this, like the rough controls. I just felt that they were overly complicated.
7/10. This is one of the games that I’m not sure if I like it that much. Nightmare Creatures has a fun story, a creepy atmosphere, and I don’t completely hate the gameplay. This probably isn’t one of the games that I’d come back to again.
Pros
- Creepy Atmosphere
- Fun Story
- Good Graphics for the time
Cons
- Awful Camera
- Annoying Controls
- Pretty Dark on Modern TV
- No Cutscenes
Conclusion
Nightmare Creatures is a decent horror game. It isn’t exactly a survival horror game, but it is creepy. I would like to try the PS1 version at some point just to see what I’m missing in terms of cutscenes. I do have the Dreamcast version of the sequel, so that’ll be fun to try out sometime.
The controls and camera come close to ruining this game. They don’t, but I was getting way more annoyed than I should be. Nightmare Creature’s control scheme isn’t all that great on the N64, but it is apparently worse on the PS1. If you’ve played that version, please let me know.
All the reviews I looked at really like the graphics in Nightmare Creatures. It has a creepy atmosphere that does much of the heavy lifting in terms of being scary. Some of the sound effects help as well. Aside from that, it felt like more of an action-adventure game, somewhat like a 3D Castlevania as opposed to being like Resident Evil.
There aren’t a lot of horror games on the N64. Most of them aren’t the best versions of those games to begin with. Nightmare Creatures is a decent game on the console. It isn’t the best horror game, but it is far from being terrible.
If you like this post, then check out some of my other posts about horror games. Such as Blue Stinger or Camp Sunshine.