6 Days a Sacrifice

The Good
Finally we're here. At the end of the Chzo Mythos. It was a pleasure to share my opinion with you, even for the countdowns. So now, I can put behind me the tale, having written the walkthroughs and the reviews for MobyGames and other known sites.

In 1779, Jack Frehorn just committed himself to a life of mental misery, where pain is the law, by murdering people and creating an artifact, know now as Frehorn's Blade. He wrote a prophecy. That was the Tale of The Tale of Frehorn's Blade - The Making in Countdown 1 - The Body.

In 1993, Trilby, a gentleman thief, was escaping DeFoe Manor, a mansion haunted by a murderous spirit he called John DeFoe. He destroyed his body thanks to the two others survivors. Unfortunately, two of the five prisoners were murdered. That was the Tale of DeFoe Manor in 5 Days A Stranger

In 1997, Trilby, now a STP agent, found one of the survivor dead. He found the idol containing the soul of John Defoe and learned about two realities, the fact that he's the guide for bringing a pain elemental called Chzo and that a man named Frehorn founded a long time ago a sect, The Order of Blessed Agonies, made for this horrible project. Frehorn is also behind the Books of Chzo, where he wrote prophecies... Trilby learned that the three aspects of John DeFoe, the Bridgekeeper, had to be destroyed for creating the famous bridge. The body has been destroyed in DeFoe Manor. The mind, which was the manor itself, is partially destroyed. The soul is intact, in the idol. That was the Tale of the Tall Man in Trilby's Notes.

In 2189, sixth months prior 6DAS, a young cultist stole the main artifact of the Order of Blessed Agonies, the Frehorn's Blade, for a man who promised her security. She was having remorses after having killed her boyfriend for becoming a member of the cult. That was the The Tale of Frehorn's Blade - The Stealing in Countdown 2 - The Soul

In 2385, the crew of a scoutship will bring aboard a floating packing: the grave of John DeFoe. The spirit will manage to escape and to slaughter everyone alive aboard... almost everyone. Jonathan Somerset, the counsellor, will kill the soul by throwing it in the motors. That was the Tale of the Mephistopheles in 7 Days a Skeptic

In 2386, six months after 7DAS, a delivery guy is mandated by a man to deliver a package to a patient in the New Dehli Institute, the killer of the Mephistopheles, the false Jonathan Somerset, in reality, Jonathan's son, Malcolm. That was the The Tale of Frehorn's Blade - The Delivering in Countdown 3 - The Mind

But, in 2189, Theo DaCabe isn't aware of the DeFoe Manor legend or what will happen in the future. He doesn't know that what has been done and what will be done will travel the time for the final act for Chzo.

Theo is working for the council and well, he has to investigate the Optimology building, a new religion. Unfortunately for him, he's pushed in the lift and fall down into underground lab, where he'll meet two women, prisoners of the sect behind Optimology, a Trilby-like and a tall man in black.

Everything is set for the destroying of the mind. Unless that the bald guy in red clothes has something to say about it...

6 Days A Sacrifice is the final chapter in the Chzo Mythos. Yahtzee, the developer, put a final point in his story, after three games and three countdowns. It's still free free to download, unless you want the special edition for five dollars. Also, the game was made with the AGS Engine, a free engine for making old-school adventure games.

So, now, remember, Trilby's Notes was a disappointment for gameplay: the famous text parser with QWERTY commands. For 6DAS, Yahtzee came back to the point-&-click game, similar to what you encountered in 7DAS.

Players take control of Theo DaCabe (and eventually "Jonathan" Somerset in a passage set in 2186 - after the delivering of the blade). For moving him, you can click anywhere you want. For using, talking, looking or use your inventory, you have to put your cursor on the desired object/character (the cursor will become a square) and to right-click for opening the menu action and choose what you wanted to do with it/him/her. Theo is also equipped with a diary where he puts every document and a cellphone, which is important for calling Samantha or Janine (the two women). For accessing it, you have to go to the inventory and right-click on them.

I'm happy to say that the game comes back to what suits the most the story but I can't say that puzzles are difficult. It's very easy to see what you have to do... except for getting a password. I'll explain it later.

Also, if graphics are still the same, I'm not happy with them, except when it comes to DeFoe Manor and Chzo's body. These two decors are more colorful than the rest of the game, particularly DeFoe Manor setting. Despite being a decor used in the first game, the effects for showing that it's a virtual world, well, that DeFoe Manor in 6DAS is in fact what John's mind is reproducing, these effects are sticking in the ambiance and also, DeFoe Manor was much warmer than these Optimology buildings.

Soundtrack is good. It never occurred to me that the walk sounds were ripped from Half-Life, particularly in 7DAS, even if I knew that I've heard them somewhere. But the music..., it's a pleasure to hear it. It's perhaps a variant of the piano tune of Trilby's Notes, when the Tall Man played in Frehorn's house but it's really sticking to the story.

I love when there are references to previous games. 6DAS isn't an exception. First, Trilby is back. Well, it could have be a good idea but... Yahtzee did something bad: he reduced Trilby to a secondary character, just a clone of the original, something who is not helping much. Without forgetting that the first clones are hostile and with the sect that tried to kill the real one some centuries ago. Anyway, it's a clear reference to 5DAS, as the virtual DeFoe Manor and as the last name of Sam, Harty, like Philip Harty, the second victim in 5DAS.

For 7DAS, it's the passage where you play the hero from the game, who wasn't Jonathan Somerset, as the guy was killed six months before 7DAS but whose name is Malcolm Somerset, Jonathan's son. You have also the explanation of how the spirit did escape the locker in the beginning of 7DAS.

For Tribly's Notes, Trilby, the Tall Man, the corpse in the storage room as some documents are just linking the game to 6DAS. If you prefer, 6DAS, as a final chapter, is forced to have a reference to all previous games, for explaining the how and why of the previous events.

Even events from the coutdowns are tied, as I've said, by the Frehorn's Blade. The three real references if you except the artifact are the floating mummy in the Body (you'll meet this guy, don't worry), the decor in construction in the Soul (as the heroin was a cultist) and the speech about Somerset in the Mind (that scene is also in 6DAS).

I want to point a good point: the credits. If 5DAS and 7DAS didn't had proper ending credits, Trilby's Notes was having the story of the Arrogant Man and artwork backgrounds. 6DAS is having pictures from all games: from Somerset playing CSI to Trilby getting into DeFoe Manor without forgetting Theo falling down. It's very colorful and "THE END" written in a screen with the three heroes (Trilby in normal state, Theo after transformation and Malcolm in his cell) is just a great idea. I love this screen. It's a proper way to put definitively the Chzo Mythos behind the players.

The Bad
Remember that I've said that I had one problem with the puzzles? Indeed, you have to enter a password in the middle of the game for accessing a camera into a restricted area. And believe me or not, you'll not find a paper about it. Just you and your mind. If I hadn't a walkthrough, I would be still turning around the lab. If I hadn't wanted to see what happened when phoning to Samantha after her death, well, I would have never find out how the writer discovered the password. Indeed, phoning to dead Sam is giving you this: c.d. two sev our one (code two seven four one). So, yes, it's difficult to solve this because your mind isn't saying that phoning to a dead person is the key and even if you did phone just for curiosity, well, you don't make the connection easily.

Then, I spoke about the graphics, particularly about the Optimology underground facility. Indeed, it's creepy: when it's the lab, it's like everything is clear, you know, disinfected and when it's turning into a dungeon decor, it's not really sticking with the characters or the locals. For me, the AGS Engine isn't used at its full potential.

Everything is too complicated at the first play. It's hard to understand everything when you're playing the first time. Why it was so important to Chzo to bring all this pain? Just for changing puppets? Why the Tall Man is behaving like he doesn't want to see the bridge? So many answers that you'll get when you will play a second time and searching every detail. I just say that 6DAS could have been better. Not only in terms of universe who became too complicated but also in terms of graphics, as I've said.

The Bottom Line
So, do I recommend 6DAS? Only for those who want to know the end of Chzo Mythos. Even if the gameplay is back to point-&-click, even if some graphics are worthy and even if the soundtrack is great, you'll be feeling that the game was rushed, also, the legend is turned into something ridiculous and Trilby's return is for me not doing justice to the Trilby of 5DAS and Trilby's Notes. In the end of the day, 6DAS could have been better but stays at an average level. You can enjoy yourself for some hours. But it will be less than 5DAS or 7DAS or perhaps even Trilby's Notes if you're a QWERTY user.

If you survived DeFoe Manor, Clanbornwyn Island, Mephistopheles and the text parser, trust me, getting out of Optimoly building is perhaps a bloody path but it's not a matter of survival now. It's just a matter to bring Theo to his destiny. And to please Chzo.

The Good
This game has a decent sense of atmosphere and can probably creep you out at least a little bit, and scare you silly if you're not used to horror. It's well written, fun to play, and definitely worth the cost.

The Bad
Mind Screw plot if ever there was one, tries way too hard to tie up way too many loose ends way too quickly and with way too many bizarre plot twists. Since this series didn't have enough of those already. Also reduced the gentleman thief from 5 Days a Stranger to cannon fodder.

The Bottom Line
I said this game was worth the cost, but that's because it doesn't cost anything. The creator of this game, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, also happens to do the Zero Punctuation reviews for Escapist Magazine, so I find it only fitting that his own games be ripped to shreds by a ruthless critic. For maximum effect, read this review in a British accent while ignoring all punctuation marks.

Yahtzee has built himself up a good reputation in my eyes as someone who can create really good games. Five Days a Stranger inspired a very wide range of emotions, which is unusual for a horror game, because most horror games these days chuck out every other emotion because the goal here is to make you wet your pants with raw terror and any other emotions might get in the way. Five Days a Stranger didn't have that problem, and while it was very creepy, it was also very funny and very good at getting you attached to the NPCs. I was never really afraid that Trilby would die, but I was very much afraid that Jim or Simone might.

6 Days a Sacrifice does away with that by making you dislike or distrust almost every character on sight, including your main character, which somehow doesn't take the edge off of the scenes when you're being stalked by a madman in a welding mask. To be fair, that particular sequence didn't have much edge to begin with. Not nearly so much as similar sequences in 7 Days a Critic, at least, though maybe that's because after being stalked by the undead captain of the Mephisopheles and the Frankenstein Welder, suddenly being chased around by some girl with a machete doesn't seem so frightening.

Actually, the Welder isn't half so scary as the Tall Man, which is a big reason this game fell flat for me. I played it almost immediately after Trilby's Notes, which was very, very good at inspiring fear with Silent Hill-esque reality shifts. The Tall Man is also more or less the most frightening villain I've ever seen, and when he was the primary antagonist, the game was pretty frightening, and for the first half of 6 Days a Sacrifice it appeared as if I might get another good fear trip, only to have the Tall Man slowly fazed out as the villain and replaced by the malignant spirit of John DeFoe.

Ultimately, the only purpose the Tall Man serves is to kill your Trilby clones in the final sequence, making you constantly afraid that something bad will happen to you even though, as far as I can tell, nothing bad ever actually WILL happen no matter how long you go Trilby-less. And in the epilogue, you find that your main character has become some kind mummified psuedo-Welder replacement for the Tall Man. Problem being, the Tall Man is scarier. A LOT scarier. It's pretty anti-climactic, actually, and the fact that you kill him with your Dragonball Z powers doesn't help.

But what I really miss from all the John DeFoe games after 5 Days a Stranger is Trilby. Sure, Trilby is back in Trilby's Notes, but he isn't a gentleman thief anymore. He doesn't have subtle humor woven into half of every line he speaks, he doesn't stop to make smarmy comments before breaking down the bathroom wall with a pickaxe, and he doesn't start rambling about his past love life because the player won't stop looking at all the bloody doors. He's become some kind of sullen, broken, shell of a man by Trilby's Notes, but even that wasn't enough to make me gape in shock and horror when I saw the Tall Man kill him near the very beginning of Sacrifice. But by the time I'd reached the end, I'd realized that the Trilby clones were all flat, dull pawns of fate. They weren't getting to the bottom of anything. They weren't even helping much, really. Mostly, they were cannon fodder, which is why my only fear when the Tall Man kept snapping Trilby's neck in the ending sequence was that eventually I'd run out. You don't, by the way.

6 Days a Sacrifice wasn't nearly as witty as 5 Days a Stranger, as tragic or pulse-pounding as 7 Days a Critic, and not half as scary as Trilby's Notes. And before I forget, the plotline is the most horribly convoluted mess I have ever seen in my life, no exceptions. I haven't seen Neon Genesis Evangelion, but by the sound of things it ranks in about even with Sacrifice for "What kind of messed up, stupid ending is that"-ness. The worst part of the whole thing is that in the beginning it looks like it might be just as scary as Trilby's Notes, but then it gets so busy trying to be absolutely bizarre and tie up all the loose ends from the series that it loses all ability to inspire any kind of emotion in me.

But hey, it's free, so what am I complaining about?