Anchorhead

Anchorhead
by Michael Gentry profile

Horror
1998

Web Site

Return to the game's main page

Reviews and Ratings

5 star:		(284)
4 star:		(76)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

Average Rating:

Number of Ratings: 383
Write a review

Previous | << 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 >> | Next | Show All

- strask, October 1, 2010

- Juleske, September 19, 2010

- Aaron (Lille, France), August 29, 2010

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Best Lovecraft Adaptation, in all mediums, August 25, 2010

by Xervosh (San Jose, Northern California)

Better than any of the movies, is what I mean to say.

This truly is a fantastic and exceedingly well-written piece of IF. Its so damn good, it makes me want to write my own, to see if I can come up with something comparable. A few of the "puzzles"/moves-you-have-to-make are a bit unintuitive, you might say, and I, personally, never would have solved this thing without a walk-thru (although I did solve a LOT of the puzzles myself). It was very immersive & evocative, and I got a lot of enjoyment out of playing it. I've been a Lovecraft fan and an IF fan for almost 30 years (I first read Lovecraft in 1981, and first began playing IF in '82), and this game was far superior to The Lurking Horror (which is also good, of course). If you also grew up with Lovecraft and Infocom, I can scarcely recommend this game enough!

One minor quibble; a couple of times I did the right thing, but I used the wrong verb, and so it didn't work, and yet I received no feedback to make me think I had merely chosen the wrong verb. In one instance this was particularly maddening, in that the author seemed to be quite obviously trying to fool me into thinking I had done something correctly ...which resulted in, well, about as bad a thing as could possibly occur, and my needing to check the walk-thru again, and then out of sheer desperation, trying a different verb...and getting a different result! Aaarrgghhhh! (Spoiler - click to show)Oddly both problems involved the fish oil; I said to "rub" the fish oil on the mirror, and it polished it to a high sheen, thus facilitating Armageddon, as opposed to merely putting the oil on the mirror, which resulted in a smear, and thus saved Humanity. Also, I tried to "pour" the fish oil on the hinge, and was chided for making a mess. Again, you must merely "put" the fish oil on the hinge in order to lubricate it.

Additionally, its very important for you to know a particular verb, that is basically a synonym for another term you will use throughout the game...but you get a different result when you use the quasi-synonym. (Spoiler - click to show)You must "search" several items, not merely "examine (or "x") them.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Remove vote

Flag as inappropriate

Direct link

View my user filters

Explain these options

| View comments (1) - Add comment

- Brian Lavelle (Edinburgh, Scotland), July 31, 2010

- John D, July 25, 2010

- MyTheory (Missouri), July 24, 2010

- Buffaloelvis, July 22, 2010

- karcher, July 11, 2010

- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), May 16, 2010

- freeform (Taiwan), May 14, 2010

- Rhian Moss (UK), May 9, 2010

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

Anchorhead: Better than All TV., April 10, 2010

by Danielle (The Wild West)
Related reviews: horror game

Note: this review was written while I was in the beginning of the game. I've since finished and have added some more notes to the end.

* * *

I started ANCHORHEAD last night. It's not a new release--it won a slew of awards in back in 1998, and for good reason.

See, I've been craving an eerie game I could really sink my teeth into, and ANCHORHEAD has delivered.

The depth of its gameworld is incredible. When Earthworm Jim came out, everyone said, "It's like playing a Saturday morning cartoon!" Remember that? Well, ANCHORHEAD is like playing an excellently-written novella.

The attention to detail is incredible--you can interact with most objects you see, and the gameworld responds in a believable manner. Because of this, it's really easy to get into character. For example, I always lock the door when I leave the house. Does it do anything related to gameplay? No. But because I feel like I'm such a part of this world, I feel like I MUST act as though it is my real world, and thus--I lock up my (Spoiler - click to show)(electricity-less, sometimes frightening) house when I leave.

Here's another example: (Spoiler - click to show)It was morning in the game. I had just woken up, and my husband was in the shower. I had the feeling I'd need his university ID card later on, and his pants were hanging there right off the end of the bed. So I rifled through the pockets. Sure enough, the ID card was right there in his wallet...But in the end, I felt guilty about going through his things. So I left the card in his wallet.
Did I just lock myself out of some major puzzle or backstory? Maybe. But at least I didn't steal from my husband. That's the sort of feeling ANCHORHEAD evokes for me.

(Also, the game gave me points for soaking in a bath. :3 )

Another great thing about ANCHORHEAD: the puzzles fit. There were a number of times today where I felt like I was at a total dead end, but by taking a closer look at a couple of things, tinkering around with realistic game actions--BOOM! New paths were opened. New mysteries revealed.

And there's the other thing--with some games, you solve a puzzle...bing. That's it. Check the puzzle off your list, you're done. In ANCHORHEAD, with every new revelation you discover about (Spoiler - click to show)your creepy house (and the INSANE PEOPLE who owned it), three more unsettling questions pop up. It makes it nigh impossible to put down.

I could write tons more about how I love this, but I really want to go back and see (Spoiler - click to show)what's in the crypt behind our house. You all, you just...just try it.

* * *

Well! The final half of the game was harder for me. I probably could have figured a few of them out on my own (though for me, (Spoiler - click to show)escaping William at the slaughterhouse turned into an episode of "Guess the Verb"), but you know what it's like with walkthroughs: you can't just look ONCE.

Despite the harder puzzles taking me out of the game's spell, I still highly recommend ANCHORHEAD. Some actions you're forced into to turn the story's feeling away from Grandpa Lovecraft and into Uncle Steve's realm, but it felt appropriate.

Really...the epilogue. You'll be thinking about that for a while.

My favorite death: (Spoiler - click to show)Reading through the Huge Tome in the church. It summed up the horror of Grandpa Lovecraft's work in what--3 paragraphs? If ANCHORHEAD was a book I would have bookmarked this page. FOREVER.