Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi

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Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi (2003)

Overview

A budget horror title developed by Idol FX, this game is an homage to the 1922 silent film Nosferatu, and borrows many visual and stylistic elements from that film in its design (such as a heavily desaturated colour palette, black and white cutscenes and photos, a grainy film-type image, and the majority of the dialogue depicted with text-placards).

This survival-horror FPS takes place in the month of October 1912, at Transylvania, Romania, with the player controlling the character of James Patterson, who is heading to Castle Malachi to join what he thinks is the marriage of his sister to a wealthy Romanian Count. (Un)surprisingly enough, the Count turns out to be an ancient vampire who plans to sacrifice James' noble family members and friends in an unholy ritual to fuel the revival of his dread liege, Lord Malachi himself, and James must search through the haunted castle to save his family members before they can be sacrificed.

The majority of the game's weaponry is accessed by bringing the Patterson family members and their friends back to the sanctuary in the Castle's courtyard, whereupon they will unlock their briefcase(s) and lend the tools within to aid James. Complicating James' cause is the fact that the game randomly generates the castle's layout (and his family members' locations) every time a new game is started. The longer he takes to rescue them, the more family members will be killed and the more powerful Lord Malachi, the game's final boss, will become.

Below is a list of firearms depicted in the game.

Flintlock Pistol

This antique firearm is chambered in an unknown caliber and is a single-shot weapon. It is very slow to load, but it can kill most foes in one hit and James can carry several on his person to allow him to fire one and switch to another to keep firing, though he will have to spend time loading each one discharged earlier. They are used by the Count's Gypsy henchmen and can be looted off their corpses, but is understandably short-ranged given its short, smoothbore barrel.

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Facing down a Desmodiij with the Flintlock Pistol.

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A discarded Flintlock pistol ingame.

Flintlock Musket

Using the same ammunition as the Flintlock Pistol, this firearm does slightly more damage than its smaller sibling and is much longer-ranged thank to its longer barrel. Unlike the pistol, there are only four of these muskets in the game, all used by Gypsy musketeers. It can kill certain tougher opponents in one less shot than the Flintlock Pistol can, especially if the "Nightmare" difficulty mode is selected. James can also carry all four on his person to allow for repeated firing, though they will still have to be individually loaded afterwards.

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The musket is very effective in this game, and would be even better if it had a bayonet to use when the undead close in to eat your face. Sadly, even its shots are ineffective against bosses like the Foul Beast vampire here, the likes of which call for quite a few wooden stakes instead.

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A Flintlock Musket in the hands of a Gypsy Musketeer.

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Black powder and lead balls (but no paper wadding, which acts as the equivalent of a cartridge casing for older firearms) for the flintlock firearms in this game. Of course, James could just be tearing out pages from the priceless books in the various libraries he comes across for wadding instead.

Unknown Snubnosed Revolver

This top-break revolver is given to James after he rescues either his aunt or her husband. It is a five-shot weapon with the ability to be used in melee (though such an attack does little damage). While it lacks the stopping power of the flintlocks in this game, it reloads much faster. A second revolver can be found in a secret location in the East Wing of Castle Malachi.

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Firing the Snubnosed Revolver at a Ghoul in the depths of Castle Malachi.

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Ejecting spent cartridges from the Snubnosed Revolver, demonstrating the top-break action. Any unused rounds still in the weapon before you reload are simply lost, not returned to your ammo pool, in this game.

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Pounding in a Feral Zombie's skull with the Snubnosed Revolver. Unlike the likes of the Halo series, pistol-whipping does next to nothing in this game to your enemies, compared to a slice from your character's Cane Sword or even good old punching.

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Sir Andrew and Emilie Kingstone with their Snubnosed Revolver in a briefcase. Not out of place as a self-defense weapon amongst the belongings of a noble family, but it would have helped against the undead hordes had it been with them beforehand.

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Ammunition for the Snubnosed Revolver. Despite what the box says you do not get 20 cartridges or anywhere near that number--each holds 5 or less. Furthermore, a developer's mistake has the box listing two different calibers, one being .30 M2, the other being .38 caliber.

Unknown Machine Gun

Obtainable only upon rescuing James' grandfather, this is the only automatic firearm in the game. It uses 30-round belts, and is the most useful firearm in the game, except against a few rare enemies (and almost all of the game's bosses) who are immune to it.

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Gunning down a Demodus vampire bat with the Machine Gun.

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Chief Inspector Frank Patterson of Scotland Yard, James' Uncle, with his Machine Gun. Though a supposed safari hunter, the game never explains why Frank brought an automatic weapon to what he thought was his niece's wedding.

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Ammunition belts for the Machine Gun. No NPCs use it, so the question of why they are lying around the castle remains an open one.