Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi

Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi Error creating thumbnail: File missing Offical Boxart Release Date: 2003 Developer: Idol FX Publisher: iGames Publishing Series: None Platforms: PC Genre: First-Person Shooter

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 attend 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 following weapons can be seen in the game Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi:

Overview

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.

As a horror FPS title where the vast majority of enemies can't attack at a distance, the developers allowed all ingame guns to reload no matter how fast James moves so as to let players escape enemies more easily, even for the weapons which would require users to stand still to reload in real life. Guns also reload unrealistically fast in this title.

Flintlock Pistol

Flintlock Pistols are the most common firearms in the game, and are chambered in an unknown caliber while being single-shot weapons. They are very slow to load, but can kill most foes in one hit. James can also 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 their projectiles disappear past a short range (this was likely a development decision to emulate the real-life inaccuracy of smoothbore flintlock firearms).

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French Cavalry Flintlock. The ingame version has more of a bulb on the butt end and no brace to hold the barrel to the frame, nor a metal plate to hold the flintlock mechanism.

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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, the Flintlock Musket does slightly more damage than its smaller sibling and is much longer-ranged thanks 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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Modern reproduction of 17th Century English Doglock Musket, predecessor of the Brown Bess musket. The musket seen ingame has a similarly-shaped stock and general layout, but has bracing to hold the barrel to the wooden body and lacks a trigger and a flintlock mechanism.

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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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A Flintlock musket near its former user in one of the castle's towers.

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A powder horn and lead balls (but no paper wadding, which acts as the equivalent of a cartridge casing for older firearms and tells users how much gunpowder is likely a safe amount to load per shot) 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.

Webley Mk III

The Webley Mk III revolver is given to James after he rescues either his aunt or her husband. The ingame version has a five-round cylinder (as opposed to the 6-round cylinder of the real weapon) and appears to have a nickel-plated frame. James also has the ability to use the Webley Mk III in melee (though such an attack does little damage). While it lacks the stopping power of the flintlock weaponry in this game, the Webley Mk III reloads much faster. A second Webley Mk III can be found in a secret location in the East Wing of Castle Malachi.

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Webley Mk III - .455 Webley

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Firing the Webley Mk III at a Ghoul in the depths of Castle Malachi.

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Ejecting spent cartridges from the Webley Mk III, 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 Webley Mk III. Pistol-whipping does next to nothing 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 Webley Mk III 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 Webley Mk III. Despite what the box says, you do not get anywhere near 20 cartridges from these boxes- each holds a maximum of 5. Furthermore, a developer's mistake has the box listing two different calibers, one being .30 M2, the other being .38 caliber; both are incorrect, as the Mk III was chambered in .455 Webley. Rescuing Gregory Bidwell, a family friend, from a succubus in the East Wing of the castle will allow Gregory to unlock his briefcase containing a maximum of 50 revolver rounds.

Maxim MG08/15

Obtainable only upon rescuing James' grandfather, the Maxim MG08/15 is the only automatic firearm in the game, and is distinctly anachronistic, having been developed in (as the name implies) 1915. It uses 30-round belts which cannot be linked together, does not overheat, and is the most useful firearm in the game, except against a few rare enemies and nearly all of the game's bosses who are (as is standard for monsters in the horror genre) immune to gunfire.

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Maxim MG08/15 - 7.92x57mm Mauser

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Gunning down a Demodus vampire bat with the Machine Gun. There is no kill like overkill when it comes to mowing down hordes of the undead.

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Chief Inspector Frank Patterson of Scotland Yard, James' Uncle, with his Maxim MG08/15. 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 Maxim MG08/15. No NPCs use the weapon, so the question of why these belts are lying around the castle remains an open one.