If you were alive and well in the 1980's, and you owned an Apple IIGS or Macintosh computer, chances are you remember the MacVenture games. They were a series of excruciatingly punishing point and click titles released throughout the mid-to-late 80's, with The Uninvited being the second in the line-up; coming out originally in 1986 for Mac, and 1988 for the IIGS, the two versions included in this Steam release. Ports for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Famicom, NES, and Windows 3.x were all completed between 1986 and 1993 as well. Needless to say, this was a game that got around.

In a time before elaborate cutscenes and thrilling plotlines, the MacVenture series relied on reading like an old, yellowed book. You know, the kind that has been sitting in an attic for a while, and therefore each turn of a page fills your nostrils with a very familiar musty smell. The text is intricate, and it serves as a compelling reminder and sustainable source that atmosphere can sometimes come purely from exceptional, immersive writing. The story itself is very basic, you play as an unnamed adventurer who is travelling with their brother. You see an object in the road, swerve to avoid it, and end up in a wreck. When you wake, your brother is nowhere to be found, but you spot an old Victorian mansion in the distance; he must be there, and thus you set out on your adventure.

The real challenge to this game is its hidden, unforgiving time limit that will brutally beat you down no matter how many save files you decide to make. This concealed mechanic only ticks down when you perform actions; whether that be using an item, opening a door, looking at objects, travelling to a different screen, or speaking. Every single action has the consequence of eating up precious time, and once all of the time has been used then the mansion possesses you and it's game over. New for its time and still cruel some 34 years later, the time limit mechanic forces the game into the corner of trial-and-error exploration, and may even reduce some people to pulling out old fashioned pen and paper to map their right and wrong interaction routes. The puzzles are easy enough to solve, as all of their solutions are found plainly somewhere in the game, but actually finding and using them before time depletes completely is the biggest obstacle, as there are so many elements that can be interacted with.

Despite its punishing nature, aged gameplay, cheesy sound effects, and lack of an actual soundtrack, The Uninvited manages to still hold up over three decades later. The atmosphere is truly compelling, propelled by Choose Your Own Adventure style graphics, and poetic storytelling; surprisingly, the black and white Macintosh version is actually offers more ambience than its color counterpart, so it's nice that it was included in this re-release. Although it doesn't look like much by today's standards, the game was actually praised for its innovative mouse-based gameplay, complex puzzles, and user-friendly interface back upon initial release. Of course, all of that, with exception of the puzzles, is now inordinately dated and those who were born closer to the turn of the century will probably not find much novelty in going back and attempting to solve the mystery of the mansion. In essence, that's really what these re-releases are at this point; a novelty, whether it be for nostalgia, or for the sake of saying that you played it.

The Horror Network Curator | Group Click for Gore

If you were alive and well in the 1980's, and you owned an Apple IIGS or Macintosh computer, chances are you remember the MacVenture games. They were a series of excruciatingly punishing point and click titles released throughout the mid-to-late 80's, with The Uninvited being the second in the line-up; coming out originally in 1986 for Mac, and 1988 for the IIGS, the two versions included in this Steam release. Ports for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Famicom, NES, and Windows 3.x were all completed between 1986 and 1993 as well. Needless to say, this was a game that got around. In a time before elaborate cutscenes and thrilling plotlines, the MacVenture series relied on reading like an old, yellowed book. You know, the kind that has been sitting in an attic for a while, and therefore each turn of a page fills your nostrils with a very familiar musty smell. The text is intricate, and it serves as a compelling reminder and sustainable source that atmosphere can sometimes come purely from exceptional, immersive writing. The story itself is very basic, you play as an unnamed adventurer who is travelling with their brother. You see an object in the road, swerve to avoid it, and end up in a wreck. When you wake, your brother is nowhere to be found, but you spot an old Victorian mansion in the distance; he must be there, and thus you set out on your adventure. The real challenge to this game is its hidden, unforgiving time limit that will brutally beat you down no matter how many save files you decide to make. This concealed mechanic only ticks down when you perform actions; whether that be using an item, opening a door, looking at objects, travelling to a different screen, or speaking. Every single action has the consequence of eating up precious time, and once all of the time has been used then the mansion possesses you and it's game over. New for its time and still cruel some 34 years later, the time limit mechanic forces the game into the corner of trial-and-error exploration, and may even reduce some people to pulling out old fashioned pen and paper to map their right and wrong interaction routes. The puzzles are easy enough to solve, as all of their solutions are found plainly somewhere in the game, but actually finding and using them before time depletes completely is the biggest obstacle, as there are so many elements that can be interacted with. Despite its punishing nature, aged gameplay, cheesy sound effects, and lack of an actual soundtrack, The Uninvited manages to still hold up over three decades later. The atmosphere is truly compelling, propelled by Choose Your Own Adventure style graphics, and poetic storytelling; surprisingly, the black and white Macintosh version is actually offers more ambience than its color counterpart, so it's nice that it was included in this re-release. Although it doesn't look like much by today's standards, the game was actually praised for its innovative mouse-based gameplay, complex puzzles, and user-friendly interface back upon initial release. Of course, all of that, with exception of the puzzles, is now inordinately dated and those who were born closer to the turn of the century will probably not find much novelty in going back and attempting to solve the mystery of the mansion. In essence, that's really what these re-releases are at this point; a novelty, whether it be for nostalgia, or for the sake of saying that you played it. [h1]Rating: [b]4.0/5.0[/b] - Excellent, highly worth playing.[/h1] The Horror Network [url=http://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/28221963/]Curator[/url] | [url=http://steamproxy.net/groups/thehorrornetwork]Group[/url] Click for Gore