While devs have rehabilitated voxels and vector graphics in recent years, another equally dated approach to 3D visuals remains coated in dust. Spend an evening or two in the company of the newly refurbished and relaunched Ecstatica and, like me, you may end up viewing the dearth of ellipsoid entertainment as a sad state of affairs.
Designed a few years before the rise of the GPU, Ecstatica is an unforgettable action-adventure that builds its characters and much of its scenery from ellipsoid primitives.
Relatively gentle on the 486s and early Pentium CPUs that bossed motherboards back then, the novel graphics approach, when combined, as it is here, with masterful animation, produces wonderfully naturalistic movement.
Whether your curvaceous male or female* avatar is swinging a weapon, leafing through a book, dangling from a cliff edge, or limping towards the safety of the game’s useful recuperation nook, they do it with a lithe grace that brings to mind classic cartoons rather than Ecstatica’s mid-Nineties peers.
* Take your pick.
Most critics lauded the novel visuals, praised the high-quality voice acting and quirky humour, and, at the very least, tolerated the touches of gore and raunch.
Less popular was the chance-heavy combat, and the lack of camera control. Because the monster-infested village where much of the action takes place, is viewed through myriad fixed cameras, and views change automatically as your character moves, momentary disorientation and confusion during exploration and combat isn’t uncommon.
Not a fan of complicated UIs and crowded inventories, I like the way Andrew Spencer communicates player health solely with animations and sounds, and vetos rucksacks entirely. If your hero doesn’t have a hand free to carry an item, then, hard cheese, it can’t be picked up.
The fact that Ecstatica has yet to annoy me with horribly contrived puzzles or maze-like location design, engenders affection too. Pay attention to your surroundings and interrogate any live locals you encounter, and you shouldn’t have any problem advancing the narrative.
Spencer planned to re-use his ellipsoid engine in Urban Decay, a violent contemporary thriller, but in the end, apart from a sequel that some found too hectic, the code wasn’t pressed into service again. Maybe now the dust has settled, and polygons are starting to feel a little passé, the time is right for the return of artfully assembled eggy blobs.
Close your eyes after an Ecstatica session and it’s awfully easy to picture sports games and first-person shooters with ellipsoids everywhere. Wildlife sims devoid of straight lines also spring to mind grasshopper quick.