Who likes the ZX Spectrum?
If you want retro graphics, that system is one of the most retro you can get. Forget the 3 colors per sprite of the NES, on the Speccy you get ONE. There's not many retro-inspired devs who would take on that kind of artistic limitation- but one Spaniard took up the task, and made something really special with it.
L'Abbayes Des Morts is a single-screen platformer by Locomalito with music by his usual collaborator Gryzor87, released in 2010. It was made while the devs were on vacation, and is as small-scale as you'd expect- but this little game has a LOT of staying power, as I'll get into later.
I've covered another of Locomalito's games on here before- The Curse of Issyos, which is entry #15 on this blog. L'Abbayes Des Morts is much shorter than that game, but every bit as flavorful and memorable.
THE SETTING
You're Jean Raymond, a member of the Cathar sect that's being expelled from France by the Catholic Church. In order to escape the crusaders, he hides in an old church- but there's a dark secret lurking below...
A far cry from the typical setting of a simple platformer, isn't it? And this carries over to the atmosphere- everything is grim and foreboding, even with the simple graphics. I mean, the game STARTS with you getting chased into the church by soldiers and locking the door!
I actually did some research on Catharism and this specific crusade to get some context for the storyline, and I highly recommend anyone playing this does too- it does a LOT to give the experience a bit more meat in the background.
PRESENTATION
Like Locomalito's other games, this is a loving tribute to a specific era of gaming as whole- the ZX spectrum era of single-screen flip-scrolling platformers filled with creatively named rooms and instant-death hazards.
But the graphics' simplicity are deceptive. Yes, every sprite is one color laid over a black background- but there's a LOT of subtle environmental details around from the word "go." At the start, the door to the church is being banged on by the crusaders outside- it'll never open, but it's certainly a motivator to get away from there.
Occasionally around the church you'll find notes that give usually cryptic, usually haunting bits of info. Some of them are useful for progression- others are just to add some atmosphere.
And there's a sprinkling of rooms that do nothing- but they add to the atmosphere, like the "prayer of hope" room, with its unique music track.
Or the Hangman Tree, that stops the music dead in its tracks when you enter. Very creepy. And functional, given that the corpses rise up and down to block you.
Basically, these graphics are limited, but they do a great job of letting your imagination fill in the blanks, which is what you want with an older artstyle like this.
MUSIC:
Again, Gryzor87 kicks it out of the park with the soundtrack, delivering ultra-crunchy yet atmospheric tunes with way less audio channels than you'd think would be able to deliver moods like this. Gotta love those wavetables, because they are THICK.
GAMEPLAY
As with any good game of this type, everything kills you in a single hit. Thankfully, this ain't no VVVVVV (that's not an insult, I love that game to bits). It's generally rather easygoing outside of a few rooms, with the limited lives being the biggest source of pressure. Lose them all, and you go back to the start.
The controls are relatively simple- move around with the arrows, jump with Space. You die in one hit, but thankfully there's checkpoints scattered all around- and the game is small enough that one death isn't much of a setback. Plus, hearts give you extra lives, so there's still quite a bit of room for error.
The objective is to obtain twelve crosses to defeat "the evil", and the challenges surrounding them range from "dodge around these enemies", to more clever fare, like this dragon that breathes fire that travels along the ground.
Or clever puzzles, like turning this switch from an inverted cross to a traditional one to make the glowing inverted crucifix collectable... which applies to EVERY CROSS ON THE MAP, by the way. And there's at least one other inverted cross laying around somewhere.
Of note is that this game doesn't have a map, but you're not going to need one with how small it is.
Nearly every screen has some kind of unique hazard, and some of them are especially memorable. Just take a look at this bit, one of the only things that could qualify as a boss. The Grim Reaper appearing in one room, tossing rolling scythes down from above in this Donkey Kong-esque platforming challenge.
The last part of the game is particularly hellish (get it? hell?)- this room with the two devils and the skeleton archer killed me SO MANY TIMES, probably more than anything that wasn't the final boss. Speaking of that!
The final boss, hiding at the bottom of the Cathedral, is Satan himself. He's as tough of a challenge as you can possibly get in a game this simple- just moving up and down, firing a four-way shot as he does so.
I do love how all the crosses you've collected throughout turn into the platforms you have to stand on- and they block his shots, too.
Anyway, to beat him you have to hit the Holy Grail, which will definitely take a few attempts lost from him clipping you with a stray bullet. You kill him, you win, and-
But at least he gets to go to heaven at the end. A bittersweet ending if there ever was one. Grim conclusion, isn't it?
Well, according to Catharism, human souls are actually the spirits of angels trapped in material bodies, reincarnating eternally until they achieve salvation through specific circumstances involving imminent death. So, according to his beliefs, this is probably the best outcome for Jean.
I love it. This game's story goes a lot harder than one would expect for a thing this simple. Especially so if you know your relatively obscure history.
EXTRA STUFF
As it turns out, due to its relatively small scale and and simple gameplay, this game has gotten a LOT of homebrew ports. Including one TO THE ZX SPECTRUM ITSELF, where it looks pretty much exactly the same aside from color bleeding and a couple missing shades. That's how close Locomalito got.
I'm not gonna get into all of these ports here, because there's a lot of them- but if you want to compare and contrast different versions of the same game, there's a lot to dig into.
Just look at this NES version, though, this one's probably my favorite of the bunch. It looks gorgeous.
Also, literally as I'm about to finish writing this review, Locomalito announced an update to the game, with new graphics and an alternate ending.
When that comes out, I'll make an addendum to this review covering the anniversary update, if there's anything interesting in it.
FINAL THOUGHTS
L'Abbayes Des Morts is one of those games that epitomizes the phrase "less is more". It's small, just 23 screens, but it packs absurd amounts of atmosphere and detail into that small amount of real estate. The atmosphere is brooding and austere, but packs a lot of zing.
GAME LINK:
https://locomalito.com/games/abbaye-des-morts
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note: 8 Colors Star Guardians Plus, the first game I ever covered on this blog, is on sale for an absurd amount at the time of this writing. It was already dirt cheap before, and now it's less than a dollar, so y'all should buy it now if you haven't already.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2483150/8Colors_Star_Guardians/