Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
1990
- puzzle
- role-playing (rpg)
- adventure
- horror
- survival
- single player
The story
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a survival horror video game developed by Horrorsoft and released by Accolade in 1990 for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and MS-DOS computers. It was Horrorsoft's second published game after 1989's Personal Nightmare and stars the actress Cassandra Peterson as her character Elvira the witch. In Mistress of the Dark, Elvira is held captive by dark forces in the castle of her ancestor Queen Emelda. The player's character in the castle to rescue Elvira and prevent the imminent return of the evil long-dead evil sorceress. The well-received game was followed by Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus in 1991 and the spiritual successor Waxworks in 1992. Contents
What it’s like
Dark, candlelit rooms rendered in muted purples, deep blues and sickly greens, with sudden flares of red when something bites. The screens are still, each room a hand-painted tableau viewed from a fixed angle, and the sound is a sparse chiming score, creaking doors, thunder and the odd shriek. Its vibe is campy gothic dread: spooky without being bleak, with Elvira's pop-culture sass cutting through the gloom. Exploration is slow and methodical, a hunt through a haunted castle for keys, spells and clues, punctuated by brief, clumsy fights and gory-but-cartoonish deaths that reset you with a shrug. Violence is frequent and bloody in a comic-book way, with no sexual content and little real menace. It suits a rainy evening with a mouse in hand, or a nostalgic late-night session when you want a puzzle to chew on rather than a jump scare. Players who enjoy old-school adventures, light role-playing stats and a wry, theatrical take on horror will find it especially appealing.
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