Ominous Horizons: A Paladin's Calling

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Ominous Horizons: A Paladin's Calling
Ominous Horizons cover.jpg
Developer(s) N'Lightning Software Development
Publisher(s) N'Lightning Software Development
Producer(s) Ralph Bagley
Designer(s) Chris Perkins
Engine Genesis3D
Platform(s) Windows
ReleaseSeptember 1, 2001
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player

Ominous Horizons: A Paladin's Calling is a 2001 first-person shooter game with Christian themes developed and published by N'Lightning Software Development. It casts the player as the Johannes Gutenberg's assistant, who must travel the world to retrieve the Gutenberg Bible master copy, which had been stolen by one of Satan's minions. The player uses three weapons with interchangeable ammunition and can collect Bible verses to restore their health. Ominous Horizons is the successor to 2000's Catechumen . With a budget of $1.6 million, Ominous Horizons was the most expensive Christian video game. It was released in September 2001 to negative reviews, with criticism directed at its game engine, gameplay, level design, animations, dialog, and voice acting. Only the enemy designs and music were received positively. The game sold 50,000 copies and was N'Lightning's last release.

Contents

Gameplay

The player's Sword of the Spirit fires energy beams to defeat enemies. Ominous Horizons Screenshot.jpg
The player's Sword of the Spirit fires energy beams to defeat enemies.

Ominous Horizons is a first-person shooter (FPS) that casts the player as the assistant to Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. One of Satan's minions has destroyed the press and stolen the master copy of the Gutenberg Bible, which shattered his faith. As the assistant, the player traverses various locales to fight enemies and retrieve the Bible's pages. [1] [2] Settings including Mesa Verde, Egypt, the Scottish Highlands, Japan, a Maya temple, a haunted mansion near Stonehenge, and the Underworld. [1] Some levels include jumping puzzles. [3] The player's arsenal consists of the Sword of the Spirit, a crossbow, and the Staff of Moses. Each weapon has multiple modes of fire enabled by collecting ammunition for them. [4] When injured, the player can collect Bible verses to restore their health. [2]

Development and release

Ominous Horizons was the second game (after Catechumen ) by N'Lightning Software Development, a studio focused on Christian video games and based in Medford, Oregon. [5] It was in development by March 2001 and then scheduled for mid-2001. [6] Later, it was due "in time for Christmas". [7] The development team, under lead game designer Chris Perkins, modified the Genesis3D engine to improve upon Catechumen's artificial intelligence, gameplay, level design, and graphics. [8] Ominous Horizons cost $1.6 million to produce, making it the most expensive Christian game. [4] It went gold on August 10, 2001, and was released on September 1 with CenturionSoft as the distributor. [9] A demo, released in October via N'Lightning's website and select mirror sites, attained more than 200 downloads on average per hour. [8]

Reception

Ominous Horizons received negative reviews. It was principally criticized for its game engine, which frequently encountered loading screens. [1] [3] Mark Asher of Computer Gaming World regarded it as "a third-rate 3D engine". [1] While GameSpy 's Kevin Rice applauded the custom additions to Genesis3D, he still considered a poor one, and blamed it—as well as repetitive low-resolution textures, sluggish animations and dialogs, and maze-like level design—for making the game appear like "a slipshod, hastily thrown together project at best". [2] Despite lauding the enemy variety, Asher exclaimed: "As for the gameplay, you get the garden-variety dodge and circle-strafing you've done dozens of times before in other, better shooters. You can download better fan mods." [1] Oleg Vyatkin of Absolute Games felt as though the game had seen no improvements over Catechumen and likened it to a re-release with decorative changes. [10]

Rice enjoyed the creativity of some opponent designs but faulted them for their lackluster artificial intelligence, with some being "downright annoying". [3] He further criticized the repetitive level design, tedious jumping puzzles, "dry" dialog with amateurish voice acting, and "unsettling" swimming animation. [2] [3] He found the camera bobbing effect particularly nauseating and slated the lack of an option to disable it. [2] [3] Rice cited the "halfway decent" music as one of the few upsides. [3] Asher believed that the game was aimed at a player base that was unlikely to play FPS games while being uninteresting for regular FPS players. [1] Rice said it was a poor attempt at combining the message of good and evil with video games. [3]

By July 2005, the game had sold 50,000 copies. [11] Although Ominous Horizons, like Catechumen, was among the bestselling Christian video games, it was N'Lightning's last release. [4] [12]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Asher, Mark (January 2002). "Ominous Horizons" (PDF). Computer Gaming World . No. 210. Ziff Davis. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 5, 2023. Retrieved September 5, 2023– via CGW Museum.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Rice, Kevin (November 15, 2001). "Ominous Horizons (PC)". GameSpy . p. 1. Archived from the original on December 30, 2001.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rice, Kevin (November 15, 2001). "Ominous Horizons (PC)". GameSpy . p. 2. Archived from the original on November 18, 2001.
  4. 1 2 3 Gibson, Nick (February 20, 2012). "Christian FPS Games". Hardcore Gaming 101 . p. 2. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Christian Game Developers Shine the Light". The Christian Post . August 18, 2004. Archived from the original on August 30, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Catechumen Heads to the Retail Channel" (Press release). N'Lightning Software Development. March 19, 2001. Archived from the original on November 2, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2023– via GameZone.
  7. ↑ Stonehouse, David (April 1, 2001). "Games: 'It's been very well received'". Ottawa Citizen . p. A2. Archived from the original on August 30, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 "Ominous Horizons(TM) New PC Game Meets Customer Expectations" (Press release). N'Lightning Software Development. October 16, 2001. Archived from the original on November 27, 2001 – via Internet Wire.
  9. ↑ "N'Lightning Software's Archived News and Events". N'Lightning Software Development. 2001. Archived from the original on October 21, 2002.
  10. 1 2 Vyatkin, Oleg (October 25, 2001). "Retsenziya na Ominous Horizons: A Paladin's Calling" Рецензия на Ominous Horizons: A Paladin's Calling [Review of Ominous Horizons: A Paladin's Calling]. Absolute Games (in Russian). Archived from the original on March 1, 2008.
  11. ↑ "Growth of Christian Video Gaming". Christian Today . July 25, 2005. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  12. ↑ Cobbett, Richard (August 23, 2017). "The weirdest shooters of the '90s". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on August 13, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
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