Time Gate: Knight's Chase

Last updated
Time Gate: Knight's Chase
Knightschase.jpg
Developer(s) Infogrames Multimedia
Publisher(s)
Programmer(s) Frederic Barbier
Christophe Cotte
Denis Ferraton
Jean-Marc Morel
Christophe Nazaret
Platform(s) MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
Release
1996
  • MS-DOS, Windows 95
    Mac
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Time Gate: Knight's Chase (French : Time Gate: Le Secret du Templier), or simply Knight's Chase, is a puzzle-solving video game by Infogrames Multimedia released in 1996 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, the latter being a SVGA version released exclusively in North America. It was also released for Mac OS in 1997.

Contents

The gameplay is similar to the Alone in the Dark series of games. The game uses a modified engine of the first three Alone in the Dark games, featuring Gouraud-shaded, rather than flat shaded, polygons.

Knight's Chase was the first game in a planned trilogy of Time Gate video games. [2]

Plot

It’s 1995, when William Tibbs, a young American man studying law in Paris, searches the newspapers to find signs of his girlfriend Juliette, who has been missing for a couple of days. One night from nowhere his room is attacked by a menacing dark knight with a view to killing William, but William quickly defeats him and the knight evaporates, leaving behind a ring without a stone and a mystical mirror through which William sees far into the past where Juliette is a prisoner in the hands of the evil inquisitor Wolfram. This is where the adventure begins, when William must find a way to go back in time to the 14th century, the era of the ancient Knights Templar, and to become a knight. Without properly understanding the twists and turns around him, William just wants to find Juliette and get back to modern times. But first he must defeat Wolfram and thus restore the glory of the Knights Templar.

Reception

Maximum praised the game's mix of swordplay and puzzles, as well as the plot twists, but gave it an overall negative review due to its overt similarity to the Alone in the Dark series, commenting "The Alone in the Dark trilogy are undeniably great games, but after milking the genre dry surely a change of plan is necessary. Obviously not if Time gate[ sic ] is anything to go by, as it's more than just a tribute to the Edward Carnby adventures - it's practically identical." They also stated that the Gouraud-shaded characters look dated compared to texture-mapped characters, and scored the game three out of five stars. [3] A reviewer for Next Generation instead complained of awkwardness resulting from the game's controls and limited number of camera angles, and criticized the developers for not including gamepad support. He further commented that though Alone in the Dark was a landmark game, Knight's Chase did not make enough improvement given the three years that had passed since then. He scored it two out of five stars. [4]

Andy Butcher reviewed Time Gate for Arcane magazine, rating it a 7 out of 10 overall. [5] Butcher comments that "polished though it is, Time Gate doesn't really offer anything new. If you're familiar with the Alone In The Dark series you won't be able to escape the feeling that you've seen all this before. Still, there's precious little to criticise, and it offers several hours of solid gaming." [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hexen: Beyond Heretic</i> 1995 video game

Hexen: Beyond Heretic is a fantasy first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by id Software distributed through GT Interactive on October 30, 1995. It is the sequel to 1994's Heretic, and the second game in Raven Software's "Serpent Riders" trilogy, which culminated with Hexen II. The title comes from the German noun Hexen, which means "witches", and/or the verb hexen, which means "to cast a spell". Game producer John Romero stated that a third, unreleased game in this series was to be called Hecatomb.

<i>Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II</i> 1997 video game

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to 1995's Star Wars: Dark Forces, and the second installment in the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series. The story, set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe one year after the film Return of the Jedi, follows returning protagonist Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working for the New Republic, who discovers his connection to the Force and "The Valley of the Jedi", an ancient source of power. With his father having been murdered years prior by the Dark Jedi Jerec and his followers over the Valley's location, Katarn embarks on a quest to confront his father's killers and find the Valley before they do.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volothamp Geddarm</span> Forgotten Realms fictional character

Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm, created by Jeff Grubb, is a fictional character of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

<i>Star Wars: Dark Forces</i> 1995 video game

Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts. It was released in 1995 for MS-DOS and Macintosh, and in 1996 for the PlayStation. The story is set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe and begins shortly before the original Star Wars film, before flashing forward to a year after the film's events. The game's protagonist and playable character is Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working on behalf of the Rebel Alliance who discovers the Galactic Empire's secret Dark Trooper Project, which involves the development of a series of powerful new battle droids and power-armored stormtroopers.

<i>Alone in the Dark 2</i> (video game) 1993 video game

Alone in the Dark 2 is a 1993 survival horror video game developed and published by Infogrames. It is the second installment in the Alone in the Dark series. It was ported to the PC-98 and FM Towns in 1994 and to the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in 1995 under the same name, and to the Sega Saturn and PlayStation in 1996 as Alone in the Dark: Jack Is Back in Europe, and renamed as Alone in the Dark: One-Eyed Jack's Revenge in North America.

<i>Crusader: No Remorse</i> 1995 video game

Crusader: No Remorse is an action game developed by Origin Systems and published by Electronic Arts. It was first released in 1995 for MS-DOS, with the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports following in 1997. Set in a dystopian future 22nd century, the game centers on The Captain, a special ops officer and supersoldier, who defects from the tyrannical world government, the World Economic Consortium (WEC), and joins the Resistance rebels.

<i>Stonekeep</i> 1995 video game

Stonekeep is a role-playing video game developed and released by Interplay Productions for the PC in 1995. It is a first-person dungeon crawler game with pre-rendered environments, digitized characters and live-action cinematic sequences. Repeatedly delayed, the game that was supposed to be finished in nine months took five years to make.

<i>Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels</i> 1995 video game

Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels is a video game published by Electronic Arts in 1995 for the 3DO, which was later ported to PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Microsoft Windows. It is based on Games Workshop's board game Space Hulk and is the sequel to the 1993 video game Space Hulk. Like its predecessor, Vengeance of the Blood Angels combines first-person shooter gameplay with real-time tactical elements. Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels is part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

<i>Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars</i> 1996 video game

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is a 1996 point-and-click adventure game developed by Revolution Software. It is the first in the Broken Sword series, co-written and directed by Charles Cecil. The player assumes the role of George Stobbart, an American tourist in Paris, as he attempts to unravel a deep conspiracy involving a sinister cult and a hidden treasure, seeing him travel to various locations around Europe and the Middle East. The game's storyline was conceived to feature a serious tone and heavily influenced by research on Knights Templar by Cecil, but was also interlaced with humor and graphics in the style of classic animated films.

<i>Chaos Overlords</i> 1996 video game

Chaos Overlords is a turn-based strategy computer game developed by Stick Man Games and published by New World Computing for Microsoft Windows and classic Mac OS in 1996. Chaos Overlords was re-released for Windows in downloadable format by GOG.com in May, 2013.

<i>Lighthouse: The Dark Being</i> 1996 video game

Lighthouse: The Dark Being is an adventure game developed and published by Sierra On-Line. It was the first and only game designed by Sierra On-Line art director Jon Bock.

<i>Entomorph: Plague of the Darkfall</i> 1995 video game

Entomorph: Plague of the Darkfall is a 1995 action-adventure role-playing video game by Strategic Simulations, Inc. It was re-released in 2013 on GOG.com.

<i>Baku Baku Animal</i> 1995 video game

Baku Baku, released in Japan as Baku Baku Animal, is a falling block puzzle arcade game released by Sega in 1995. The game is dedicated as Sega's first ever Network Compatible PC Game. A Sega NetLink compatible version of the game was also announced, but never released.

<i>Alien Trilogy</i> 1996 video game

Alien Trilogy is a first-person shooter video game developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim Entertainment in 1996 for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and MS-DOS platforms. The game is based on the first three movies in the Alien film series. One of the first games developed by Probe following their acquisition by Acclaim, it debuted Acclaim's much-hyped motion capture technology. The game was well-received by critics, who praised its recreation of the films' atmosphere and its gameplay depth compared to other first-person shooters, and was a commercial success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PlayStation Mouse</span>

The PlayStation Mouse is an input device for the PlayStation that allows the player to use a mouse as a method of control in compatible games. The mouse was released in Japan on December 3, 1994, the launch date of the PlayStation.

<i>Azraels Tear</i> 1996 video game

Azrael's Tear is a 1996 first-person adventure game published by Mindscape and developed by Intelligent Games.

<i>DeathKeep</i> 1995 video game

DeathKeep is a 1995 video game based on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was released for the 3DO console, and later converted to the PC. The game is a sequel to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Slayer.

<i>The Sword of Moses</i> (novel)

The Sword of Moses is a 2013 mystery detective thriller novel by the English historian and journalist Dominic Selwood. It is part one of the Ava Curzon trilogy.

<i>Doctor Hauzer</i> 1994 video game

Doctor Hauzer is a 1994 survival horror-adventure video game developed by Riverhillsoft and published in Japan by Panasonic for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. The player takes on the role of Adams Adler, a newspaper reporter investigating a mansion for clues to the whereabouts of the eponymous Hauzer, a famed archeologist who has mysteriously disappeared. The game tasks the player with navigating the large mansion by collecting useful items, solving various puzzles, and avoiding deadly traps.

<i>Druid: Daemons of the Mind</i> 1995 video game

Druid: Daemons of the Mind is an action role-playing video game developed by British studio Synthetic Dimensions and published by Sir-Tech for MS-DOS. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows, PlayStation and Sega Saturn by Koei in Japan.

References

  1. ↑ "Online Gaming Review". 1997-02-27. Archived from the original on 1997-02-27. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  2. ↑ "Time Gate". Next Generation . No. 17. Imagine Media. May 1996. p. 71.
  3. ↑ "Maximum Reviews: Time Gate". Maximum: The Video Game Magazine. Emap International Limited (4): 159. March 1996.
  4. ↑ "Knight's Chase". Next Generation . No. 21. Imagine Media. September 1996. pp. 154–6.
  5. 1 2 Butcher, Andy (June 1996). "Games Reviews". Arcane. Future Publishing (7): 72.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.