Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland (PC)
PC Game review on the best, the original, Horrorland
LOCR Producer: Welcome to the second episode of Halloween month. We had a good start looking at Shadow of Darkness on the Sega Master System, an 8-Bit blast from the past and in a lot of ways, that’s how we feel about the Goosebumps. Goosebumps is such a massive franchise, R.L Stine created a true monster. Growing up, I was in the perfect age bracket to be exposed to the brunt of the Goosebumps popularity. I had the pencil case, erasers, boardgames, a vast majority of the books and even though there weren’t many videogames associated with the franchise, you could argue one great videogame makes up for a handful of poor ones.
For the budding Goosebumps fan who owned a PC in the 90’s, you had Attack of the Mutants or Escape from Horrorland to choose from.
Here at the Leftover Culture Review, we never really delved into the PC side of gaming. Consoles have always had much more impact on us growing up, PC’s were more expensive and parents got priority using them. The consoles were ours. Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland is one of the few games we totally loved that was PC only, it was Goosebumps after all, of course we were going to find a way to play it.
Escape from Horrorland is an adventure game, but in the review, I call it out as an FMV game a few times. This is the first (and possibly only) game I played with such a heavy reliance on full motion video, and it totally blew us away. The acting can get pretty camp, some of the jokes and gags are really forced, but overall, the video transitions between sections, the characters and the whole atmosphere really make it all gel together.
Dreamworks were behind the production of this game, with Steven Spielberg himself appearing in behind-the-scenes videos talking about the production process and actors involved with this game, including Jeff Goldblum (who appeared in Jurassic Park two years previously and appeared in Independence Day (ID4) the same year Goosebumps was released). Dreamworks used a combination of miniatures, animatronics and plenty of green screen to create a Goosebumps atmosphere that far surpassed the quality of the television show (and in my opinion, the books).
As an adventure game, I really appreciate that the solutions to the problem are always close by. This is a game aimed towards children and I remember blazing through this as a kid (except for the section with the pumpkin heads… That stumped us).
Looking back now, Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland has its flaws. Even for a kids game it’s maybe too easy, there’s only a small selection of items you can pick up and interact with. Escape from Horrorland, while not being exclusively an FMV game, still feels like it’s being limited by the same conventions. Quick time events galore, click on the right areas and progress through.
It’s interesting seeing what a talented group of producers can do with an FMV focused adventure game, I personally feel they really captured the atmosphere of the Goosebumps franchise. Corny, humorous and filled with a few shocks… like running through the tunnels, hearing the sounds of the monster makes me feel like a nervous child again. Maybe this is an incredibly biased look at one of our favourite PC games of all time, but we sincerely hope some of our excitement comes through in this review.