Noctropolis

Noctropolis
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Developer(s)	Flashpoint Productions; Night Dive Studios (2015 Enhanced Edition)
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts (Original); Night Dive Studios (2015 Enhanced Edition)
Designer(s)	Brent Erickson, Shaun Mitchell
Composer(s)	Ron Saltmarsh
Platforms	DOS (Original); Windows XP/Vista/7(2015 Enhanced Edition)
Release date(s)	1994 (Original); 3 September 2015 (Enhanced Edition)
Genre(s)	Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Noctropolis is a 1994 DOS computer third-person adventure game by Flashpoint Productions, Inc. and published by Electronic Arts. In the game, the player assumes the role of the character Peter Grey, a lonely bookstore owner who winds up in the world of his favorite comic book. Grey soon discovers that he is destined to assume the role of his former comic book hero.

Gameplay

This style of game play is mostly third-person point-and-click, with some cut scenes. The player not only has to locate items but carefully choose dialog to gather information to help them progress through the game.

Characters in the game were digitized from analog footage, allowing for real life characters to be placed in 2D digital environments.

Reception

The game received mixed reviews.

Just Adventure said "Noctropolis is a stylish and atmospheric adventure game, inspired by the world of comic books", and gave the game a score of 91/100. PC Gamer gave it 82/100, writing "Gorgeous VGA graphics and challenging but fair puzzles. The dialogue could have used another pass through the typewriter, and the acting is strictly amateur. Noctropolis is a solid adventure set in an intriguing and visually stunning world". With a score of 80/100, Tap-Repeatedly/Four Fat Chicks wrote "Despite all of its shortcomings, Noctropolis is a fun and engaging game. It has a campy, tongue-in-cheek humor and never takes itself too seriously."

Computer Gaming World gave the game a rating of 50/100, and said "When a game needs to use cheap shocks and cheap thrills to hold a player's attention, it's usually a sign that there isn't much else to notice. Indeed, there isn't. The music's decent, the art's better than decent, the weak interface makes the game pretty easy to get through...but if gamers are looking for a substantial or challenging game to play, they'd better look elsewhere. As good as comic books can be these days, they used to be (and often still are) slight and mediocre affairs. NOCTROPOLIS is as slight and mediocre as they come". HonestGamers wrote "Noctropolis wanted to be a cool, adult comic book adventure. Well, it's a comic book adventure all right. No, I didn't forget the cool, and adult part. THEY did.", and gave it a 30/100.

Reception
Review score Publication Score CGW

2015 Enhanced Edition

On 3 September 2015, the enhanced edition was released on Steam. It featured full compatibility with modern day computers, a remastrered soundtrack, improved keyboard/mouse support with rebindable keys/buttons and several bug fixes along with removing dead-end situations that would render the game unwinnable.

External links

• Noctropolis at Moby Games
• Noctropolis at IMDb