Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi

Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi (2003)

Overview

A budget horror title developed by Idol FX, this game is an homage to the 1922 silent film Nosferatu, and borrows many visual and stylistic elements from that film in its design (such as a heavily desaturated colour palette, black and white cutscenes and photos, a grainy film-type image, and the majority of the dialogue depicted with text-placards).

This survival-horror FPS takes place in the month of October 1912, at Transylvania, Romania, with the player controlling the character of James Patterson, who is heading to Castle Malachi to join what he thinks is the marriage of his sister to a wealthy Romanian Count. (Un)surprisingly enough, the Count turns out to be an ancient vampire who plans to sacrifice James' noble family members and friends in an unholy ritual to fuel the revival of his dread liege, Lord Malachi himself, and James must search through the haunted castle to save his family members before they can be sacrificed.

The majority of the game's weaponry is accessed by bringing the Patterson family members and their friends back to the sanctuary in the Castle's courtyard, whereupon they will unlock their briefcase(s) and lend the tools within to aid James. Complicating James' cause is the fact that the game randomly generates the castle's layout (and his family members' locations) every time a new game is started. The longer he takes to rescue them, the more family members will be killed and the more powerful Lord Malachi, the game's final boss, will become.

Below is a list of firearms depicted in the game.

Flintlock Pistol

This antique firearm is chambered in an unknown caliber and is a single-shot weapon. It is very slow to load, but it can kill most foes in one hit and James can carry several on his person to allow him to fire one and switch to another to keep firing, though he will have to spend time loading each one discharged earlier. They are used by the Count's Gypsy henchmen and can be looted off their corpses, but is understandably short-ranged given its short, smoothbore barrel.

Facing down a Desmodiij with the Flintlock Pistol.

A discarded Flintlock pistol ingame.

Flintlock Musket

Using the same ammunition as the Flintlock Pistol, this firearm does slightly more damage than its smaller sibling and is much longer-ranged thank to its longer barrel. Unlike the pistol, there are only four of these muskets in the game, all used by Gypsy musketeers. It can kill certain tougher opponents in one less shot than the Flintlock Pistol can, especially if the "Nightmare" difficulty mode is selected. James can also carry all four on his person to allow for repeated firing, though they will still have to be individually loaded afterwards.

Flintlock Firearm Ammunition

These contain the lead balls and gunpowder needed for the flintlocks in this game. The harder the difficulty selected, the less ammunition each contains.

Unknown Snubnosed Revolver

This top-break revolver is given to James after he rescues either his aunt or her husband. It is a five-shot weapon with the ability to be used in melee (though such an attack does little damage). While it lacks the stopping power of the flintlocks in this game, it reloads much faster. A second revolver can be found in a secret location in the East Wing of Castle Malachi.

Revolver Ammunition

These boxes contain cartridges for the revolver. Again, the harder the difficulty, the less each has.

Unknown Machine Gun

Obtainable only upon rescuing James' grandfather, this is the only automatic firearm in the game. It uses 30-round belts, and is the most useful in the game, save for a rare few enemies (and almost all of the game's bosses) who are immune to it.

Machine Gun Ammunition

These belts can be found lying around the castle.