"I'm off the rocky coast of Maine heading towards the island of Matinicus, alone. My Egyptology professor Dr. Hardrove was always recounting his trips to Northern Africa in the 1930's, in his search for a mystical water clock from the dynasty of the Pharaoh Ramses. The clocks supposedly had powers to grant everlasting life, claimed he found it once, but whatever Hardrove found mysteriously disappeared after a visit by the expeditions patron, Tess Conway. But I've picked up the trail where Hardrove left off. It has led me to Tess Conway's Island Estate. Tess was obsessed with the occult and her greed drove her towards Dunkin De Vries, a debonair two bit smuggler. In it's heyday, the Conway Estate hosted wild extravagant parties. It has been deserted for decades. Tess and her society friends disappeared in 1932 on the night of the summer solstice. I'm just getting my first glimpse of the house. The weather is getting worst, but I'm almost ashore. I fear my life may be in danger, but I have come prepared (gun reloading heard). Hmm, that's strange, my watch has stopped."
The game then starts off with you located in a clearing in front of the Guardhouse. You will immediately be able to view two video clips of people who once lived in the Conway Estate. They are images from the past and will provide you with valuable information to piece together the mystery of what has happened here. You'll know when a video clip is near when you hear Tess calling out to you and see her ghostly appearance. One video clip will explain to you why there is ammunition laying around all over the Estate which, you will soon discover, is much to your advantage. As you make your way into the courtyard you will encounter your first enemies and objects in the game.
There are many objects to be found throughout the entire Conway Estate. Objects can picked up automatically simply by walking over them. You can only carry so much ammunition with you which means that sometimes you won't be able to pick up a crate of bullets. But, from what I have seen in the game so far, you'll need every bullet you can find! You will also run into some blue and red gas looking balls. The blue balls will restore some of your health bar while the red ones do the opposite. Some balls will appear when you kill a ghost or zombie, so I suppose we could call them spirit balls.
Other important objects consist of keys, new weapons, and winged vessels. The Conway Estate has many locked doors and finding the required keys is especially important for moving forward within the game. The weapon that you brought with you to the island is a .45 Caliber Nickel-Plated Colt "Peacemaker" Revolver. Although it will come in handy many times, there are four other weapons within the Estate that are worth picking up. You'll be able to find a second pistol, a 1931 Remington 12 Gauge Pump Model 870 Shotgun, a 1928 Thompson .45 Caliber sub-Machine Gun, and a 1917 Kleinschmidt Flamethrower. The Winged Vessels will provide you with special abilities that may be required for reaching specific areas with objects that you may want to acquire. They are represented by gem colors in your Right Status Wing (lower right corner) and may only be used for a certain amount of time. Once they run dry, you will be able to rejuvenate them by picking up a special white rejuvenation vessel.
There are sixteen different types of enemies throughout the Estate. The first ones that you will encounter are ducks and hunters. The ducks are easy targets as you just need to run over them which will squish them. Enemies include devilish heads, evil cooks, crazy clowns, ugly rats, smoking skeletons, and many others. Most of the enemies will be firing at you, so it would be wise not go barging into an unexplored room.
The Conway Estate is humongous and the game probably would take a long time to finish, depending on how often the game is played and how good of a player you are. There are over forty-five areas with hundreds of rooms to be explored. A map is available while playing the game to get a bird's eye view of your immediate surroundings. By pressing P on the control pad, you'll see your score, the name of the area you are in and what percentage of that area you have explored, along with any walls, doors, objects and columns on the map.
The X button on the control pad will bring up the RunTime options screen where you can save or load a game and set the desired configuration for the control pad and music settings.
The music and sound effects in Killing Time are excellent! With headphones on, I was able to distinguish from what direction certain sounds were coming from and to prepare myself for what was ahead or behind me. The only complaint I have about the sounds is that I couldn't stand the irritating noises made by the crazy clown! It was, however, pleasurable to shoot him as soon as I could find him so that I wouldn't hear his crazy noises.
The graphics in Killing Time are also very well done. Fully textured and in 3D, you are really provided with the feeling of being in the Estate. The frame rate, however, is not very high making the game a little jerky. After many hours of bumping into the walls and running through mazes, I started to get sick of the game. Of course, it only requires a break, maybe a night's sleep, and then the game can be enjoyable again. You'll be able to move left and right, look up and down (even while walking), and make 180 degree turns.
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