France: A Gateway to Hell! Let's Play Time Gate: Knight's Chase[Completed]

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Welcome! I, Count Revier, am here to tackle a hell of a game!

Released in 1996, Time Gate: Knight's Chase is a mind blowing experience. It was Infogrames' last attempt to extend the mileage of Alone in the Dark's rapidly aged engine, while also breaking away from the franchise. As such, Time Gate, while featuring many of its predecessor's mechanics, is definitely more adventurous and less scary.

That said, it wasn't particularly successful, to no real surprise: the gameplay is clunky, retaining too much of AITD's survival horror centric, and thus currently irrelevant mechanics, the puzzles are more tedious and dumb than clever, and the story is complete bonkers. It starts with a decent enough premise, but quickly screws it up. Towards the end, some really, REALLY dumb stuff happens, and ultimately nothing is satisfactorily resolved. But enough talk, you'll find more details in the thread.

Feel free to discuss the game, as long as you appropriately tag spoilers.
Last edited by Count Revier on Thu Nov 09, 2023 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8L7V7rwBwA

The brilliance of this game starts from its very introduction itself.

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We open with these two knights sparring with each other.

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Despite his flashy moves, the white knight ends up taking a big blow. The black knight, arbitrarily marked as the villain, takes this opportunity to gloat.

"Before you die, Geruar...
Know that Wolfram, the fox with the red mane, holds captive Juliette Provance, the fiance of William."

Yes, this is actual dialogue. Yes, it's as awkward as it looks.

"He must rescue her.
Your hero will have to combat us, and this time, we shall take his life!
His eternal life!"

The black knight then tries to finish Geruar off, but predictably, he gets too cocky.

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"Nothing, and none can prevent William Tibbs from fulfilling his mission."

The black knight sparks and then vanishes. Yep, completely normal Middle Ages France stuff. Geruar pants his way to the table with the gauntlet seen earlier.

"William, I swear that I shall live long enough...long enough for you to find me again in order to give you the glove which will open the gates of time."

Yyyyyep. Barely a minute in and we're already talking time travel. In Middle Ages France.

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So let's randomly cut to some guy reading the papers in present day France.

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SURPRISE AXE TO THE FACE!

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Followed by the black knight himself! Geruar, you need to control the time gates better!

"William Tibbs, falcon of light! Prepare to lose your life!"

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He attacks, but thankfully, William uses his reflexes to avoid him and hurl his axe back!

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He turns into...a photo and a ring? William gingerly picks them up.

"But...what's happening to me?
What does it mean?"

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It's a video screen! Didn't know Middle Ages France was so advanced!

The captive girl tries to warn William in the most tired, bland voice possible: "William, be careful!" The guy cackles madly, and we cut to...evil eyes?

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"I challenge you, William Tibbs, falcon of light. Do you wish to find your fiance Juliette, who has been missing for several days? Then come, come and seek her in the dark recesses of the secret jails of the Museum of Medieval History."

Whoa what? The dark recesses of...the museum?

"I shall await you there."

Well, well, who could resist such an invitation?

With an introduction as great as that, surely you're pumped for the game, right? Right?!

Next time, we get deeper into the madness, and witness some actual gameplay!

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Last time, a villain in Middle Ages France challenged our protagonist, William Tibbs, to meet him in the French Museum of Medieval History.

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Naturally, that's where he went.

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The museum proper is off limits today, unfortunately. Perhaps he should come some other day?

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Sighs. Fine, fine. We'll explore what we can.

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The room to his right only has two items of interest: a headphone and...

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This is exactly how I react to most anime.

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There's a map of the museum. Spoilers, we'll see like 33% of it before we're done.

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In the left room, someone keeps calling for Thibauld de Mondedier.

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Tibbs is unfortunately not the most interesting narrator.

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He looks at the big painting and gets told that he was Thibauld and once crusaded alongside some knights, complete with this amazing shot.

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Someone thought that looked good.

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William promptly steals a sword and shield to cosplay as a crusader.

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The ticket office is up next, and it too is sadly boring. All William gets here is a toy catapult and a CD with some backstory about the Templars. About 90% of it is irrelevant, so I will spare you the details.

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As soon as he enters the curator's office, though, things begin happening!

"Your attention please! The museum is about to close!"

Damn. So soon?

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It's the villain! He's cackling madly again!

"I Wolfram, Deputy to the Grand Inquisitor of Paris, challenge you, William Tibbs."

Annnnd he promptly locks William in. Great.

Well, let's look around.

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Great insight, William.

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Rifling through the curator's desk finally gives some useful items: a keycard and a key. He also gets a magazine, but it doesn't have anything besides a hint to a later puzzle there.

Okay, now let's try to leave...

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What.

Good thing is, the lasers are deceptively quite avoidable. Bad thing is, they trigger the alarm, and get him arrested.

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Being arrested is a game over. I dunno, couldn't he just wait out the sentence? His only "crime" was being caught in a museum's outer chambers after it had closed down, surely that can't be worth much?

Anyway, leaving this room is easy, it's just a matter of making your way close to the center showpiece, following its sides closely, then carefully moving alongside the opposite wall.

Okay, NOW let's try leaving for r-

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Really? The curator's key can't open the front door?

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How about the left side room then?

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...I seriously overestimated this key's usefulness.

Really, all it unlocks is the control box for one laser grid. Whoop de do!

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At least this screwdriver should help us pick lock some things. I try it on the front door, fail, and then try it on the side door.

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Huzzah! Minor progress!

The TV crew is no longer there, of course, so William goes ahead and explores what's left of the room.

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It's not much.

William gets railroaded into disabling the control panel, but not before this funny death:

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He then gets zapped by...an evil gargoyle? It's so absurd it makes me cackle.

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Anyway, he finally gets deeper into the museum.

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Surprise! Wolfram is here!

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He locks William in again! This time with a black knight!

Whatever shall he-

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Oh, he just punches him to death because this game's combat is bad, and bare fists are stronger than most weapons. The black knight vanishes into an orb because this is Time Gate. Also, he can hilariously get arrested mid combat, but unfortunately, we hear nothing about the black knight's fate.

Okay, now what? Where does he go?

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Why, to a ridiculously trapped sideroom, of course!

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This is one of the game's most tedious puzzles - you have to navigate the lasers very precisely, and it's easy to trigger the alarm with no visual indication. Provided you make it through, the catapult can hit the red button, which conveniently disables all lasers except the one blocking the entrance. What sodding security design is this?

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At least he's at the courtyar-damn. The black knight again! Run!

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William calls for Juliette, and is promptly accosted by two thugs!

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He tries to run away, but they corner and knock him out!

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Then they taunt him about joining Juliette and toss him into the well. Wait, what? She's dead?

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He gets resurrected and gets some bizarre messaging about finding some stones and reuniting humanity, before waking up in....Middle Ages France?

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Only to be promptly arrested!

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Wolfram, looking ever so devilish, sentences him to death. He is whisked away to jail.

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So there we go - the entire first act was ultimately nothing but misdirection and potential framing. But hey, at least now the actual story can begin, right?

Next time, William begins his wacky, hazardous trip through a French monastery!

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William is in prison. But he isn't alone, right next door is a mute man trying to signal for something.

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He finds his lute here? I guess?

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He decides to take his chances and hurls the lute to his fellow prisoner.

He plays it, and promptly attracts the attention of a prison guard, who stands imposingly in front of his cell door...

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..And behind William's. He quickly takes advantage of this and gives him a good, solid kick!

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The prisoner then thwacks him with his lute, finishing the job! He picks his lock, steals a cell key from the guard, and hurls it to William!

Miraculously, none of the prison staff heard any of that. William deals with the two guards here, then moves on.

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Upstairs, Wolfram and a monk conduct satanic rituals.

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William tries to follow them, but they are guarded by this unusually perceptive crossbow guard, who one shots him.

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The only other room open to him is the sheep pen, so he heads there.

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The sheep is quite annoyed, and constantly tries to headbutt William.

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He gives it a wide berth, and collects everything in the room: a sheep skin, a shepherd's staff, and a bucket of water.

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He then extinguishes the fire in the central room, climbs up the chimney...

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...muffles the bell, and jumps across to the rafters!

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The rafters are deceptively very linear, and obnoxious to navigate.

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William passes by Wolfram's and the monk's rooms, hurling some choice cusses...

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...before landing into a small chapel room.

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The chapel has some new robes, a song book about the Templar founders, and...

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Yep. Wolfram is seriously loaded with both devil magic and technology.

The chapel only has the one door, and it leads back to the hallway with the crossbow guard. How does William get out?

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Conveniently, the cross opens a hidden door. Inconveniently, William has to interact with it by "pushing" it rather than "using" it. Frankly, I don't get why the game even has pushing as a verb, it's so rarely used, and only serves to needlessly make some situations confusing.

William copies the book and places it back, along with a wooden box taking the hologram's place. Yeah, because that's totally going to fool Wolfram, the super powerful devil wizard who can seamlessly travel across time and employs futuristic technology.

For those wondering what the right ink mixture for this bit is, it's water, spleen and boneblack. There, I saved you some obnoxious guesswork. Yes, this game makes you guess medieval ink making.

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He then follows a monk to some hospitalish room. Unfortunately, this monk will out him the moment he tries talking or fighting with him, and he's unusually sensitive. Thankfully, he doesn't bother William in this room itself.

The mysterious voice from earlier reminds him to collect some gems.

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He does so by desecrating the statues of his ancestors, the Templar founders themselves.

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One of them is in a prison cell holding a mad Templar. He can be easily avoided, but William insists he must be drugged before extracting the gem.

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So he is. Then he visits the morgue, defiles a body by "pushing" it, solves a nonsensical "puzzle"(read: put item onto the only other interactable object)...

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...and makes the gems emit some strong smoke.

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So strong, that he tips and falls over!

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When he gets up, he finds himself bound in a torture chamber! How will he escape this?

Find out next time, as William takes a dangerous yet wacky trip through the monastery's deep dungeons!

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Last time, William found himself in a pickle.

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Thankfully, like any good adventure game hero, he has a convenient, incredibly impractical trick on hand.

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Like a good adventure game hero, he also solves inane puzzles to progress. In this case, swapping the positions of the two torches to open a hidden door.

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He runs right into Geruar!

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Geruar tells him to be wary of false gems, and conceal Wolfram's eye in a bag. Then he dies.

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William proceeds to pilfer his stuff, getting very excited about the stones he looted just a while ago.

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He solves some more inane "puzzles", like using his ring to open a door, and gets back to the monastery proper. Geruar had a spare change of monk's robes, conveniently enough.

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He's almost immediately assaulted by demonic monks pummeling his face. I mean that literally, they transform into actual demons once they've taken enough damage.

Thankfully, William outpunches them.

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He redeems his stones at the Templars' founders' graves for...very underwhelming rewards.

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He makes his way to the graveyard, which is overrun by undead. Because why not.

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The undead get exorcised via divine hologram and cross. I think the designers gave up all sense of logic at this point.

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As if to illustrate my point, the prisoner from earlier leads William back to the dungeons he just escaped to lead him to Juliette. Spoilers, she isn't held there.

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In fact, all that's down here is a guard, a demon, and a ghoul masquerading as her. Nothing comes out of this sidetrack, it's a complete waste of time.

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So let's skip to him making his way to the monastery's roof. The journey to here was mostly uneventful, featuring two incompetent fighters and some guesswork. He redeems the last gem, gets a horn...

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And is immediately captured. Goddamnit.

Next time, William breaks out of confinement again, and the greatest transformation ever in video game history happens. Don't miss it!

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Yet again, William is imprisoned.

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Thankfully, his co prisoner is here to free him!

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He succeeds...and then promptly gets shot.

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And to make matters worse, his executioner rushes in!

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William quickly rushes out and picks up whatever he can: a mace that his co prisoner left behind, a cross, and this horn.

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He gets away a bit from the executioner, blows his horn....

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And turns into EAGLE JESUS lmao. You can't make this up!!

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Eagle Jesus easily smacks the executioner out of existence.

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Seeing this, the knight who shot William's co prisoner wisely decides to get the hell out of dodge, hurling himself out of the big church window.

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William follows, and flies straight to the roof.

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Where he engages the knight in an epic fight. Not really, the knight is a bullshit opponent - he slices William's HP rapidly, and can only be defeated by hurling him off the roof, which is extremely demanding and painful to pull off.

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The knight falls, and William promptly decides to hurl his mace. Which turns into a bird?

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He also loses his Eagle Jesus powers, sadly. They didn't want the game to become too comical or easy!

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He solves some more inane puzzles and discovers Wolfram's secret eeeeeeeevvilll laboratory!

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He mixes a potion to open a door, and finally finds Juliette!

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One bucket of water is enough to wake her up!

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They get romantic for a bit.

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Wolfram interrupts them and tempts William with some fat loot.

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Sadly, it's not possible to actually take this gold, touching any of it kills William instantly. If this doesn't make Wolfram's lie clear, he also immediately abducts Juliette again and sics a demon on him.

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William is in the middle of a Satanic circle, doing Satanic things. Touching the circle instantly kills William.

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Naturally, pushing this cross to the designated cross spot is the only way to defeat him.

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Wolfram burns in a holy fire or something.

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Juliette finds him the time travelling glove. He puts it on...

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...takes them back to the present...

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...and inadvertently brings along the bird who was a mace!

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Said bird flies far away, and turns into a stone statue with an ominous red eye! Mad cackling can be heard, as the two leaving is reflected in its eye! So Wolfram is still alive, damnit.

That awkward sequel baiting aside, this is where the game ends. It was by no means a good adventure game, but it certainly had its fair share of enjoyable elements, mostly the setting and the art direction. The story is completely dumb, but it makes for some pretty amazingly hilarious moments, and those alone make it a worthwhile experience. I hope I was able to sufficiently capture said moments in this LP. Thank you all for reading, and see you next adventure!

If you liked this LP, feel free to donate here: https://ko-fi.com/devanj12746

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