“Resident Evil,” or “Biohazard” as it was originally known in Japan, was a groundbreaking
action title when it was released on the Sony PlayStation in 1996, and is among Capcom's
most beloved and most important game series...which is saying a lot, given the company's seemingly
endless supply of classic gaming IPs.
While the success of Resident Evil around the world would influence horror games for
years to come, and is even credited with coining the term “survival horror,” it wasn't
exactly the first game of its kind.
It drew inspiration from several other games that came before it, the two most well-known
being Capcom's very own Sweet Home on the Famicom, which Resident Evil was originally
intended to be a remake of in the early stages of its production, and the MS-DOS horror classic
from Infogrames, Alone in the Dark.
But one game that was a trail blazer in the horror genre and is often overlooked in the
grand scheme of things, perhaps due to it status as a Japanese-exclusive published on
a failed gaming platform, is the 1994 3DO Interactive Multiplayer horror adventure title,
Doctor Hauzer.
Developed by Riverhillsoft and published by Panasonic, this game is one of the earliest
examples of a 3D horror action game.
It's often written off as a simple clone of Alone in the Dark, which was released two
years previously, and while at first glance it might be hard to distinguish between the
two, in my opinion, Doctor Hauzer is a true pioneer of the survival horror genre in its
own right, and was the first fully polygonal 3D action horror game ever made, and may be
the first 3D game to feature cel-shaded graphics.
Getting the 3DO to produce such a virtual world was an impressive feat for the time,
especially so early in the system's admittedly short life cycle, and was in no small part
thanks to the main programmer of this game, Akihiro Hino, a name that should be familiar
to Japanese role-playing game fans, as he would later go on to found the much loved
dev studio Level 5, and direct, produce, or write most of the company's most popular games.
The year is 1952—Adams Adler dreamed of a career in journalism, and upon graduating
from high school, he realized that dream by landing a job at the prestigious publication,
The Boston Science Monitor.
His first assignment?
Interview the world-renowned Dr. Hauzer, a highly respected archaeologist whose research
has won every prize in the science world, which is a task that has been long rejected
by all of Adams' senior colleagues, as the scientist is known to have a particularly
neurotic personality.
Without knowledge of this, however, Adams accepts, and most likely due to his blank
slate in regards to the good doctor, the interview is an unexpected success, as Dr. Hauzer confides
within the young reporter some of his unpublished research to use in the article.
From that point on, all stories about the eccentric scientist would land on the desk
of Adams, and for a decade, a healthy, professional relationship was fostered between journalist
and scientist.
One day, however, and without warning, the archaeologist withdraws from the public, vanishing
from the face of the earth.
Adams tracks down his last known location to a mansion isolated in the wilderness, and
sets out to get to the bottom of what has become of Dr. Hauzer, if anything.
The reclusive manor is located far off the beaten path away from civilized society, and
even with just a quick glance it's obvious that the building has not been properly maintained
in quite some time.
The door opens, as if to greet Adams as a formal guest.
From here on, it's up to you to explore the mansion and get the scoop on Dr. Hauzer's
mysterious disappearance.
Right from the start, however, a crashing chandelier in the entrance makes it almost
fatally clear that getting the big story won't be as easy as walking up to the man and having
a conversation.
Movement in Doctor Hauzer is just as you'd expect for the survival horror genre, utilizing
the “tank control” method as popularized by Alone in the Dark and later, Resident Evil.
Pressing up on the d-pad moves Adams forward relative to the direction he's facing, pressing
down has him step backwards, and left and right change his direction accordingly.
Adams walks by default, but holding down B makes him run, and he can jump with the press
of the C button.
Exploration is the key gameplay element in Doctor Hauzer, and most of the game has Adams
searching for and finding useful items and clues that piece together what might have
happened to the missing doctor.
Pushing the A button will search the area immediately in front of the protagonist, allowing
him to pick up items, look at objects, activate switches, and generally just comment on the
situation.
Some of the most common items in the game are keys, which are necessary to collect in
order to make it deeper into the mansion, as many doors are locked.
There are several weapons to be found in the game, but don't expect to use them in any
sort of combat situation.
While the setting of Doctor Hauzer is an isolated, creepy mansion, again, like Alone in the Dark
and Resident Evil, unlike those two games, however there are no horrific creatures to
fend off here, and the rooms and halls of the house are eerily void of any signs of
life.
Rather, it is the doctor's manor itself that serves as the main antagonist in the game,
as there are traps and other hazards laying in wait all throughout the house, ready to
send young Adams to his doom in an instant.
A few examples of such deathtraps are swinging pendulum blades, as prominently displayed
on the box art, an Indiana Jones-style giant boulder that rolls down a hallway, and a flying
arrow aimed right at the hero's forehead, triggered as he walks past a grandfather clock.
Most of these traps can be overcome on first encounter with some smooth moves and a bit
of wit, but others can be unavoidable at first, requiring a bit of trial and error to proceed.
For example, in the beginning area of the manor, the stairs to the second floor are
in a state of disrepair and unusable, and all doors are locked, except for one...however,
going through this door will send Adams stumbling down a dark pit, bringing an abrupt and early
end to the evening's journalistic pursuit.
First time players will likely see the game over screen many times attempting to discover
the secrets of the mansion, but it's not as frustrating as it sounds, since progress can
be saved at almost any point of the game.
Pressing the P button will bring up a menu that gives Adams access to all of the items
currently in his possession.
He only brought one thing with him to the mansion, and thankfully it's a useful one—his
trusty journal, which can be written in to save.
Most items can be used given the right context, and inspected further as well, which is handy
for maps and the like.
Getting past the traps in Doctor Hauzer often involves some kind of puzzle solving element,
and are usually pretty straightforward and simple, though the clues can be deliberately
vague at times.
Take this one instance, for example, where you must somehow cross a seemingly bottomless
pit.
On the wall immediately before it hangs a painting that shows a man carefully crossing
over a chasm as if he's floating over thin air.
There's an inscription on it as well, but it cannot be deciphered completely.
Following in the painted footsteps of this picture and attempting to walk over the pit
leads not to to death, but rather, the discovery that a pane of glass serves as a walkway over
the dark abyss...just don't run over it, as the hard impact of your steps will shatter
the fragile glass and...well, you know what happens next.
Figuring out how to proceed in any area is usually pretty logical and won't cause the
player too many problems, and in my playthrough, I only got stuck once for any significant
portion of time, which was in a room where you must move a dresser that's blocking a
door.
Adams will push certain movable objects such as furniture automatically if he runs into
them, but the dresser was placed too close to a table for this to work.
A simple check of the controls by pressing the X button, however, and I learned that
holding the run button and pressing down on the d-pad lets you pull objects backward,
realizing the only thing that kept me from moving on forward smoothly was a case of user
error.
By default, the game's camera is set to what it calls “sight view,” where it shifts
to dynamic, fixed angles that are a staple of 3rd person action horror games of the era.
But because this is a fully 3D game, you can freely cycle between two other camera styles
using the left bumper—the second is “top view,” which places the camera above Adams
and makes getting past certain obstacles much more manageable, and the third is a first
person view called “eye view,” allowing for clearer inspection of the many rooms and
hallways of Dr. Hauzer's mansion.
While holding down the right bumper and pressing down and up on the d-pad, Adams can shift
his view above and below, which often doesn't serve any meaningful purpose in the game,
but is a nice extra feature.
For the time, the visuals of Doctor Hauzer were pretty remarkable, but decades after
its release, they are admittedly pretty crude, and the game doesn't exactly run all that
smoothly, either...but it still manages to create a creepy atmosphere even today.
Setting any sort of mood or ambiance can be done visually, of course, but often times,
audible elements play just as big of a role—and sometimes even more.
The music and sound effects in Doctor Hauzer do a great job in adding to the ominous feeling
of the game world, withstanding the test of time.
The track that plays throughout most of the mansion creates an impression of mystique
and intrigue, and while you'll hear it for long periods of time, it never gets annoying
or detracts from the experience.
The creaking of opening doors, the howling of wolves in the wilderness, the immutable
ticking of clocks, the blood curdling screams Adams lets out right before he meets his maker...they're
all very well done and pull you right into the walls of Dr. Hauzer's unusual and dangerous
abode.
The attention to detail with the sound design is also quite solid—for example, after activating
a switch to cover up a rift in a hallway, the sound of Adams' footsteps as he runs across
the newly laid walkway changes in pitch to reflect the fact that a death pit is now hidden
below.
A subtle thing, but it's very much noticed and appreciated when you play.
For most of Adams' journey, the story is told through Dr. Hauzer's numerous journals scattered
throughout the mansion.
It seems that by pure chance, he made a discovery out in a location where none of his peers
would have ever thought to have surveyed—a discovery that may very well be the most important
in his long and illustrious career—a stone tablet of biblical origin.
He believes that cracking the code inscribed on this tablet and excavating the area further
will allow him to communicate with the cherubim of the Bible, heavenly, angelic beings in
service of God.
The cherubim were tasked with guarding the gates of the Garden of Eden after the abolition
of Adam and Eve, and Hauzer believes they may allow him to enter Paradise and partake
of a fruit borne of the Tree of Life, thereby granting him immortality.
He builds a mansion over the dig site in order to dedicate every waking hour to his new project,
keeping it a well-guarded secret from the outside world, only hiring on two assistants
to aid him with his work.
His journal entries read as if they were excerpts from a modern fantasy novel, though if they
are to be believed, it turns out he was correct in his assumptions, establishing contact with
the cherubim, inching ever closer to Paradise and eternal life...it's a tough pill to swallow,
but one thing that is very clear from reading these pages is the doctor's gradual descent
into desperation, paranoia, and madness.
In later entries, he writes of murdering his assistants for their weakness or incompetence,
sacrificing them to appease God, which seems unbelievable...but seeing is believing, and
the gruesome proof of Dr. Hauzer's misdeeds can be found in plain sight as one delves
deeper into the manor.
In the lowest depths of the excavation site, Adams will finally catch up to and confront
the person whose life he had been tracking for the past decade...or at least, what's
left of the man he once knew as “Dr. Hauzer.”
And how this meeting concludes is quite the shocker...and I'll leave that for you to discover
on your own.
Doctor Hauzer is a very short game—so short, I'd say it's the game's biggest flaw.
My save time before the final confrontation with the doctor clocked in at a little over
an hour, though I spent a bit longer than that with the game due to deaths and resets.
The only real challenge of the game is figuring out how to proceed through the house via the
puzzles and traps discussed earlier, which aren't that complicated in the first place,
so a second playthrough can easily be accomplished in about a half an hour.
The publisher of the game certainly realized that Doctor Hauzer's length left much to be
desired, so in the manual, they offer some sort of challenges to players who have already
beaten the game, such as competing with friends to see who can achieve the shortest clear
time, doing a no-save run, and oddly, starting up a quiz group to test everyone's knowledge
of the game.
That's kind of weird and sad.
While Doctor Hauzer may have been a pioneer in the survival horror genre and an influence
on Resident Evil and the countless similar titles that would follow, unsurprisingly,
it drew inspiration from a number of sources itself, most notably the aforementioned Alone
in the Dark.
The two are very similar in appearance, tone, gameplay...it's hard to deny the impact that
Infogrames' horror adventure had on Riverhillsoft's 3DO offering.
As you may have noticed, there are some elements of the game that seem to have drawn from the
Indiana Jones series, with its focus on archaeology and the Bible, and use of familiar set pieces
found in the Spielberg flicks.
The game's title song, as you heard in the intro to this video, sounds very much like
an ever so slightly tweaked rendition of the theme to a certain popular Tim Burton film
from the 1980s as well.
As far as the name “Doctor Hauzer” goes, I'd like to think a popular child genius doctor
on American television in the 90s is what spawned that...but that's probably just wishful
thinking.
Also...Adams Adler, Adam Sandler?
Hmm...I hope not.
Despite its short length, sluggish movement and dated graphics, Doctor Hauzer holds up
surprisingly well, probably due to the simplicity of its gameplay and game design,
and is one of the best gaming experiences available on the 3DO.
While the “scares” in the game might be more chuckle-worthy than frightening today,
the vacant mansion provides a creepy atmosphere that must have kept players on edge back in
1994.
I really enjoyed my time with Doctor Hauzer, and it's a game that I would really love to
see given the remake treatment someday.
While a lot of games are remade, re-imagined, or re-released unnecessarily and almost solely
as cash grabs, in the case of this game a remake could only expand and improve upon
the source material, and that would be an excellent, excellent thing.
But as it stands, it remains a Japan-only 3DO game, but one that is very accessible
for anyone to play for several reasons.
First, the 3DO system and software are region-free, so it can be played on a non-Japanese system.
Second, it's really cheap and easy to find, much like a large majority of the 3DO's library.
And finally, while there's not much text in the game in the first place, and getting through
it is a breeze for players who can't read Japanese, an unofficial English patch was
made for Doctor Hauzer that can be applied in cases where it's played through that legally
oh-so-gray method of running old video games on the PC.
No matter how you choose to play it, though, I highly recommend you give Doctor Hauzer
a try, especially if you're a fan of survival horror and would like to go back to the roots
of the genre, or a fanboy of the 3DO, which is the best bad system out there...so much
better than the CD-i.
Well, that's it for this episode of Import Gaming FTW!
I'd like to thank my buddy Andrew Haden once again, this time for helping me get the footage
of Alone in the Dark for DOS that was used here, as well as Mr. Tiago Pereira dos Santos
Silva, who requested this game to be covered via his support on Patreon.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the episode, and as always, this is Jimmy Hapa—take care...and
watch out for giant swinging pendulum blades.
Roots of the survival horror genre, huh?
Hmm...oh, what's thaaaaaat!