What if the wolf grew bigger every time you remarked on grandmother's teeth?
Hurlements is a grid-based Survival Horror Adventure Game developed and published by Ubisoft in April of 1988 for the Amstrad CPC and DOS. It is marketed as part of a Thematic Series with Ubisoft's earlier title Zombi, with which it shares a producer. Unlike Zombi, Hurlements has only ever officially been available in France.Hurlements is identical to Zombi in gameplay. There are eighteen iconsnote in the verb interface menu at the bottom of the Heads-Up Display. A clock and direction cube are on the right and character data is to be found up above. The map is smaller than the one of Zombi, but the increased dither makes it more visually catching. As with Zombi, the world is in greyscale and interactable objects are highlighted in blue but lack descriptions. Neither conscious protagonists nor living enemies appear on screen. The presence of an enemy is indicated by their portrait showing up next to the protagonists' portraits. If so, bare-handed combat occurs automatically unless either the enemy is passed by or an equipped weapon is used. Killed enemies and protagonists or sleeping protagonists do appear on screen in blue; killed protagonists can be picked up or inventory-looted and sleeping protagonists can be woken up or shot, but the enemy corpses aren't interactable objects.
There are two protagonists, Kane and Lorry, who have marginally different stats. Each of them can carry four objects at once and their overall health is divided between a F-meter for health and a S-meter for hunger. For either of these to be drained is fatal. And unlike Zombi, both characters have to stay alive to finish the game. One late puzzle requires teamwork, but would either die thereafter the other won't leave regardless.
Perhaps unexpectedly given the likes of Zombi and Manhattan 95, Hurlements is an original story. It shares its name with Hurlements, the French title for The Howling, but the likeness doesn't go further than that. As per the manual, on the 27th of June in 1930, a truck of the US Federal Bank carrying twenty gold ingots gets robbed in Arkansas by a gang of bandits. The stolen ingots are hidden in an outpost of Seattle, Washington. On the 29th of November, that same gang is arrested following a botched bank robbery. The investigation reveals their involvement in the Arkansas case and three of the four gang members are sentenced to death. Only the getaway driver, Alan Glade, gets "merely" life in prison. He comes to share a cell with a minor criminal named Kane in 1938 and proudly relays his crimes and the gold's hiding place before dying from cardiac arrest on March 25th. Kane gets out on March 30th and picked up by his girlfriend Lorry. Together, they go look for the gold, but suffer a car breakdown as they arrive. That'd be just an inconvenience if it weren't for the werewolves roaming the surrounding woods. As such, the couple finds itself with three objectives: stay alive, find the gold, and fix up an abandoned car to get out of there.
In 1989-1990, Zombi was remade for the 16-bit era, but no such treatment followed for Hurlements. In 2014, a Fan Remake of Hurlements was produced in the likeness of what a 1991-1992 official remake could've been like.
Hurlements contains examples of:
- '80s Hair: Lorry has big and spiky hair like you would expect a woman from 1988 to have, not the short and wavy or curled hair a woman from 1938 would actually have.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The well at the abandoned house has a bunker at the bottom. The gang used to store their stuff at the end of one hallway behind an electrified door and at the end of the other one is fuel storage.
- All There in the Manual: The backstory to Hurlements is far more intricate than the events of the game itself and only to be found in full in the manual while a shortened version is on the back of the box. It's also important to understand the game. One might notice the setting is a few decades prior to the 1980s, but that the story takes place in the 1930s specifically is only in the manual. Likewise, the significance of the blue box with "US Bank", that it contains 20 ingots of gold stolen eight years prior and that it's the sole reason the protagonists are in their current predicament, is only in the manual.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: If a protagonist gets killed by a werewolf, they'll be dead-dead for a hot second and then rise as a werewolf themself. If the surviving protagonist goes to the place their partner was killed, they'll encounter them as an unseen enemy and end up fighting for their life. If the werewolf-ified protagonist is killed, they'll leave behind a human corpse.
- Bank Robbery: As per the manual, the gang that robbed the gold transport attempted to rob a bank in Liberty, Washington half a year later. It went bad. One hostage escaped and alerted the police, which surrounded the building in short time. Being more violent than intelligent, the gang murdered the remaining hostages and were left without threat to keep the police at bay.
- Bat Out of Hell: Bats are the enemies fought inside the bunker at the bottom of the well in the second half of the game. They're much weaker than werewolves, but just as hostile and cannot be shot down with the rifle.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Kane and Lorry are not good people. Kane is in jail for something deemed petty, but it still was something worth putting him in jail for. He has no regrets either, being a criminal more for the sake of staying entertained than for the money. Lorry has a similarly self-centered and impulsive demeanor, and she throws a mean punch. These two are the heroes of the story and positively contrasted by Alan Glade's gang, who have brutally murdered at least seven people and been sentenced to the electric chair and life in prison for it.
- Booby Trap: Without explanation, the abandoned house has two boobytraps. The first on the ground floor activates when the cupboard on the left is opened and takes off the victim's head. The second is upstairs and activates when someone lays down on the bed next to the stairs down. A large spike impales the victim from below. The bunker at the bottom of the well holds a third boobytrap in the form of an electrified gate. Bump into it while scrambling around in the dark and the voltage puts an end to everything.
- Bottomless Magazines: The rifle never has to be reloaded and can put an endless amount of bullets into any and all werewolves. The two drawbacks are that there is only one gun for two protagonists and the necessity to fatally shoot the werewolf before they've made their way over, which happens rather quickly. Of course, an injured werewolf is still easier to take down in a fistfight than one who hasn't got a bullet lodged in their flesh.
- Cat/Dog Dichotomy: The protagonists are up against werewolves and the primary protagonist, Kane, is described as distinctly catlike in his appearance and behavior. The description elaborates that this is because his eye color is comparable to topaz, his build is lithely muscular, and his countenance equal parts cruel, reserved, and facetious.
- The Darkness Gazes Back: If the protagonists stumble into a whole pack worth of werewolves, some of the werewolves linger in hiding amidst the trees and are only visible because their eyes are.
- Devoured by the Horde: Any protagonist who walks into the pack of werewolves in the woods supposedly gets eaten by them. They do, in any case, not rise up as a werewolf the way they do when killed by a single werewolf.
- Don't Go in the Woods: The woods surrounding the outpost are teeming with werewolves. One werewolf doesn't have to be a problem, but anyone foolish enough to keep wandering amidst the trees sooner or later will encounter the entire pack. There is no way to survive that.
- Family Man: Donald Mac'Tor is a happily married man and doting father of four on June 27, 1930. As one of the two drivers of a gold transport of the US Federal Bank, he gets ambushed that day by violent criminals and murdered.
- Gender-Restricted Gear: Like Sylvie in Zombi, Lorry cannot use the axe even though Kane can. No explanation is given, though it may be assumed the axe is only just too heavy for her to use. Unlike Sylvie, Lorry can handle the rifle without issue.
- Have a Nice Death: The bad ending screen depicts the two protagonists sitting serenely at a lake and watching the sunset together. Mind you, not as humans, but as freshly risen werewolves.
- High-Voltage Death:
- As per the backstory, three of the four gang members get sentenced to death by the electric chair. The fourth was given life in prison for merely the getaway driver, even though in truth he may have been the mastermind.
- Within the game, there is an electrified gate halfway a tunnel in the bunker under the well. Touching it without turning the current off first leads to an insta-death.
- Hostage Situation: On November 29th, 1930, Alan Glade's gang holds up a bank in Liberty and take six hostages: three employees, two clients, and a courier. The courier manages to escape and warn the police, who move quickly to surround the bank. When the gang sees that they cannot escape, instead of being pragmatic about it and only get charged with armed robbery, they give voice to their frustration by brutally murdering the remaining five hostages. The police swarm in after that and most of the gang ends up on the electric chair.
- Human Resources: If a protagonist comes across the corpse of their dead partner, they can search the corpse for whatever they have in their inventory. If there is no hurry to get the items, however, it's worth it to pick up the whole corpse as essentially a handbag. All the items on the corpse come along with the corpse for no more than the price of one inventory slot.
- Inexplicably Preserved Dungeon Meat: There's an unlimited supply of dried ham in the outside cellar, which the protagonists discover with its doors open. As it is unclear how long the home has been abandoned by humans, it is unclear how long the meat's been there. Though with werewolves all around, including inside the house, one would think the meat to have been consumed by now. Or did the werewolves put it there?
- In-Universe Game Clock: There's a pocket watch on the heads-up display that starts at 11:15. Every quarter past the hour thereafter, the protagonists get a bit more hungry, but otherwise nothing changes until 22:00. That's when nighttime hits and the screen goes all black. It is still possible to navigate around by memory and if the active protagonist has the lamp it can be equipped to regain visibility. The sun comes back up at 06:00.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: The protagonists are controlled individually, which means that each does battle with the werewolves and bats alone even though their survival odds would improve significantly if they'd take on their enemies together. The only point where splitting up benefits the couple is when the protagonist who has descended into the well can only get back up when the other lowers a rope for them to climb.
- Life Meter: The F-meter serves as the life meter. It differs between Kane and Lorry in that Lorry can only have hers filled for about three quarters to indicate she can't take a hit quite as much as Kane can. Health can only drop from one-on-one encounters with werewolves and bats, because everything else is insta-kill. There is one medkit in the kitchen and an unlimited supply of medicine in the gas station to help the protagonists out if necessary.
- Limited Loadout: The protagonists can each carry four items, regardless if that's a magnifying glass or a new tire. To make room, they can lay items they don't immediately need on the ground. Only the tire, food, and drinks cannot be dropped. The food and drinks have to be consumed and the tire can only be gotten rid off by attaching it to the car in the garage.
- Middle-of-Nowhere Street: The gas station, the house, and the well are in a corner of Seattle where rarely anyone stops by. How rarely is up for interpretation. The last time humans are certain to have been there is nearly eight years before the events of the game, because that's where Alan Glade's gang hid the 20 gold ingots. Whether the gang, possibly members not involved in the bank robbery, are the owners or if the actual owners were killed for a pretty sweet hideout is unknown. The buildings are dilapidating, but it's unclear just for how long. What the area lacks on human presence, it makes up for with werewolf presence, but again, it's unclear how long the werewolves have been around and for that matter if there's a connection with the gang. Three of the werewolves are encountered inside the house and gas station, so there's that.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: Coming close on the heels of Zombi, Hurlements takes a good helping of its predecessor's graphics. Firstly, it reuses the full 18-icons action bar. Secondly, it reuses Patrick's portrait directly for Kane. And thirdly, the sprites of the rifle, the medkit, the rope, and the axe are the same between both games.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: The primary enemies are werewolves. They appear not to be the humanoid variety, but the version that fully and possibly permanently transforms into a wolf, although apparently they're still capable of using doors and stairs. They reside as a pack in the woods in a part of Seattle hardly anyone ever passes through. The protagonists become werewolves themselves if they die during their search for the gold.
- Outlaw Couple: Kane is a convicted criminal and Lorry punches harder than he does. They are devoted to each other and handle the search for the stolen gold and the battles with werewolves together. Would either perish, then the game becomes unwinnable, implying that one refuses to go on without the other. Furthermore, the game's setting of 1938 may have been chosen because of it's proximity to the days of Bonnie and Clyde.
- Pamphlet Shelf: There is only one book on the well-filled shelves in the house that is readable. Only the partial line "Beaucoup pensent que les garous ne sont pas qu'une légende, mais...", or "Many think that werewolvesnote aren't merely a legend, but..." is read, begging the question what comes after the "but" and if it's the protagonist who refuses to read on or if it is perhaps a diary that wasn't completed.
- Resting Recovery: There is a curious roleplay-like mechanic where you have to let the inactive protagonist sleep or they cannot be switched to anymore when the clock strikes XX:15 and they get a little more hungry. This is effectively a game over because both protagonists need to be controlled for the last part of the game. Rest doesn't recover anything nor slows it down hunger, it just keeps both protagonists available. Protagonists automatically wake up after eight hours of sleep or can be woken up by another protagonist. Incidentally, only the bed near the attic stairs is safe to sleep in. The other is booby-trapped. A third bed in the gas station is not interactable.
- Robbing the Dead: If either protagonist perishes, they'll leave behind a corpse that the other protagonist can loot for their partner's inventory.
- Shout-Out: There's a vulture seated permanently in the heads-up display amidst the portraits for visual flavor. Its design is strikingly cartoony for the game's moody art style and resembles the way vultures look in Lucky Luke.
- Shows Damage: There are four possible portraits the heads-up display can put up. The main two are a human face when a character is alive and a cross when they're dead. If a protagonist is killed by a werewolf, they will rise up as a werewolf themself, which the heads-up display illustrates by means of a werewolf face. The fourth and last one is rare. There is a booby-trapped cupboard in the kitchen. Open that one and for a short time the protagonist's portrait depicts them as beheaded.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: It is possible to open the house's windows upstairs and walk out of them, after which the sound of falling and landing clarifies that the protagonist just died. A similar suicidal action can be taken by walking into the well, although its effect is diminished by an unexpected change in gameplay mechanics. As well, it is possible to use a gun on the active protagonist and on their companions. Doing so causes death.
- Team Killer: Protagonists are able to use guns not only on enemies, but also on their partner and even themself.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Hurlements has a few particularly nasty curveballs.
- The setting is a luscious forest surrounding a gas station home. Go amidst the trees surrounding the gas station and the protagonists will probably encounter a werewolf that they can just run from and eventually the path does lead to a key area. Experiencing this might cause one to assume that all exploration is good. However, go amidst the trees around the well or behind the house, including near the eye-catching shed, and the full pack of werewolves shows up to introduce themselves teeth first. This kind of encounter cannot be survived.
- Normally, to go up or down an area the player has to actually select up or down on the compass. Not so with the well. If the player goes forward without equipping the rope, whether by accident or because they think they're still a screen away from the well or because they want to go past the well instead, the protagonist falls to their death.
- There's a magnifying lens that is to be used on the fireplace to discover a hidden button. There is no indication that there's anything special about the fireplace, which doesn't even have a visual cue in a game where any other interactable object has a distinct blue color.
- The game contains one explained and two unexplained booby-traps resulting in insta-death that the player can only learn about the hard way.
- Unwinnable by Design: The game cannot be won if either protagonist dies, but the game doesn't inform the player of that tidbit. Odds are the player will find out when the surviving protagonist cannot leave the well because there's no one to help them back up. Otherwise, the player will realize the predicament when the surviving protagonist is all set to leave but plain refuses without their partner.
