Alpha Polaris
| Alpha Polaris | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Turmoil Games |
| Publisher(s) | Just a Game |
| Engine | Wintermute Engine[1] |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) |
|
| Genre(s) | Point-and-click adventure, horror |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Alpha Polaris is a point-and-click horror adventure game, developed by Finnish company Turmoil Games and published by Just a Game. It was released for Microsoft Windows on June 24, 2011.[2] The game is set in a research station in Greenland.[1]
Story
Rune Knudsen is a Norwegian biologist and the protagonist who is awaken by Tully Crean, a coarse and somewhat obnoxious handyman. He tells him that a stray polar bear has wandered into the grounds so Rune needs to sedate it and put on a satellite tracking collar for his research and thesis on the animal life on Greenland before putting it in cage for it to recover and for a veterinarian to check on it.
Al Schaumann, the leader of the expedition and the exploratory oil facility/research station, has found a crevasse filled with oil, along with something strange that he discovered in a cave inside the crevasse. This turns out to be some human bones and an aged picture showing dark images and strange pictographs. They also receive news that Alistair Euler, the arrogant son of the company’s CEO will be arriving the next day for a sudden unscheduled inspection.
During the night, Rune starts to experience horrid nightmares and wakes up. He find Tully who seems to be having night terrors muttering about a beast that haunts him. Rune then later finds Al marveled by the aurora who tells him that there will be an ion storm which will cause the radio to blur out noises and that communications may be down for a while, while reminiscing myths that how aurora was once seen as a gateway for spirits by the natives.
Next morning, Tully wakes Rune to show him that the polar bear has torn the cage apart and is badly injured because of it. Rune reluctantly decides to put it out of its misery. Using his tracking system, Rune follows the bear but barely manages to escape with his life when the bear attacks him in a frenzy forcing Rune to shoot and kill it. Guilt ridden and emotionally devastated for killing the bear, Rune decides to study the human bones and discovers that the marrow was extracted suggesting that the natives might have practiced cannibalism.
Al advises Rune to calm down from the traumatic experiences with the bear to make a cake for his first date with Nova, an attractive girl whom Rune naturally has romantic feelings for. But their date is cut short as Alistair arrives by helicopter and starts to take control of the station demanding samples from the crevasse much to the team members' dismay.
On the following night, Rune wakes from experiencing more horribly graphic nightmares involving Nova's gruesome death and hears gunshots from outsides. It turns out that Tully has entered a state of insanity and shoots blindly to scare away the beast that haunts him and Rune has to sedate him with his tranquilizer gun.
Next morning, Alistair grudgingly confronts Rune, Al and Nova for what happened to Tully. Rune tries to reason him by telling that the ion storm may some more supernatural nature but Al denies his theories and Nova who obviously had her own night terrors last night refuses to help him which leaves Rune to no choice to investigate the cave by the crevasse by volunteering to gather oil samples for Alistair.
Rune investigates the cave that Al discovered and wanders deeper inside to find a nightmarish summoning site and a throne made of human bones and ice created to summon the Wendigo. The site was created by a renegade tribe that was destroyed by the creature after their attempt to summon it from the skies. Suddenly Rune sees the menacing spirit ascend from the throne and give chase. Unfortunately, Rune crashes his snow car in his efforts to escape and is left exposed to the cold night.
Rune wakes up and finds his hands to be bandaged but otherwise fine. He finds Alistair and Nova arguing. They tell him that both Tully and Al disappeared last night after Nova managed to save Rune. Alistair, who now believes in the Wendigo as well, offers assistance as an apology.
Nova and Rune theorizes that when Al came back from the crevasse with the bones and pictographs from the Wendigo's ritual chambers, it caused a rift in the veils beyond the aurora and the ion storm confirming the violent behavior of the polar bears and later the night terrors they've experienced so the best conclusion is to disintegrate the bones.
Rune manages to burn the bones into ashes, but he also finds Tully who has committed suicide. Later, Rune finds a note in Al's room that says that he has wandered outside in a desperate attempt to lure the evil spirit away from the others..
Nova invites Rune to her room but soon the night terrors returns stronger. Rune is confronted by Alistair at gunpoint, it turns out that he too has suffered night terrors and believes that Rune has killed Nova. It is revealed that Al has been under the Wendigo's spell as he tries to kill Nova as part of a sacrificial ritual. Rune shoots Al who promptly cuts out his own heart to summon the spirit but Rune foils its plans by destroying the well and Al. The Wendigo falls deep into the ice cold ocean.
Rune and Nova leave the research station by a snow mobile and drive off to Thule past a polar bear who looks at them curiously, revealing that the Wendigo's has truly been vanquished.
References
- 1 2 Richardson, Ben (July 18, 2011). "Daily Independent: Alpha Polaris Gets Spooky in Greenland". gamefront.com. Break Media. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
- ↑ "Alpha Polaris". adventuregamers.com. Adventure Gamers. Retrieved September 9, 2011.