Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus

Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus
Company type	Video game
Industry	Video games
Predecessor	Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
Founded	1992
Headquarters	United Kingdom
Products	Video games

Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus represents the second installment in the Elvira series, blending horror-themed adventure with role-playing elements. Created by Horror Soft and released by Accolade in 1992, it serves as the follow-up to the 1990 title Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.

Plot

The storyline centers on Elvira’s partner, who embarks on a mission to save her after she is seized by the demon Cerberus. This entity intends to harness her supernatural abilities for its own ends. The narrative unfolds within a horror film studio, where the props and sets have transformed into genuine monsters due to the studio’s location atop cursed land.

Gameplay

Players experience the game through a first-person viewpoint, maneuvering via directional arrow keys. Although it attempts to create a 3D environment, it primarily relies on multiple 2D visuals depicting rooms and hallways from fixed perspectives, which restricts free exploration.

The game world consists of four distinct zones: the central studio building plus three separate movie sets. Adventure gameplay dominates in two zones—the main building and Studio 2 (a haunted mansion)—focusing on item gathering and puzzle-solving. Conversely, Studio 1 and Studio 3 provide traditional dungeon crawling challenges, set within insect-infested caves and underground dungeons respectively.

A notable aspect is its spellcasting mechanic, requiring players to combine specific discovered items according to spell recipes (such as a glass container or flammable substance). This system incentivizes thorough searching and collecting objects like glass bottles or alcohol sprays to successfully cast magic.

Reception

Upon release in 1992, Dragon magazine awarded the game a flawless score of 5 out of 5 stars, describing it as "completely immersive, thrilling, and packed with horror," recommending it as essential. In contrast, Scorpia from Computer Gaming World criticized the title for including unwinnable scenarios and a problematic save feature, labeling it "a major letdown." By 1993, she further characterized it as "unexpectedly poor," an "excessively monotonous hack-and-slash" with "badly constructed adventure puzzles."

The Amiga version received a 77% rating from The One, which praised its "superb" gore visuals and "fairly user-friendly" interface. However, the review highlighted cumbersome exploration controls that involved unnecessary actions and frequent disk swapping across seven disks, resulting in lengthy loading times. Despite these drawbacks, The One acknowledged it as a "solid RPG" featuring numerous adversaries, effective combat and magic mechanics, and an expansive world delivering considerable gameplay enjoyment.

Reviews

Zzap! (Sep 1992)
ST Format (Nov 1992)
Amiga Computing (Jun 1992)
ST Action (Mar 1993)
64'er (Nov 1992)
Games-X (Jan 23, 1992)
Commodore Format (Sep 1992)
Amiga Joker (Feb 1992)
Amiga Action (May 1992)
Zero (Mar 1992)
Amiga Format (May 1992)
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) (Feb 1992)
Power Play (Mar 1992, Jun 1992)
CU Amiga (Mar 1992)
Amiga Power (May 1992)

External links