Shadowgate: Review

In 1987, the Apple Macintosh entered Point’n’Click Adventure Shadowgate, in which the player was offered with a first -person view to explore the castle extremely dangerous for health, the residence of a powerful evil warlock. Two years later, the game was ported to Nes, where it gained a huge popularity at that time. Shadowgate It was distinguished by a particularly gloomy atmosphere and was a real dangerous adventure, where traps and monsters were waiting for at every step, and each wrong movement led to the premature death of the hero.

After Shadowgate They ported more on many platforms, there were still sequels and prequels, and in 2012 the creators of the original, gathered under the sign Zojoi, We collected almost 140 thousand dollars through Kickstarter for a modern, supplemented and expanded remake. More recently, he finally went to Steam, and, as it turned out, die here even more often than in the 1987 game.

Simple movements

Increased hardcore is the first thing that catches the eye when meeting with a new Shadowgate. Now in remakes or continuations of some old quests are usually trying to simplify everything and everything, and then it seems that the authors specially do everything to scare away the modern audience. First of all – interface and management.

As in the original, the action takes place with a view of the eyes, and on the screen you see a huge number of commands necessary for interaction with active points and objects – “take”, “examine”, “use”, “talk”, “hit”, “open”, “open”, “go forward”. As a result, in order to cut a bush with a dagger, you need to take a few actions: open the inventory, highlight the dagger, then click on the command “use”, close the inventory and, finally, click on the bush. And in order to go through the door, it is not enough to find the key and apply it on the lock – then you still need to highlight the door itself, poke “open”, highlight it again and, finally, click “go ahead”.

Thank God, the authors were not quite sadists. If you delve into the game settings, it turns out that if you wish, you can remove all this bulky interface from the screen to activate the commands through the keyboard, and the desired items or spells (about them a little later) hang on the “hot keys”. This, of course, simplifies the situation, but still, even in this form, you will have to perform quite a lot of extra body movements.

Dark Souls with puzzles

In the gameplay itself, the authors also made some concessions. Three levels of complexity appeared. The fence and the number of puzzles, as well as the content and even the presence/absence of some scenes, depends on what you have chosen. For example, at the easiest level, you will need to find only one missing skull to solve a puzzle, and on the most heavy – all three. The tint system also appeared – the speaker of Yorik (this is such an author’s joke) acts as an assistant).

But even at a slight level of complexity Shadowgate It looks like a sort of Dark Souls In the world of modern quests. You will have to break your head more than once or two, how to turn the levers or torches on pedestals, so that something open somewhere or, conversely, closed. Moreover, it is still not entirely clear what exactly and where, it is necessary to re -examine the locations, and the quick movement between them is not provided. Of course, there are tips that make the found notes be carefully read and examine the walls of the catacombs in search of some characters. But neither they nor the advice of capricious Yorik never give an exhaustive answer what to do next and which of the many items in the inventory for what is needed.

In addition to solving puzzles and “pixels hunting” (active points, by the way, cannot be allocated here) in Shadowgate you have to survive naturally. The gloomy castle of the same name, which we explore, is known that it is almost impossible to survive the usual mortal – almost on every second location there are corpses, bones and skulls, as well as monsters, traps and obstacles that threaten an ambulance and painful death.

They came across, for example, on the lair of a local dragon, tried to take something from under his nose, and he will immediately turn you into a barbecue. We saw something clearly important in the water, they stuck there-and you will devour the sea snakes! And you also constantly have to ensure that the torch does not go out – if this happens, then the hero, as in the original, is in complete darkness and breaks the neck. Therefore, it is better not to set fire to torches hanging on the walls (they will also go out sooner or later), and take them with you. And you also need to constantly persist – there are no restrictions on the “saves”.

For the game, the orchestral soundtrack was recorded, but in the settings you can include original music almost 30 years ago.

Armed and dangerous

Correctly selected equipment will help to cope with some monsters or just survive after their attack – this is the role elements in Shadowgate. Periodically we find different types of weapons and armor, which need to be put on a kind of hero doll. If, for example, take a wooden shield, then the same dragon with his fiery breathing will still incinerate it first, and then you. But if there is an iron shield in his hands, then the hero will be saved. And this is important because there are many useful items in the lap.

Actually, there are no battles in the usual sense of the word, but periodically dangerous enemies block the path, such as goblins or werewolf. If the hero is properly armed, then you need to click on the enemy, then click “hit” – and you will cause fatal damage.

In addition, periodically we learn spells. Some of them will be needed to solve puzzles and overcoming obstacles, with the help of others you can resist the same monsters – for example, temporarily blind the goblins standing in your way, then to quickly get rid of them.

Shadowgate really causes approximately the same emotions as Dark Souls: at first scary, unpleasant, uncomfortable and I want to run to hell, but then what is happening is drawn with my head. Here is the same gloomy thick atmosphere, brutal voice acting and nerves constantly tickles the feeling of danger. The game challenges and you accept it. I want to overcome everything and find out how the adventure will end. Moreover, the updated, supplemented and expanded plot offers more interesting situations, unexpected meetings and dangerous acquaintances.

Pros: The game looks and sounds very atmospheric;what is happening constantly challenges you;A rare combination of quest elements and RPG;many interesting situations, mysteries and enemies;there is some nonlinearity in solving emerging problems.
Cons: overloaded by current standards management;Frequent races on the same locations.