Shadowgate

INTRO:

Most adventure games of the present day give the player the convenience of all the time that he/she wants, if only to give the player all the opportunities to savor the artistic effort which has been invested in the game (or as far as the game-makers think it is art). Even if there were time-critical moments, these are contained within isolated scenarios which just throws a game-over screen at the player if he/she messes up.

Shadowgate is not that kind of adventure game. From the moment when the player is dropped into the first scene, there is already a ticker that will count down towards a game-over scenario.

This can very well put off most players, especially those who want to dig into the nooks and crannies of the game and do not want to reload game-saves too often. However, Shadowgate also has designs which make it a lot more replayable than most other adventure games, and these are worked into the gameplay in a holistically substantial manner too, as will be described later.

(By the way, the game is actually a re-visited version of a game for the mobile device platforms, which in turn is a remake of the original Shadowgate.)

PREMISE:

The game is set in a fantastical medieval world, rife with magic. Speaking of magic, a group of individuals, called the “Circle of Twelve”, are particularly steeped in it, doing many kinds of research. Not surprisingly, one of them delved into the darker depths of magic and became all the worse for having done so.

He was banished from the group, but in his exile, he still caused much trouble as well. Outraged by his misdeeds but unwilling to eliminate one of their own, his peers caught up to him and imprisoned him under the castle of Shadowgate, incidentally their former headquarters. Afterwards, they stood vigil over his prison, worrying that their erstwhile colleague is still up to no good.

Up to no good he would be indeed, because despite his imprisonment, he managed to delve even deeper into darker magic, and thus gained the strength to break free. Worse still, he intends to summon an ancient being to threaten the world with.

The only wizard who was able to avoid his wrath went into hiding and consulted prophecies instead of trying to oppose his former colleague directly. He came up with the plan to summon a young man over to Shadowgate; this young man, though all too mortal, is the ‘chosen one’ who is destined to defeat the power-hungry warlock.

By today’s ‘standards’, such a set-up would have been quite par-for-the-course for fantastical stories: a zero-to-hero would take down a resurgent evil which threatens the world.

Of course, it can be argued that this Shadowgate title is a remake of an older one, back when such a premise had not been exactly well-worn. Yet, cutting it the benefit of the doubt because of nostalgic sentiments would be cutting it too much in the eyes of a jaded observer.

(To developer Zojoi’s credit though, there is a small twist at the end about the nature of the ancient being.)

SCREEN-BY-SCREEN EXPLORATION:

Way back before Myst was even released (in 1993), there was Shadowgate and its contemporaries; they have done the first-person perspective in the adventure game genre a lot earlier than Cyan Worlds (the developer of Myst) did. This remake of Shadowgate would do the same. Fortunately, the game would be none the worse for it; there is no major issue that would arise from the retaining of the first-person perspective.

Anyway, the player presumably looks at scenes through the eyes of the protagonist; there is only ever one view of any scene, but it is usually enough to present the gist of the scene and contain whatever the player needs in order to do something in this scene or another.

PUZZLE-SOLVING:

Just about every scene will have something for the player to do; if there does not seem to be any in a scene in the course of a playthrough with a specific difficulty setting, there likely will be some in another playthrough with a different difficulty setting.

To help the player figure out what to do, every scene will have some animations, or out-of-place objects, which provide hints on what the player should be pay attention to. Other than that, the player will need to use the “Examine” function on each object. Fortunately, the “Examine” function does not count as an action and will not contribute to the doomsday timer (more on this later).

Furthermore, the player will need to depend on his/her own memory and/or note-taking to keep in mind what has to be done.

Some puzzles can be solved within the same scene. Others have to be solved by bringing up something from somewhere else, or doing something somewhere else to alter the current scene. The former case should be familiar to veterans of strategy games; if an object from elsewhere seems to have some kind of connection to the current scene, either through believable logic or other forms of hints such as visual association, then it probably can be used on something in that scene.

However, it has to be stated here that taking the wrong action can result in a game-over screen. The game will generally inform the player that this has happened, so the player will know when he/she has to reload an earlier game-save soon.

As long as the player does nothing within a scene, time will not advance. Even in scenarios where the player character is being threatened by imminent hazards or hostile creatures, as long as the player does nothing (other than examining things), nothing bad will happen.

DOOMSDAY COUNTER:

Every time that the player takes an action that is not about examining something, a ‘turns’ counter ticks upwards. Any action which results in nothing happening, i.e. futile actions, will also contribute to the counter. This counter tracks how close the primary villain is to the completion of his plans.

This ‘turns’ counter is not visible during actual gameplay, but can be seen in the description of a game-save. However, this convenience is not always available, as will be explained later.

“NORMAL” & “CLASSIC” MODES:

Zojoi is well-aware that the original Shadowgate series is quite far removed from present-day adventure games in terms of gameplay, especially with regard to the number of death-inducing hazards in the castle and the unwitting and painful mistakes that a player might make. Therefore, there is the “normal” mode, which is practically a playthrough at Apprentice difficulty with game-saving features turned on.

There are a few additional sources of ease in “Normal” mode as well: the timer counter is disabled, the torch which the player character carries never goes out (more on this later), many red herrings are removed, and certain temporary effects, such as that of a spell which makes invisible things appear, are rendered semi-permanent. Furthermore, the solutions to some puzzles in the Apprentice setting have already been partially solved, such as the finishing for a flute.

(The ability to do some silly things, such as talk to skulls, will also be disabled.)

However, there are many achievements which the player cannot obtain in “Normal” mode. This is perhaps just as well, because there is content which can only be experienced by playing on the Classic mode.

“Classic” mode takes many of the aforementioned simplifications and conveniences away. Furthermore, this mode is the only way to turn on the “Iron Man” sub-mode.

“IRON MAN”:

Enabling the “Iron Man” sub-mode removes the ability to save; even the auto-save slot is disabled. Thus the playthrough has to be completed in one go.

This means that the player must be well-aware of the solutions for the pertinent difficulty setting, or be looking at a guide. Even then, one mistake in recalling solutions or in following instructions is often all that is needed to doom a playthrough. Even a playthrough in the Apprentice setting can take around one hour to finish, assuming that the player is rushing through the cutscenes and making full use of any shortcuts.

If it is not apparent already, this mode is meant for the die-hard fans of the game who want to rack up all the achievements in the game.

DIFFICULTY DIFFERENCES - OVERVIEW:

As mentioned earlier, playthroughs on “Normal” mode are easier than even the Apprentice setting on “Classic” mode. The different difficulty settings on “Classic” mode also have differences which would be clear to an observant player, assuming that he/she has the eagerness to start additional playthroughs after the first.

The idiosyncrasies of each difficulty setting will be described in their own sections.

APPRENTICE:

In the Classic mode, “Apprentice” is the easiest difficulty setting. Unlike “Normal” mode though, this setting does include red herrings such as items which will not be needed to solve the puzzles which appear in a playthrough with this setting.

However, the safeguards which prevent an unwitting game-over is disabled in this setting, just like “Normal” mode. For example, the player character will refuse to commit suicide when the player attempts to have him use his own weapons against himself.

The solutions to mandatory puzzles (i.e. puzzles which must be solved in order for a playthrough to progress) are also a lot shorter on the “Apprentice” setting than on the others. For example, a puzzle which requires the player to collect magical runes to be inserted into a stone relief later requires the player to collect only five runes on the “Apprentice” setting.

“JOURNEYMAN”:

The “Journeyman” setting raises the ante. There are more ways to get killed, such as picking the wrong exit. The player does get a chance at knowing whether a decision would be bad though; returning to the example of the wrong exit, the player could have examined the exit before taking it and discovered that there are ominous signs about this exit.

Journeyman also starts to introduce alternate ways to do things. For example, the player will need to pry certain stones from walls; this can be done with almost any type of blade, some of which does not appear in the “Apprentice” setting.

“MASTER”:

The “Master” setting pulls out all the stops, allowing for many opportunities to pull off nifty tricks and a lot of ways to fumble and have the protagonist die. There are also additional scenes and puzzles as well (though some of these are optional and are associated with achievements).

Speaking of having the protagonist die, the game will inform the player that there are indeed more ways to die. These are mostly implemented via the removal of all restrictions and crutches which prevented the player from making bad decisions, like eating something that should not be eaten. This in turn was made possible by the unlocking of all input options for interacting with objects.

The “Master” playthrough will also perhaps be the one in which an ardent Shadowgate fan would learn ways to reduce the number of actions which are used to overcome obstacles; after all, the “Master” setting has a greater sense of urgency due to an earlier doomsday threshold and torches which run out quicker, among other things.

For example, since all of the control input options have been unlocked for just about everything in the game, the player might have the idea of “using” a key that is found within the same scene as the lock which it unlocks on the lock itself, without taking the key first.

The “Master” playthrough also stretches the length of some mandatory obstacles/puzzles. An example of this can be seen in the quest for the cure to a certain magical malady which the player character will suffer.

In the lesser difficulty settings, the cure is easier to obtain; on “Apprentice”, for example, the cure is simply in a bottle on top of a desk in a room which the player would come across. On “Master”, the player will have to synthesize the cure, if he/she is following the default solution.

Speaking of default solutions, the more elaborate puzzles and hazards in the “Master” setting have at least two solutions. The default solution is longer than the other. Returning to the example of the cure, the default method, which involves using a laboratory, takes a while. The other solution involves answering the riddles of a certain otherworldly creature.

However, the alternative solutions tend to pose their own hazards or obstacles. The least of these is that the player loses the means to obtain the alternative solution. The worst ones simply kills the player character. Returning to the example of the cure again, the aforementioned otherworldly creature, which is encountered in the alternative solution, might complicate things for the player if he/she incorrectly answered its riddles.

INVENTORY SYSTEM:

No adventure game would be one if the player character does not have some kind of way to keep things on him. However, he can only carry objects of reasonable size – he will not be stuffing large objects such as furniture into magic bags or pockets like certain other adventure game protagonists. On the other hand, he still has an inventory of unlimited capacity.

There are also items which the player character can wear on his person. These are usually helmets and masks which he can wear on his head and shields which he can strap onto his arm.

However, the usefulness of these items is highly situational. For example, a metal helmet will only help if the protagonist is being struck on the head by something that can be believably deflected by the helmet. If something like a huge boulder drops on him head-first, he still dies.

Next, there are weapons, which might give the impression that the player character would be able to kill what he cannot go around. However, like wearable gear, their usefulness is still situational. For example, weapons will not work against an enemy who already sees the attack coming; the protagonist’s attack would be countered or pre-empted and he will die.

Some items are little more than trinkets which are only usable for specific puzzles. Examples of these include the aforementioned magical runes, which are only ever needed for a single albeit mandatory puzzle.

There are other items which serve to flesh out the puzzle-solving gameplay, but they have some designs which make them more notable than the rest, though not always for the better. These will be described in their own sections.

TORCHES:

Many places in Shadowgate are not illuminated. For these places, the protagonist must have a torch lit. This is not to ward off a lurking creature like the Grue in Zork, but rather, to avoid losing his footing and killing himself with a fall (which can seem to be a disappointing way to go).

Torches will run out, however. Fortunately, there are quite a number of torches which can be taken from many places in the castle. This is still a limited number, though; if the player is not frugal and does not do things efficiently, he/she may well run out of torches and be doomed to a game-over.

SCROLLS & SPELLS:

Shadowgate does have puzzles of magical nature. These puzzles of course does not have the requisite level of believability which is needed for the player to figure these puzzles out on his/her own. For example, there are puzzles about using spells with odd names on things. Although these spells have descriptions which suggest something about their usefulness, they are too cryptic to immediately provide an idea about the puzzle solutions which they are used in.

This is where scrolls and books would come in handy – scrolls in particular. Scrolls usually appear alongside objects which the player has to interact with. They describe the workings of magical objects and relics. Some scrolls are also of critical importance: these impart spells which the protagonist will need to solve some puzzles.

However, the scrolls do come with a small price: they generally come sealed, so the player has to spend an action to unfurl them in order to read them afterwards. The scrolls which describe puzzles can be skipped in later playthroughs after the player has become familiar with the game, but the scrolls which contain spells remain mandatory reading.

As for the spells, they are actually not as useful as one would think, if the player is familiar with fantastical RPGs. They are little more than tools to solve puzzles with, and only a couple of them are used for more than one puzzle solution.

BOOKS:

Books are mainly in the game for the purpose of expanding on the backstory of the game, though a few of them happen to give vital clues to a few magical puzzles.

There may be a minor issue with books. In order to see the title of a book, which in itself may be a clue, the book must be closed so that the cover can be examined and read; the protagonist does not have the wit to simply turn the book around to read the cover when the book is open. Of course, the protagonist can close an open book to do that, but this counts as an action.

Fortunately, there are no books which are mandatory reading, so this is, again, a minor issue.

KEYS:

As to be expected of an adventure game, there are keys which are needed to unlock doors with. Incidentally, just about every key will be needed in a playthrough.

What makes this game’s trope of keys particularly amusing is the protagonist’s habit of throwing away keys which he has used. Granted, in many other adventure games, keys disappear after the protagonists use them, so Shadowgate might be providing its own believable take on this pervasive oddity in the genre. Still, it can be disconcerting how carefree the protagonist can be when he is exploring a very dangerous ‘living’ castle.

MAP SYSTEM:

Shadowgate may be a so-called ‘living castle’, but its layout generally remains the same from playthrough to playthrough. Still, the castle is expansive enough such that short of ardent memorization of its interiors, the player will need a map to figure out where the player character is and where he needs to go to.

The map system does not show a map, however. Instead, it shows a diagram of nodes and branches which make use of smaller versions of the scenes as icons; these are also labelled with text, which will help if the player is resorting to writing directions down (or more likely, resorting to a guide).

The map system also has several diagrams, one of which can only be seen at any time. Fortunately, the player can select another diagram to view from a pull-down menu.

Unfortunately, the map system does not appear to allow the player to write down notes or directions onto the diagrams themselves. Fortunately, the developers appear to be aware of this limitation, and have included additional labels to the nodes to help the player figure out his/her way around.

For example, scenes with switches which affect something else in other scenes will have peculiar symbols next to their nodes on the map diagrams. The other scenes will have this symbol next to their nodes in the map diagram too.

GOING BACK TO PREVIOUS SCENES:

Generally, in order to progress in the castle, the player will need to select an exit which is clearly shown in the current scene. However, the player can also backtrack to the previous scene by clicking an arrow-shaped button.

Incidentally, most of the nodes in the map diagrams are laid out in branches which end in dead-ends, so going back simply has the player character returning along these paths.

However, this feature becomes a problem if a scene also happens to be a hub of sorts. If the player entered this hub scene through one of its own on-screen exits from another adjacent scene without using the go-back function, using the function again in the hub scene will not return the player character to that other adjacent scene. Rather, the player goes to whichever scene that has been designated as the “previous” scene for the hub scene.

CAVE NETWORK:

The map system and the “go-back” feature will be of particular importance in the penultimate section of the game, at least to a player who refuses to resort to a guide on his/her first playthrough.

This is because this section is composed of a network of caves; each cave has at least one exit/entrance to another cave. Each cave looks quite similar to the previous one. Examining the exits/entrances will not help much in differentiating the caves either; the description for each exit/entrance is thematically similar to another.

The player will have to resort to backtracking, braving the dangers of the caves along the way. The map diagram for the caves will fill out eventually, so the player will not be hopelessly lost; however, plenty of actions will have to be spent.

YORICK THE SKULL:

Right at the very start of the game, the player will need to pick up a talking skull (which has no lower jaw). The skull claims to be the last remains of a person who has (somehow) explored more of the castle than anyone else which has gone into it; this claim is (somehow) used to justify its ability to provide solutions to puzzles, if the player has the protagonist ‘talking’ to the skull.

However, Yorick the skull does not always provide the solution to a puzzle immediately. It will provide some cryptic clues when talked to for the first time, and gives a clearer statement the next time. Eventually, it will provide tutorial-like instructions, thus breaking the fourth-wall.

Yorick will also make remarks about the castle as the protagonist moves into a scene from another. Some of its remarks may seem funny, but the rest might seem flat. A player who is annoyed by this can choose to hit the skull, in order to reduce its frequency of commentary. Hitting Yorick does, however, count as an action, which starkly contrasts with the “free” action of talking to it.

Yorick is also associated with a few achievements that require the player to go out of the way to pursue some optional quests, including one that will end in a game-over. These are strictly for completionists.

GETTING DEAD:

As mentioned already, there are many ways to die in the castle of Shadowgate; these are maximized in the “Master” difficulty setting.

For most deaths, the player will not be able to see the protagonist being killed; there may be some animations and the player character screaming, gurgling or making other similar sounds that are associated with ignominious fantastical deaths. Most of the awful details are described via the accompanying text passages instead of being explicitly shown.

Then, there are “Hidden Deaths”. A “Hidden Death” is a special occurrence of death which is accompanied by a short cutscene showing the corpse of the protagonist, or the protagonist trying to escape his demise in futility. These are mainly for ardent fans of the game though; the player has to do quite a number of things to trigger these bad ends.

VISUAL DESIGNS – PAINTING-LIKE ARTWORK:

Almost right from the onset, the game displays its water-color painting-like aesthetic qualities. The cutscenes are particularly expressive of this.

Fortunately, for the scenes which concern actual gameplay, the blurry water-color painting aesthetics are replaced with much sharper but also hand-drawn artwork. Such artwork is further enhanced by the inclusion of animated effects such as blizzards, crackling fire and glowing crystals, depending on the scene.

VISUAL DESIGNS – SPRITE ANIMATIONS:

Unfortunately, not all of the animations in the game are impressive to look at. The animations for certain creatures, especially creatures with no visible necks, are awkward. They acutely reveal that sprites for creatures and characters are composed of multiple sprite portions, linked together to give a semblance of life.

This is not necessarily bad of course; this has been used in other games before. However, in the case of the neckless creatures, their head portions bob about the top of their torsos, making them look more comical than menacing.

Another contrived animation method that Zojoi resorts to is to zoom sprites towards and away from the camera in order to give a semblance of movement. This is not always jarring, because the artwork is of high enough resolution that pixelation of the sprites is not always evident. Still, there are at least several moments in the game when sprites are zoomed so much towards the camera that the player can see this happen.

VISUAL DESIGNS – “RETRO” OPTION:

Perhaps to jump on the bandwagon of “retro” visuals, Shadowgate offers an option to apply a filter which turns things grainy and pixelated. The effect is not very convincing though, especially when one observes the frequent hue-changing which is caused by on-screen animations. The game is better off being played at its default visual option.

SOUND EFFECTS:

The castle that is Shadowgate might be called “alive” because it is a noisome place. By the time of the game, a storm is brewing above it. There is an audible hum in the background for just about any scene, and if the hum cannot be heard, there is usually something else that is louder than it, such as the crackling of flames and the rush of flowing water.

When the protagonist interacts with something without using magic, there is usually a sound effect that can be associated with said action, though it is not always convincing. For example, if the protagonist hits an object with a hammer and that object is not damaged, the player will hear the same thud, regardless of the material of the object. Of course, functionally, this same thud would inform the player that the hammer-strike has been useless.

When magic is involved, there are exaggerated whooshes, droning, warbling and such other noises which a player who is experienced with fantastical settings would find quite familiar.

MUSIC:

Many of the soundtracks that can be heard in the game are ominous and foreboding, which is perhaps just as well because Shadowgate is supposed to be quite dangerous.

However, an astute player might notice that many of the music tracks are variations of the same thematic music which plays in the promotional material of the game. However, the variations are significant enough such that the tune of the thematic music is subtle in these other tracks.

WRITING:

The best aspect of Shadowgate is its writing. Most of the lines, voiced or otherwise, sound appropriately fantastical, yet do not go into the territory of being melodramatic. For example, the wizard who summoned the protagonist takes care not to overdo the description of the castle beyond it being a dangerous and ‘living’ place.

Most of the writing can be read in the descriptions of objects or characters when the player examines them. These are generally about how the protagonist feels about them, which is usually thoughts of concern about the dangers that they pose or the trouble that they might cause him. There are some funny thoughts though, such as how they might help him compensate for having come to Shadowgate armed with little more than a dirk and a torch.

There are also quite a number of references to other IPs in the writing. Some examples can be seen from the labelling of the “Hidden Deaths”, such as the Hidden Death that is “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream”.

VOICE-ACTING:

There is very little voice-acting in the game. Only three characters have voice-overs. Even then, one of them does the bulk of the voice-overs and only this one has any semblance of character development. Nonetheless, they delivered satisfactorily enthusiastic, in-character or at least amusing performances.

For example, the wizard would announce the death of the player character in an unsettlingly calm and sometimes even nonchalant manner, even though the player character is supposed to be the only last hope at saving the world. (On the other hand, it can be argued that the wizard has the moniker “the Timeless” for a good reason.)

As for the protagonist, he will be doing little more than grunting and groaning when he is alive, and screaming and howling when he dies an ignominious death.

Perhaps the most amusing voice-acting can be heard in the cutscenes about the “Hidden Death” easter eggs. The narrator enthusiastically describes how the protagonist has unwittingly caused his own demise, usually by discovering something incredibly dangerous about the castle and its denizens. As for the protagonist, he will be uttering some of the most amusingly guttural sounds in the game while grisly sound effects play.

SUMMARY:

Shadowgate’s writing and presentation is generally palatable, though its best aspect is its different difficulty settings. Although the overarching story remains the same from one difficulty setting to the next, there are enough variations between them to pose different challenges and experiences.

More importantly, this gameplay feature is what makes this remake of a reboot of Shadowgate quite different from the other adventure games of the present day.