When I was a little kid in the late 80s, my little brother and I, like many other kids, loved playing Nintendo. Enough so that our parents would not only get us a few games once in a while, but even a subscription to the now immortal Nintendo Power magazine. And it is in here we would learn many of the tips and tricks I did actually use to beat several of those games, but for me, it would do something more. Within the first few articles was a guide to find your way through the first part of a little title known as Shadowgate. I read through this guide top to bottom untold amount of times, excited to see the arcane tricks of the castle it wanted to show everyone how to survive. Enough so the game was a birthday gift that year...
I fell in love with this game as both a puzzle game that could be tough as nails and my first taste of horror gaming, and I even learned to speed run it before speedrunning was a thing before putting the cart away forever. But I never forgot the living castle and made a point to play every new entry in the franchise I could get my hands on, and even the 2014 remake. Now, nearly 40 years later, the perfect storm has happened and the original team who wrote the first game got together to make the sequel they were never allowed to way back then. It was worth waiting for. Welcome back to Kal Torlin!
Story: It's been 35 years since the events in the original Shadowgate title and if you've played it, and you should... well at least the NES version or any of the ports there of (sorry, but the original Mac and computer releases of this game are pure evil in what they will put you through), you already have the basic story of how Jair, the hero of that title, entered the castle Shadowgate and by pure wit (and maybe a bit of luck) thwarted the Warlock Lord in his plans to unleash ultimate evil and decimate the lands. If not this is about all you need to know about that previous adventure to understand what is going on here, and the intro before the title even shows will explain as much and more. To quote:
"35 years have passed since Jair defeated the Warlock Lord in the caverns beneath the living castle, Shadowgate. For many summers, the land of Kal Torlin prospered and the events at Shadowgate began slipping from memory. But evil is stirring, scheming to bring the world to ruin.
Gwynenthell, the shining jewel of Kal Torlin, has lost it's king. Unrest and civil war have swept peace from the land. Amid the madness, a poor fenling has been cast into a dreary dungeon, at the mercy of murderous prison guards. But this is just the beginning of a journey that will push him to the edge of destruction, and beyond..."
As you might expect you will play the roll of this fenling named Del (and in case you are curious, these people are basically the Shadowgate version of halflings, or hobbits, if you will) as he escapes this prison cell only to make a most unique friend: a spirit who will egg you on and give you advice "so long as it pleases them to." And it won't be too long before you find why things have gone to hell: and you taking your first step in becoming the unlikely (and sometimes very unwilling) hero with the chance to prevent that civil war mentioned in the intro. However, this is only the beginning of Del's journey as he will soon uncover the real cause and follow the trail of the one responsible through many locations and ultimately into the ancient castle where everything began.
The writing here, I have to say, is absolutely top notch. No, there are really no real twists to the tail outside of who you wind up chasing, but in this came a straight-forward case serves the game well as it lets you focus on the puzzles and the current story beat. These seem to be more broken into each chapter taking one up on your way through the larger arch you are working on to complete. The end result is a fairly linear story that lets you get lost in the moment to moment.
A lot of that will be seeing in that flow is how Del sees the world. He is a little guy with a taste for trouble (and maybe a little bit of thievery... probably what landed him in a cell to begin with) and a sarcastic wit that frankly will make you smile again and again. He is in essence the loveable rouge other games have tried and failed to make a game around.
But he is not the only one the writing works with. In fact everyone in this game is written exceptionally well, from the first conversations to the last cries of defeat. Expect to smile a lot at what happens, and even maybe respond to a few characters yourself.
8/10
Graphics: While the original game may have been a Macintosh title, the most famous release appears to have been the port to the NES, and Zojoi sure as hell knew it based on how this game looks. Right from the opening cutscenes, you will see a look emulating the 8-bit styles of old, giving you a handful of still shots to go with the opening story before the title screen shows up to give you a picture of the world before you press a button to begin.
Once you start the game, however, anyone who played the NES version of the original game will instantly be familiar with the layout: the top two thirds of your playspace will be divided between a display of the room you are in and a list to represent your inventory, but the display has definately been upgraded. For example the display window has a decorated picture-frame around it with the reaper looking down on it all with you, while the inventory looks more like a mirror's encasing holds it in place. The bottom 3rd alternates between a control panel that is ornately decorated like the inventory windows, and text to explain what is going on in response to your own actions.
Thankfully the outlines are not the only thing upgraded, as the rooms themselves remain with an 8-bit aesthetic the size of the playspace has been increased allowing for more detail then ever to fill the world, and these artists took their time to make everything look it's best in the style. They even animated the grim reaper when you get yourself killed (and you will) before the game is up.
But I did say play-space and not screen, becuase Zojoi decided this game should keep the aspects ration of the old titles, even those screens have all moved to wide-screen. As a result, you will find the game filling in the size with bezzle graphics that represent the area you are in, and these run the gammut of styles since you will find yourself in many different locations before the game is up.
Suffice it to say though this game looks great in all it's retro-style glory.
8/10
Sound: While this may be a modern release, it is retro in every way it can make you feel it. To this end you will get absolutely no voice acting at all. Rather what you will hear most is the soundtrack, which, just like the graphics, is absolute stellar. These guys know how to do some amazing chiptunes to rival the best in the business, and you will absolutely enjoy what you hear there.
Sound effects are a bit more limited, however, as most of the time what you will hear is the classic button presses when you select actions or the movement tone of the original game when you move to a new location. However, that doesn't mean you are as limited as the first game as they took advantage of the audio ability of modern systems a bit more then the old days. Doors will unlock, or open/shut with convincing tones. Monsters will stomp around and sound crunchy like something between the days of the NES and today. Hell even hitting things sound better!
Overall this is just a great soundscape, both on it's own as well as a celebration of the franchise.
8/10
Gameplay: Once again if you've played the original title, you will feel right at home in this title. Basically Beyond Shadowgate is a point and click puzzle game where you will interact with the world to solve the various puzzles and progress the story. To do this, you will first use the commands in the bottom screen to do things like look, use, hit, or even speak. Then you will select what you will do the action with, be it something in your inventory or the room. If needed you will be asked what you wish to make the object interact with (such as using a dart on a crossbow to load it). The puzzles you will be asked to do are not particularly difficult, but can from time to time rely on a detail you just might miss or have to remember to go back to way back somewhere in the map, but your ally can always be talked to if you need to be reminded exactly what your current goal is (and potentially a hint as to where you can do it).
But unlike the last game, there is no time-limit this time at all. The original game relied on torches where you had to keep one lit or stumble to your death in the dark. There were plenty of torches to go around, but it was technically more then possible to screw around too long and run out. The torches are gone this time, letting you explore to your heart's content and figure things out at your own pace, at least for the most part.
You see, again like the original time really only passes in steps: when you do something, you take a turn and something happens. Then the game waits for you to do something before responding again... with the exception of a few specific encounters you will have. When this happens, the border of your screen view will pulse red and the music will pick up the urgency, cluing you in that the timer is actually ticking to force you to act or face the consequences (usually death). It adds some much welcome high-tension moments that demand some quick thinking to the gameplay.
But the game does have one good sized flaw due to it's very size. It is a much longer game the original, and as such to keep the story coherent and keep you on track you will find the game a lot more linear this time around. It's not something you are going to notice for the most part unless you stop to think about it, but your need to return to previous locations you have already finished the main reason you were there is exceptionally limited, leaving each chapter feeling like it's almost happening in it's own isolated location. There are some obvious exceptions, but they will hit like an "oh yeah there IS something back there!" moment.
And those maps also carry that linear feel. Where the original game was one big maze made of all the rooms in the castle, this time around the game devides the playspace into smaller locations (like a town or a forest) with little of that maze-like quality as you play. You might see a location or two with plenty of rooms to explore, but all but the biggest ones will contain maybe a hallway or two with some offshoot rooms to look into. Add to this that the game autogenerates a map for you and you will find yourself very rarely getting lost in your adventures. You can take that as better or worse based on your taste, but personally I saw it as just the cost of the much larger scope this time around.
9/10
Bugs: This is one of those games that I ran into absolutely zero bugs while playing. It ran perfectly.
Digital Rights Management: If you bought this game on Steam, it will act as DRM for you, but aside from that, this is a DRM free title.
Source: PC Gaming Wiki
Score: When people look for a sequel they generally want something bigger, grander, and better then the original, but still keeping the feel that game had. That is exactly what Beyond Shadogate achieves, tweaking the mechanics of the turn based game just enough to be fresh, improving the look just enough to look much nicer while still feeling like it would belong in the NES library along side it's older brother... in fact this "the same but better" could be said about just about every aspect of this game. The only thing I have to knock it at all for is this time felt a lot more linear then the original game did, but I expect that is more the price of the scope the game has of an adventure across the lands instead of residing within a single castle and the need to keep the player somewhat on target while doing so. Overall this was just a fantastic title.
8/10
System Requirements:
- Anything with at least 2 cores running a 2.0 Ghz or better
- 1 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce GTX 8800, or AMD Radeon HD 2900 XT
- Windows 10
- 120 MB Hard Drive space
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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