Yeah, I found that spot as I said above. Once I figured out what Aggaap was for, things have more less zoomed along nicely. Note for anyone that might get stuck on the "Gears Room"....
There are TWO winning combinations, out of 27 possible combinations.
Now that I'm pretty deep inside the castle, the game has opened up quite a bit. Lots of places to go. Tons of new items I don't remember from previous versions. Useful, not, who knows? While stylistically the game resembles a straight up fantasy adventure instead of the whacky D&D module of previous years, I like the internal logic that binds all the castle rooms together. You get a sense of progression whereas in previous games, rooms kind of felt disconnected from each other thematically. There are, so far as I've seen, fewer ways to die and fewer outright "haha, eat shit and die" moments. Can't stab yourself by accident. Nothing I've eaten has killed me. Haven't opened any doors to sudden death. Haven't slashed my wrists and bled to death despite punching more than a few glass windows and mirrors.
So in some ways the game takes itself more seriously, and is less whacky. On the other hand, there are way more moments of comic relief than in older games of Shadowgate. I've caught several references to 80s movies, 90s memes, and that fucking Yorrik is always spouting off about something. (Yeah, I know I can Hit him to make him shut up, but I like complaining.)
So I dunno. I have mixed feelings about the whole presentation. It delivers its visuals way better than previous games, but somehow comes off as less eerie at times despite all the mist and dramatic music. It is both more and less serious, and I'm not sure it gained anything from either of those changes. It's less brutal by virtue of fewer hidden ways to die, and yet I feel like the additional puzzles and items and rooms make it harder game because there's way more stuff to try, way more potential possibilities to explore.
I had to laugh at this though:
Two of your first real "fights" are won by punching guys instead of using one of the 5 different weapons I had. In fact, that's the only way you can win. PC is such a wussy.
And I'm mostly enjoying the writing. I sort of like how deprecating it is to the player character. I think it was very much a thing of 80s adventure games to talk about the PC in ways that deflated the ego, that the character was always at the limit of their ability when doing stuff. As time went on adventure games and RPGs seemed to become more about bombast and power fantasies. But Shadowgate 2014 still has that vibe of "heroic but entirely normal person in a super dangerous world full of unknowns" and the text in game subtly supports that idea by usually downplaying how awesome you are instead of trumpeting about it. So I give it props for there.
That said, some of the writing about areas start to get a little flat inside the castle, where it's like "Drab grey stone walls do nothing to add to your mood", "Boy, there sure is a lot of stone here!" x10. Seems some of the new areas like the Towers have a bit of filler in them. The narrative overall though is much better explained than in previous games, through lots of supporting lore readables and....cutscenes. Little meh on those, because when you get down to it, it's a lot of hoopla for something that could be expressed in the normal game flow. But it's a chance to show off their art (which is ok if you dig the blurry style), justify the VOs (of which there is a decent amount) and they are skippable.
All in all I'm enjoying it, if my 14 hours played is any indication. If you enjoy point and clicks with some bite, this isn't a bad buy, although the $17.99 it's going for IMO should be a bit lower. But it does not lack for content.
Incidentally, am I missing something about mixing potions?
Have found the laboratory. Have all the ingredients to cure the Banshee's Curse. Have tons of empty flasks. Have the Myxx spell. Still can't figure out how to make a potion. Do I need a mortar and pestle or what?
Author
Topic: Returning to Shadowgate (Remake by Zojoi) - You stand before a door...now die. (Read 3528 times)