Beyond Shadowgate

nat · 07/19/2007, 10:40 PM

I won a copy of this game on eBay a few weeks back out of the blue.

Since I'm working on completing my US collection (I've whittled it down to a couple really rare titles and a couple extremely crappy common titles), I was pretty happy, considering I didn't even remember bidding on it.

It arrived on Saturday. I popped it in right away since I had nothing going on Saturday morning with the idea I'd spend a few minutes with it. I don't think I stopped playing for like four or five hours. I am enjoying playing through Shape Shifter (also from ICOM), which has a real "quality" feel to it despite some people's misgivings about how the game controls (which I don't personally agree with, but that's another story). Awesome graphics, music, and a unique idea. Even the quality of the audio in Shape Shifter exudes a certain "polished" and professional feel.

Beyond Shadowgate starts with a cinematic intro that picks up at the exact moment the previous NES game left off. After bringing you up to date, you find yourself waking up in a slimy jail cell. The gameplay is similar to the old King's Quest and Quest for Glory PC games, minus a text parser of course. You can cycle through commands like "look", "speak", "grab", "use" etc with one of the buttons and you control Eric with the D-pad. Your father has been murdered, and your job is to get to the bottom of things and find out what's doin'. You've been thrown in jail as the prime suspect in his death. As you break yourself out of jail you have to solve minor puzzles, find items to use in new ways, fight various people and creatures, talk to folks for information, standard adventure-y stuff. You have no weapons, just a punch attack with a limited range.

If Beyond Shadowgate has any faults, it's that some of the obstacles and dilemmas you come across in the game are too easy to figure out or overcome. I kept finding myself comparing the game to those old Quest for Glory computer games I used to play and I remember those being harder. But then I have to remind myself that was over 15 years ago and I was a lot younger. But regardless, with Beyond Shadowgate I wasn't stuck in any one situation for very long. Where Beyond Shadowgate excels is in everything else. The control scheme feels natural, and even the most critical control-whore won't find anything to complain about here. I've heard people say this game has the best graphics on the Turbo, but I say that's rubbish. But don't get me wrong. The entire game looks like one big painting, and there is a certain beauty to the style of the artwork. The music and audio has that same polished and professional quality to it that Shape Shifter does and fits the game perfectly. I remember walking up a mountain path at one point and as I got higher the audio got quieter, the scenery got darker and the sound of wind subtly moved around me in a stereoscopic manner. I literally got the chills! That's one thing about Beyond Shadowgate-- it's very good and totally sucking you into it's world, a testament to the audio and visuals. Another thing about the visuals, they are extremely varied from one area to the next. You get the feeling the land you are traveling is huge. I played for a long time and made a lot of progress but I still feel like there must be a ton I haven't seen or done yet. I have no idea how close I am to completing the game, but I haven't had a chance to play again since Saturday. I am looking forward to spending some more time with it this weekend. For all I know, things may start getting a lot more difficult as I progress. We'll see.

From what I've seen, I'd strongly recommend this game to anyone who likes questy adventures in the vein of those old Sierra titles I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, as one of the later US releases it tends to fetch higher prices, probably higher than it should. And I don't think they made a Japanese region version of this one, either. If you can find it for less than $100, you're doing well and I definitely would say it's worth it.

runinruder · 07/19/2007, 11:14 PM

QuoteI remember walking up a mountain path at one point and as I got higher the audio got quieter, the scenery got darker and the sound of wind subtley moved around me in a stereoscopic manner. I literally got the chills!

Damn, this sounds good. The main complaint I'd heard from GUTS was that the dude walked too slowly, but if the atmosphere is this effective, I don't think I'll mind slow pacing.

And awesome review, thanks for posting it.

Tatsujin · 07/19/2007, 11:44 PM

damn still on my wish list. do you mind giving it away nat?

esteban · 07/20/2007, 12:04 AM

Quote from: runinruder on 07/19/2007, 11:14 PM
QuoteI remember walking up a mountain path at one point and as I got higher the audio got quieter, the scenery got darker and the sound of wind subtley moved around me in a stereoscopic manner. I literally got the chills!
Damn, this sounds good. The main complaint I'd heard from GUTS was that the dude walked too slowly, but if the atmosphere is this effective, I don't think I'll mind slow pacing.

And awesome review, thanks for posting it.

It is a fun game, I think you'd like it runin.

NecroPhile · 07/20/2007, 01:32 AM

I have to agree with you nat. Beyond Shadowgate is an enthralling adventure - even though most of the puzzles weren't very difficult (though there were a couple head scratchers for me).

termis · 07/20/2007, 04:32 AM

Haven't tried it, but if it's anything like Quest for Glory (the best "quest-type" adventure game series EVER!), I definitely wouldn't mind trying it.

nat · 07/20/2007, 03:24 PM

Quote from: runinruder on 07/19/2007, 11:14 PMThe main complaint I'd heard from GUTS was that the dude walked too slowly, but if the atmosphere is this effective, I don't think I'll mind slow pacing.

Honestly, I didn't even notice he was walking slowly. But now that you mention it, I can understand that.

Still-- don't let that deter you.

Quote from: Tatsujin on 07/19/2007, 11:44 PMdamn still on my wish list. do you mind giving it away nat?

Hah! This is one I'll never give up. Feel free to contact me when I'm 79 years old and selling off the ol' Turbo collection and I'll give you a discount. Deal?

runinruder · 07/20/2007, 03:51 PM

Quote from: nat on 07/20/2007, 03:24 PMHonestly, I didn't even notice he was walking slowly. But now that you mention it, I can understand that.

Still-- don't let that deter you.

Yeah, I don't expect it to be a huge issue for me. I don't mind slow walking if a game is enjoyable otherwise. Loom and Faussete Amour have characters who walk too slowly, but I'm a fan of both titles.

Anyone here play Legend of Legaia for Playstation? Oh man, the world map part had the slowest walking EVER. But I totally dug that game, it ruled aside from the map plodding.

Slow walking usually only gets to me if the game is broken in other ways as well. Like Astralius. That one is truly painful to play, and it takes ten times as long it should because of how slow the characters are.

Turbo D · 07/20/2007, 08:58 PM

Quote from: nat on 07/20/2007, 03:24 PM
Quote from: Tatsujin on 07/19/2007, 11:44 PMdamn still on my wish list. do you mind giving it away nat?
Hah! This is one I'll never give up. Feel free to contact me when I'm 79 years old and selling off the ol' Turbo collection and I'll give you a discount. Deal?

Don't sell it when ur old, be buried with it

Gentlegamer · 07/20/2007, 11:27 PM

I've played the beginning of the game via emulation, and I must say I agree with your take. I'm an old Sierra/King's Quest fan, so the similarity was very pleasing to me. This will be one of the first games I go after when I finally get a Duo.

ParanoiaDragon · 07/21/2007, 01:40 AM

I'll chime in & say it's one of my all time favorites for Turbo, & it has a great sense of humor!

GUTS · 07/21/2007, 02:09 AM

The slow walking thing is ultra annoying since he has to WALK SLOOOOWLY over to something when you want him to attempt to use it, then slllllowly again across the room to something else. Lucky the puzzles are fairly easy because attempting solutions was absolutely no fun once the world opened up and you had to cross a lot of ground. I can see some of you guys not minding, but I think it would have worked way better as a cursor driven adventure game instead of controlling him directly. I thought the game had excellent writing though and some very good atmosphere, although it was really lame how the game is letterboxed for no reason.

Tatsujin · 07/21/2007, 03:38 AM

Quote from: nat on 07/20/2007, 03:24 PMDeal?

Deal! regarding how long i'm looking after that one, the chances are high that this deal really will come off.
btw. how old you're again by now?

JoshTurboTrollX · 07/21/2007, 12:27 PM

Its one of my all-time favorite Duo games EVAR!!

The slow-walking problem is basically non-existent! Do you actually want to run faster when you could be missing very subtle clues along the ground you are moving? I found the slow movement to aid you rather than hinder you!

I had to start over a few times, as the first time I went through I went on a murderous rampage killing just about everyone I met...LOL- good times, but it sucked cause you don't get some very important items that I needed!

Then I had some trial and error with the spending of money, I had problems buying things that I didn't need....hehe

Thank god for the Turtle Race!!

That saved me Arse as money is very hard to come by in this classic!

overall a lengthy and amazing quest.

9.5/10 in my book!

TS

nat · 07/21/2007, 01:32 PM

Quote from: turbo_sage on 07/21/2007, 12:27 PMI had to start over a few times, as the first time I went through I went on a murderous rampage killing just about everyone I met...LOL- good times, but it sucked cause you don't get some very important items that I needed!

Haha, yeah, I did that at first too. You can kill just about everyone you come across, even the friendly folk.

esteban · 07/21/2007, 10:53 PM

Quote from: nat on 07/21/2007, 01:32 PM
Quote from: turbo_sage on 07/21/2007, 12:27 PMI had to start over a few times, as the first time I went through I went on a murderous rampage killing just about everyone I met...LOL- good times, but it sucked cause you don't get some very important items that I needed!
Haha, yeah, I did that at first too. You can kill just about everyone you come across, even the friendly folk.

This has been the hallmark of all good games...

Emerald Rocker · 07/22/2007, 01:56 PM

Jesus, this game is just sounding better and better with each post.

lord_cack · 07/26/2007, 10:26 AM

Hey its been a while, but I thought I would chime in on this. All the previously mentioned things are pretty accurate really. The game is very nice graphically, not just because the art work is great (which it is) but how it all comes together. From each local to the next the world "fits" together. It feels like your walking from one area to the next in a continuous world. The pacing is a little slow yes but I think that it doesn't detract from the game.

One thing people haven't mentioned is just how funny this game is. It is loaded with all sort of little bits of humor. Just how some of the dailog rolls out (which there is a lot of spoken dialog in this title as well another excellent feature). Alos, DIE, by all means DIE. The game has a great number of deaths from looking in the wrong place to using the wrong item at the wrong time. I think that the humor was one of my favorite things about the title....

ParanoiaDragon · 07/27/2007, 06:49 AM

Heyo, I did mention it has a great sense of humor

awack · 07/28/2007, 02:19 AM

Thought i would show some screenshots of shadowgate since there seems to be so few on the net, and if you dont want to see these before playing the game then scroll down fast to the next persons post so you dont see them.

nat · 07/28/2007, 03:26 AM

Yeah, I really need to play this game this weekend. I didn't get to it last wekeend. But I won tickets to the Mariners vs. Oakland game on Sunday (Budwieser suite! FREE BEER!) so we'll see.

Turbo D · 07/28/2007, 03:29 AM

luuuky, free beer and free sports

sideshow · 07/28/2007, 03:49 PM

Its true, if anybody grew up with the 80's Sierra Online games ala Kings Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest, Quest For Glory, Leisure Suit Larry, etc. you will absolutly fall in love with this game. Its really a PC game made for the Turbo Duo exclusively.

spenoza · 07/28/2007, 08:35 PM

It almost looks as if it was in development for a different platform, because an awful lot of the scenery looks dithered, and if they'd originally designed the art for the TG-16's palette they might have been able to avoid it. Of course, maybe they were lazy, but I would imagine they maybe hoped it would see a PC release.

esteban · 07/28/2007, 09:44 PM

Quote from: guest on 07/28/2007, 08:35 PMIt almost looks as if it was in development for a different platform, because an awful lot of the scenery looks dithered, and if they'd originally designed the art for the TG-16's palette they might have been able to avoid it. Of course, maybe they were lazy, but I would imagine they maybe hoped it would see a PC release.

You are absolutely correct. ICOM was planning to release this on PC's as well, and they announced it at one of the CES's back in the day. I scanned a page from an old magazine with this info on it, one of these days I'll post it.

nat · 07/28/2007, 10:50 PM

That dithered look is exactly the reason why I don't think Beyond Shadowgate has "the best graphics on the Turbo," as the game is often attributed. They managed to do pretty well with the dithering, and a lot of the visuals are very pretty, but the game could've been made with far less dithering (if any at all) and looked a little better in turn. There are a few stills in particular that look way too dithered, like the grim reaper for example.

Keranu · 07/28/2007, 11:50 PM

Yeah sometimes the dithering in Beyond Shadowgate bothers me. Other times it can look really great though (like in that mountain screenshot awack posted) since the color tones mix great with each other.

Gentlegamer · 07/29/2007, 03:38 AM

Quote from: sideshow on 07/28/2007, 03:49 PMIts true, if anybody grew up with the 80's Sierra Online games ala Kings Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest, Quest For Glory, Leisure Suit Larry, etc. you will absolutly fall in love with this game. Its really a PC game made for the Turbo Duo exclusively.

I love me some King's Quest!

Fans who haven't heard may like to know that there are "VGA remakes" available for free download for King's Quest I-III, with IV presently in the works. Each uses the interface introduced in KQ V for gameplay.

Turbo D · 07/29/2007, 05:00 AM

I had kings quest for windows 95, was a cool game.

I don't really like that filtered background look, but it looks like it goes good in beyond shadowgate.

spenoza · 07/29/2007, 09:30 AM

Someone needs to go back and port this game to PC, either than or finish the PC development. A modern classic.

CrackTiger · 07/29/2007, 11:56 AM

Quote from: Keranu on 07/28/2007, 11:50 PMYeah sometimes the dithering in Beyond Shadowgate bothers me. Other times it can look really great though (like in that mountain screenshot awack posted) since the color tones mix great with each other.

The bgs looks much lower colored and untouched than they actually are because of the dithering. But at least its consistant and most of the artwork is nice in the first place. Although I don't like the art 'style' of the characters.

The game doesn't feel 'just-like' a King's Quest type point & click adventure to me because you move the character around and fight just like Final Fight. I think that its a big improvement and makes the game feel way more interactive than just telling an icon where to head to.

awack · 07/29/2007, 06:14 PM

Whats good about shadowgates graphics are the free flowing hand painted look, no repeating tiles, the highest number of background colors in a pc engine game and the most heavily use of color for shading Ive seen in a game with 16 bit graphics, for example the skull with the sword sticking out of it in the first screenshot i posted has 44 colors in it alone.

Whats bad is....imagine taking 44 colors of the pc engines palette and spreading it across a sheet of paper your going to get all kinds of colors which is what gives it that dithered look so you don't get that clean sharp look that are in games like rondo of blood or winds of thunder.

Keranu · 07/29/2007, 07:39 PM

Quote from: guest on 07/29/2007, 11:56 AM
Quote from: Keranu on 07/28/2007, 11:50 PMYeah sometimes the dithering in Beyond Shadowgate bothers me. Other times it can look really great though (like in that mountain screenshot awack posted) since the color tones mix great with each other.
The bgs looks much lower colored and untouched than they actually are because of the dithering. But at least its consistant and most of the artwork is nice in the first place. Although I don't like the art 'style' of the characters.

Yeah that's true too. It would be fun to try getting rid of the dithering to see what the game would look like; in fact, maybe I'll try messing with that later just for fun

.

JoshTurboTrollX · 08/01/2007, 04:13 PM

Don't let this walkthrough spoil the entire game for ya!