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fart barterer
Aug 24, 2006


David Byrne - Like Humans Do (Radio Edit).mp3


The crowdfunded Shadowgate remake released yesterday for PC/MAC. I hadn't even heard about it since the Kickstarter finished a while back, and the release was pretty quiet, so I was pleasantly surprised.

I've played about an hour and I've gotten stuck a few times. Though they've reused some puzzles, many have been changed at least enough to throw me off. The graphics are nice, but the UI is just as bad as it was 25 years ago. It has subtle feedback and feels unresponsive, on top of requiring 10x more clicking than really necessary. However I found myself thinking about what to do next while I was at work today, so it's managed to get under my skin all the same.

Official Website posted:

  • First Person Adventuring: Utilize your inventory, mapping system and intuitive on-screen commands to complete your quest.
  • Rooms: Tons of Beautifully illustrated rooms featuring both new and familiar locations, offering a new play experience.
  • Puzzles: Lots of new and updated puzzles that seamlessly expand on the original game.
  • Difficulty Levels: Three different difficulty levels that actually change the game play experience and puzzle structure.
  • Customized UI: Play the way you want! Use classic on-screen commands or jump into Immersive mode and auto-hide the UI elements. Create key binds, lock commands and keys and more.
  • Retro Mode: Play the game like it’s 1989! Listen to Hiroyuki Masuno’s original NES chip tunes, move between rooms with pixelated transitions and follow the text in retro format.
  • Storytelling: Features dramatic cut-scenes and all the same great storytelling you expect from the original creators.
  • Cinematic Score: A digitally-orchestrated, dynamic soundtrack that changes with game play by composer Rich Douglas.
  • Soundscapes: A complete atmospheric and puzzle-based sound design featuring hundreds of sound effects.
  • Achievements: 50 in-game and Steam-based achievements to find and unlock.
  • Animations: Environmental and object-specific animations and particles bring each location to life.
  • Help: Need a hint? An in-game help system is just a click away.

Special edition features posted:

  • Windows/Mac Digital Download (Steam Key)
  • Digital Soundtrack (25 Epic tracks based on the NES score. Includes NEW metal mix)
  • 60 page Digital Book: The Art of Shadowgate
  • 2015 Digital SG World Calander (14 months)
  • Digital Map of the World of Shadowgate
  • Shadowgate Series (5 Awesome Wallpapers)
  • Grim Reaper Series (8 Additional Wallpapers)


Screenshots




Minimum specs

2.4ghz processor or better
2gig of hd space
1gig of ram
512mb of dedicated video memory
Win XP or Mac OSX 10.6 or better

UI Hints
  • The UI sucks.
  • If you click an item on the screen with no "verb" selected up top, the item will be highlighted, and the next verb you click will do that action. (For example, you can click on a wall and press hit, or press hit and click on a wall.) This can be confusing because you'll be clicking around the screen, not realize something is highlighted (the effect is subtle and fades in after an obnoxious delay) and then do something to it by accident.
  • You can interact with your torch and portrait like any other item. So you can USE your torch on something, or USE things on yourself.
  • To use levers, click use, click the lever, then click on yourself. Or maybe it's the opposite, I don't know. You can also HIT levers but I'm not sure if this always works.
  • The save button is all the way in the top-left and almost impossible to notice. The game auto-saves occasionally anyway.
  • There are some shortcuts, for example double-clicking a door / hall is the same as using GO to move between rooms. The arrow in the bottom-right is a "back" button to leave rooms. (I thought it was a helmet and tried to TAKE it on the first screen :()
  • If you TALK to the skull icon you'll get hints. You get warned the first time anyway, but avoid doing it if you don't want hints. Hints change based on difficulty level.
  • If you get confused you can always USE HAMMER on SELF.
Useful Links

fart barterer fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Aug 23, 2014

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Adam Bowen
Jan 6, 2003

This post probably contains a Rickroll link!
The UI is actually far worse than the original, even worse and slower to navigate than it was on the NES in my opinion. Arguably the best feature of Shadowgate, the wonderfully creepy and unique music, has been replaced by an orchestrated version that is not only way too quiet and subtle but has that painfully generic "epic" sound that all fantasy has lately. The new areas just seem to clutter the game up and make it longer than necessary, while completely destroying the flow of the game in the process, and some of the new additions gently caress the loving banshee curse are just terrible. The graphics are beautiful but actually make the game harder to play because it's much harder to spot items and areas you can interact with.

I guess it sounds like I'm pretty unhappy and I am disappointed in it mostly, but then again it's a new adventure game that doesn't follow the modern standard of "press forward to win!!" like The Walking Dead and so on, so I don't really regret buying it.


Protip: play the easiest mode. I started on Master because it said it was closest to the classic, and it was far too brutal. Switched to Journeyman but I really wish I'd just gone right to Acolyte. I don't feel like having more obtuse versions of puzzles really adds anything at all. And switch on the retro music, cause the new poo poo sucks.

fart barterer
Aug 24, 2006


David Byrne - Like Humans Do (Radio Edit).mp3
The impressionist art style really fucks with the gameplay. So many random artifacts in the image look like they could be items, but are just really sharp and random brush strokes.

Started playing on the easiest mode, and I'm still not enjoying this at all.

Leper Residue
Sep 28, 2003

To where no dog has gone before.
This game is really loving hard. There's a rather important mechanic that the game doesn't really explain to you at all and if you don't pick up on it you'll never progress.

Use the skulls with runes on them on the door at the very first screen.

I'm playing on the middle difficulty, and I keep hitting roadblocks, slowly get ahead, and then another roadblock for another hour. And yeah, the new art makes the game even more difficult.

Edit: And I just died to the banshee curse. gently caress.

Leper Residue fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Aug 23, 2014

OJ MIST 2 THE DICK
Sep 11, 2008

Anytime I need to see your face I just close my eyes
And I am taken to a place
Where your crystal minds and magenta feelings
Take up shelter in the base of my spine
Sweet like a chica cherry cola

-Cheap Trick

Nap Ghost
UI hint: there's customizable key bindings for every action, quicksave, and immersive mode. (check the options menu for the keys)

DMW45
Oct 29, 2011

Come into my parlor~
Said the spider to the fly~

Adam Bowen posted:

Arguably the best feature of Shadowgate, the wonderfully creepy and unique music, has been replaced by an orchestrated version that is not only way too quiet and subtle but has that painfully generic "epic" sound that all fantasy has lately.

You know you can turn on Retro mode for the music to get the NES music instead, right?

Dog Fat Man Chaser
Jan 13, 2009

maybe being miserable
is not unpredictable
maybe that's
the problem
with me

Leper Residue posted:

This game is really loving hard. There's a rather important mechanic that the game doesn't really explain to you at all and if you don't pick up on it you'll never progress.

Use the skulls with runes on them on the door at the very first screen.

There's totally hints to this. Multiple, really.

You find skulls with runes on the forehead. The very first thing you see in the game is an arch of skulls with runes on the foreheads with 3 slots missing. The skulls tell you they surge with power or something of the sort. Examining the arch tells you there is a form of power coming from it.

I don't know how much more obvious they could have made that puzzle.

DMW45
Oct 29, 2011

Come into my parlor~
Said the spider to the fly~
Yeah, that part I didn't find hard, I mean, the moment I saw those depressions I knew something had to go in 'em. Still stumped, though. I always forget I kind of suck at these games.

Leper Residue
Sep 28, 2003

To where no dog has gone before.
It didn't help that it was the very first screen from the game and I had pretty much forgotten about it since in the first one there was no reason to go back.

Of course I'm stuck again, just going around casting spells on everything.

Orikaeshigitae
Apr 28, 2006

never kiss a gun street girl again
i beat this on apprentice. :toot:

looking forward to playing the other two game modes

Former Human
Oct 15, 2001

Wow, I'd never heard of this until now. I loved the original. The atmosphere alone scared me as a kid, especially when the up-tempo, panic music started when your torch got low.

It doesn't look like the Special Edition is worth the extra money.

BenRGamer posted:

You know you can turn on Retro mode for the music to get the NES music instead, right?

He probably knows since he already mentioned it in the post you quoted.

Adam Bowen
Jan 6, 2003

This post probably contains a Rickroll link!
I had nightmares for years about being chased by the grim reaper after playing Shadowgate as a 7 year old. I replayed it when I was maybe 10 or 11 and I had to get up and run to reset the system every time I did something wrong, before his stupid face popped up and haunted my nightmares again.

Givin
Jan 24, 2008
Givin of the Internet Hates You
I can't play this game for very long stints at a time. I guess I'm too old for these types of games. I don't have the patience for puzzle solving. Back in the day if I saw three levers and hadn't found a clue I would have no problem drawing out all the possible solutions of 111, 112, 113, 121, 122, 123 and so on.

That being said, I am having a lot of fun with the game in short bursts. I will get stuck somewhere and exhaust what I think are all possible solutions then take a break. I'll come back and hour or so later and get a little bit farther and be all like :smug: then repeat when I get stuck again.

My first experience with the game is exactly that of Adam Bowens. I went right into master thinking what I wanted was the original Shadowgate experience. But not here. Jesus Christ no. Some of those puzzles are sadistic. I'll work my way up to that eventually or wait for a full walk through.

I don't like the new music as well. Doesn't give me the creeps like the old school stuff. So retro forever. The artwork is too good. Echoing that sometimes it's hard to spot stuff that should be obvious. For example, I completely missed the rug in the second room because of the mist. I like the new Death screens tho. Reaping like a boss.

Overall I am pretty happy with it and am glad they remade this. I hope they make tons of money so they can do Deja Vu 1 and 2 as well as Uninvited.

Dre2Dee2
Dec 6, 2006

Just a striding through Kamen Rider...

Adam Bowen posted:

I had nightmares for years about being chased by the grim reaper after playing Shadowgate as a 7 year old. I replayed it when I was maybe 10 or 11 and I had to get up and run to reset the system every time I did something wrong, before his stupid face popped up and haunted my nightmares again.



Sup trauma buddy :hfive:

This game used to scare the poo poo out of me too, I got it for one of my birthdays, maybe like 8th or 9th. I never got that far in this or Deja Vu, poo poo was just too obscure for a coward like me to figure out.

Brackhar
Aug 26, 2006

I'll give you a definite maybe.
I'm having a decent time with the game, though I'm finding a lot of the puzzles a bit non-obvious. Most of it just derives from the interface, really. As an example, last night I had to completely restart the game due to not knowing that I could *go* to the well, as opposed to simply using it, so I didn't have a key item I needed to avoid a screendeath later. Additionally, the presence of items and such that you only need on higher difficulties but are red herrings on lower is also frustrating.

fart barterer
Aug 24, 2006


David Byrne - Like Humans Do (Radio Edit).mp3

Brackhar posted:

I'm having a decent time with the game, though I'm finding a lot of the puzzles a bit non-obvious. Most of it just derives from the interface, really. As an example, last night I had to completely restart the game due to not knowing that I could *go* to the well, as opposed to simply using it, so I didn't have a key item I needed to avoid a screendeath later. Additionally, the presence of items and such that you only need on higher difficulties but are red herrings on lower is also frustrating.

Oh son of a bitch, that's where I got stuck last night. I was trying to "use" the well or the handle on it to pull up whatever was attached to the rope.

That's so loving stupid.

Adam Bowen
Jan 6, 2003

This post probably contains a Rickroll link!

Dre2Dee2 posted:

Sup trauma buddy :hfive:

This game used to scare the poo poo out of me too, I got it for one of my birthdays, maybe like 8th or 9th. I never got that far in this or Deja Vu, poo poo was just too obscure for a coward like me to figure out.


I woke up one morning after we'd had the game for a while to find that my dad had beaten it the night before and wrote every single step down in a notebook, so that's how I finished it. It didn't occur to me at the time that my dad wasn't anywhere near clever enough to have done this, and later I found out that he had called the Nintendo hotline and had them walk him through literally every step of the game.


Brackhar posted:

I'm having a decent time with the game, though I'm finding a lot of the puzzles a bit non-obvious. Most of it just derives from the interface, really. As an example, last night I had to completely restart the game due to not knowing that I could *go* to the well, as opposed to simply using it, so I didn't have a key item I needed to avoid a screendeath later. Additionally, the presence of items and such that you only need on higher difficulties but are red herrings on lower is also frustrating.


Yeah, that's another big issue. There are so many things in the environment that are clearly important and probably part of a puzzle, but I don't know whether I should be trying to figure out something about them or not because I'm not on Master mode.

fart barterer
Aug 24, 2006


David Byrne - Like Humans Do (Radio Edit).mp3

Adam Bowen posted:

I woke up one morning after we'd had the game for a while to find that my dad had beaten it the night before and wrote every single step down in a notebook, so that's how I finished it. It didn't occur to me at the time that my dad wasn't anywhere near clever enough to have done this, and later I found out that he had called the Nintendo hotline and had them walk him through literally every step of the game.

Dads are the best for this poo poo. I still have an old lined notebook that my father used to write down clues and draw maps for every town and dungeon in Zelda II, which he had played through with my older brother.

And yeah, something about pixelated horror/gore is incredibly effective, especially with some of the sudden transitions. I've considered making a retro-inspired horror adventure game just to try to recreate the atmosphere.

I'm still way more disturbed by some of the gore in stuff like Sweet Home or the Elvira games (1, 2, and 3) :nms:

BlackFrost
Feb 6, 2008

Have you figured it out yet?
I played through this game during beta and thought it was pretty fun. I got stuck a lot and had to battle with the UI a little, but overall I felt like it lived up to the classic in a few ways... at first. Then I got to the third act, and it's literally just a giant loving maze and if you don't find the right path in time, you're dead. They basically throw out the entire third area from the original--arguably the most interesting part--and threw in a loving cave maze. Also, the death messages aren't as funny, and that's pretty god drat disappointing.

Aside from that and the banshee's curse bullshit, I enjoyed the game though.

Mylan
Jun 19, 2002



I kinda miss having that little box in the corner that represented the main screen and had smaller boxes that indicated where the exits were. Was that just an NES thing or did all the versions have that?

Brackhar
Aug 26, 2006

I'll give you a definite maybe.

BlackFrost posted:

Aside from that and the banshee's curse bullshit, I enjoyed the game though.

Having not played the originally, I actually thought this was a hold-over. A similar mechanic was in Uninvited, after all.

Mylan posted:

I kinda miss having that little box in the corner that represented the main screen and had smaller boxes that indicated where the exits were. Was that just an NES thing or did all the versions have that?

This would have solved my well issue. :mad:

gyrobot
Nov 16, 2011
I just can't get why the new Shadowgate death felt less intimidating than the original one.

Mordaedil
Oct 25, 2007

Oh wow, cool. Good job.
So?
Grimey Drawer

gyrobot posted:

I just can't get why the new Shadowgate death felt less intimidating than the original one.

You are no longer 7.

Adam Bowen
Jan 6, 2003

This post probably contains a Rickroll link!

Brackhar posted:

Having not played the originally, I actually thought this was a hold-over. A similar mechanic was in Uninvited, after all.



The death in Uninvited was just a straight-up time limit though with no trigger or cure, and when you finally ran out of time you could just reload and keep going. The Banshee death seems to be a hard time limit.

see you tomorrow
Jun 27, 2009

Brackhar posted:

I'm having a decent time with the game, though I'm finding a lot of the puzzles a bit non-obvious. Most of it just derives from the interface, really. As an example, last night I had to completely restart the game due to not knowing that I could *go* to the well, as opposed to simply using it, so I didn't have a key item I needed to avoid a screendeath later. Additionally, the presence of items and such that you only need on higher difficulties but are red herrings on lower is also frustrating.

If you were needing the rope to go down into the well but had already made it into the grappling hook, you can use yourself on the grappling hook to separate the parts. This works with other combo items too. It's hugely stupid that you can't just use the grappling hook to climb down into the well though.

Luisfe
Aug 17, 2005

Hee-lo-ho!
Game just got released on GOG.

http://www.gog.com/game/shadowgate_special_edition

23 bucks for the Special Edition, 16 for regular.

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Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

I just got this (special edition) on Steam and am looking forward to playing more of it. I don't really mind the new music, and I'm already feeling the old urge to play 'just another 5 minutes'.

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