Shadowgate ReBorn

Shadowgate ReBorn is a remake of the classic NES title Shadowgate made with the RpgMakerVX engine. I played the original Shadowgate on the old Nintendo console when it was released in the late 1980’s or early 90’s and liked it a lot. It’s a classic and if you enjoy the genre you should really check it out.

The original game was a first person adventure where the player moves from location to location using a cursor to navigate and interact with the environment using commands like “look”, “open”, “use”, “leave”, “take”, close”, etc. Shadowgate ReBorn takes all the same (for the most part) locations, enemies, etc. and turns it into a 3rd person overhead perspective pseudo-rpg.

For those of you who haven’t tried the original game (or are thinking about playing this remake) there’s something you should know about the game. You will die. A lot. Shadowgate and Shadowgate ReBorn is a game that no matter how intelligently you play it, you will die over and over again. In fact, the only way to really make it through the game is by using a process of elimination and by trying to do everything that you possibly can to every object that you can find. The gameplay can be summed up as “trial and error.”

Shadowgate ReBorn is listed as a “puzzle” game. I am not a big fan of puzzles in games. I don’t like them. Figuring out the binary combination that opens a door on a set of a half-dozen on/off levers is not fun to me. If there are clues to game puzzles, then it isn’t as bad, but if there are just random poorly justified roadblocks placed in a game that forces the player to figure it out before progressing I lose interest fast.

Fortunately, I had a few secret weapons with Shadowgate ReBorn. The first, was that the game is not encrypted. That’s right, I cheated. The second, was that it remains true to the original. So, if you are having a hard time moving on, just look up a walk-through for the original game. These two things got me through a few spots that would have otherwise caused me to quit.

Games where you get stuck and can’t progress are frustrating. A lot of makers don’t provide guides, walkthroughs, hints, or ways to skip areas where the player is stuck. I don’t know if the solution is to give those spoiling hints and information or to include a mechanic within the game but I think that it’s nice to have some way of enjoying the rest of the game. If a player gets stuck half-way through a game and no amount of trying seems to allow him or her to progress, a little help isn’t a bad thing.

The only issue with using those cheats was that I started to overuse them. Since I knew what to do next, I stopped dying so much. Trial and error gets a little repetitive but if you are missing the deaths you are missing where this game really shines. In short, it’s fun to die. So even though I had the guide, had the unencrypted file, etc., I still made my character take the wrong routes just to see him croak.

I finished Shadowgate ReBorn in about an hour according to the game save file. However, the actual play time was probably double that when you take into consideration all of the reloading I did. Still, that is nothing compared to what this game would have taken to complete if I had actually played it without cheating. But then again, I may have also gotten too annoyed and frustrated to keep playing and quit in half the time.

While there are some parts that would be almost impossible to solve without cheating (spoiler: like the key under the rug and removing the orb from the frozen ice) the rest is fairly solvable. I think it would be interesting to see if anyone could complete this game without cheating. Both of the aforementioned parts are overly difficult to figure out but then again the original commercial game probably suffered from the same 2 problem areas.

Shadowgate ReBorn is a fine example of a game without battles. The rtp was somewhat off-putting at times but it wasn’t terrible and was generally well-applied to the source material to recreate what was in the original.

The original game format is probably better suited for this game but both are entertaining and in a way I think nostalgia for the original enhanced this game for me. I don’t know if someone who never played the original would still enjoy this game but I had fun.

Thanks Systemeth!

3/5