Shadowgate (Switch)

It's Only A Model!

As mentioned in my post about Shadowgate 64 I was really interested in checking out the remake of the original game and lo and behold, they gave me the game on Switch to enjoy. And I played through it and afterwards it felt... I don't really know. Fun to get the story before Shadowgate 64 and characters like Lakmir, Jair and Talimar, but it might be inherit in the design of the old point and click games, but it was a lot of walking back and forth trying everything on anything to progress in the end. Not even the incorporated help of Yorick could help me so I caved in and looked up the solutions online. And I'm glad I did it at the lowest difficulty because adding a time-restraint as well would have made me go berserk. Now, problem with going for easier is that it doesn't give you the whole experience since they got certain event and puzzles (I gather by reading the guide since it mentioned a fifth mirror in the mirror room and different solutions to puzzles). 

Story is that Jair is summoned by the last wizard Lakmir, from the Circle of Twelve to the Castle Shadowgate in order to solve its puzzles and stop Lakmir's brother Talimar, the Warlock Lord who was thrown out of the Circle of Twelve and now attempted to unleash the Behemot on the world after taking over the castle and killed all denizens. As Lakmir guides Jair, he will uncover the truth of his own past and end up under the catacombs of the castle and fight off the Warlock Lord. Now, all the story about the different wizards, the history of the lands and such are real fun reading. I also noticed the shout-outs to Ridley Scots Legend and Dragon's Lair. 

For half the game the puzzles worked fine with little trouble (could also be that the Nintendo Magazine I had from my cousins were full with tips and tricks for the NES port of the game since it seemed to be one of the more played games and probably due to it being one of the few NES games that actually got a Swedish translation). But when I got to the Castle proper the game began to drag. It was up and down the towers and checking the different doors, trying to figure out the spells and much more. Could also be that I took 2-3 weeks break from the game there and was rather lost on where everything was or how I could use my items.

Overall, sitting with pen and paper and committing to the game on its rules would probably be the best solution. Also more people to share with it, like a kid, to get that childlike sense of adventure would probably help. Graphics are nice (certainly better than the N64-game), but the music is kinda bland (here the N64-game shines above the remake) so I don't get into the atmosphere like in the N64-game that oozed of it. Also, several times the game froze on me and rebooted me to the Switch interface. I don't know why, since I don't feel I taxed the game that much... maybe playing to long before starting over would have been a cause, but the first time was a couple hours into the game while the second time was randomly inbetween shutdown I made to the game. Reminds me of a game I bought for the Wii U that at a point constantly froze for some reason.