Previous Next

And the Lord said, "Hey, do you really expect me to create the world? I can't see a darned thing in here," and lo, he invented the light switch and a 60 watt bulb to go with it. And indeed verily and forsooth yea, Ed Ricketts ran out of biblical sayings and got on with the review.

It's difficult, if not impossible, to reach a certain age without noticing that, when there's no light, it's dark. Said fact, though, seems to have escaped the notice of the legions of RPG writers who have practised their art on the ST over the years.

Admit it. When you were playing that fine game Dungeon Master there was always that niggling question at the back of your mind, that annoying enquiry which ruined it for you: "Yes, this is all very well," you thought, "but where's all this light coming from?"

Vex yourself no more, for now there's a game which answers those tricky metaphysical light questions, a game which takes the concept of light very seriously indeed - Shadowlands.

The plot is simple enough. Four adventurers, created and controlled by you, wander off into the famed Shadowlands in search of fame and fortune. Said lands are, as you might guess from their name, dark. Very. In fact, without a light of some kind you can't see a blessed thing. This might possibly be because most of the land is underground - in a series of dungeons. Fortunately, there are quite a few torches hanging round on the walls. Strange, though: when they're on a wall they never burn out, but as soon as you pick one up they gain a finite lifetime and soon burn down. The brighter the torch (or other light source), the wider the circle of light around you is. This can be important.

If you've played Dungeon Master you should know what to expect as you toggle around the dungeons. Monsters, starting with fairly harmless skeletons on the first level, are a regular feature, and need beating off (or in) with the weapons you can also find, like sticks, swords and longbows. Interesting puzzles crop up at every step, involving levers, pressure pads, keys and doors. The solving of these puzzles - which might mean going two miles out of your way to find a way to find a key to open a door to let you stand on a pressure pad to get the gold to make up exactly the right weight to activate another pressure pad to enable you to go through to the next level (pause for breath) - are the core of the game. The light is important, not just because it enables you to see, but because it also sets off many other events. Artfully-placed light receptors can suddenly make sense of an insoluble puzzle when the flickering rays of your torch fall upon a receptor and a pit opens up in the floor.

Many of the monsters just love a nice bit of light and come charging towards you whenever they see it. Of course, the opposite might be true - if that door keeps closing whenever you come near it with a torch, drop the damn thing and do it in the dark.

There's magic about, too, and for the fully-trained magician (only possible through experience, of course) there are some useful, not to say indispensable, spells to be had. The most basic and most useful of these, of course, being Light. Later on, you find the usual combat and healing spells and other more exotic brews for those specialised situations.

From the fleeting glimpse of the wooded glade you get before you enter the dungeon, you may think the graphics are all pretty-pretty. Not so. Dim and dark is the order of the day, though the style of the graphics changes with the level. There are "themed" levels, like the Egyptian one, with its corresponding mummies as monsters and impenetrable hieroglyphics. For a game with so much darkness, there's a lot of detail to the background graphics. However, it would be good if the characters moved more smoothly and with a few more animation frames. They look a little indistinct at times, even in full torchlight. As ever, the pathetically feeble sound effects try to break their puny way through the ST's magnificent sound hardware, but fail halfway and emerge as faint squeaks here and there - not impressive in the least.

Play Shadowlands and you realise you never knew the dark could be so much fun. (Actually, having said that...) Without the light/dark business, it would just be an unashamed clone of Dungeon Master in 3D. But by building in the effects of the most natural thing in the world, it's transformed into a completely novel style of game - one which forces you to take everything extremely slowly and carefully for fear of setting off something hideous just by being there.

Unfortunately that's also one of the few criticisms that could be levelled at the game. It is very slow - there's a lot of plodding about to be done because you need to explore every square inch of dungeon if you're to find all the objects. And with three different vital stats to watch on each character, you often need to stop and revitalise them just to be able to continue plodding. The constant worry of whether your characters are about to pop their clogs slows everything down even more and detracts from the serious business of problem solving. Regular saving is absolutely essential.

But there's so much in the game. Dean Leaster of programming team Teque London has delighted in devising incredibly sadistic and mind-mangling puzzles for the later levels, and anyone who works their way with ease through the first two or three placid levels with a smug grin plastered to their chops has a very pleasant nasty surprise waiting for him.

Shadowlands is not a game for those who like their action hot'n'sizzling, and it's not a game for strategy freaks. It definitely is a game for those who like good, solid gameplay, frustrating but fair puzzles and all the chunky darkness you can eat without getting a nasty bout of hiccups.

1. More like Dungeon Master than Dungeon Master, or even Knightmare.
2. Murky graphics that won't make you scream in delight - no Immortal effects here.
3. So much gameplay crammed in you can almost see it oozing from the monitor. More to do than in Shadow Sorceror, or a dirty weekend in Ibiza.