Beyond Shadowgate Reviews

If you're a fan of the NES originals, this is a must. Fantastic love letter to these type of games, retro look and feel with just enough updates to give it some modernization. Thanks for making this happen to all who contributed!

As a huge fan of the original Shadowgate (NES port), I have always followed this series with heavy interest. But it has definitely had its hits and misses and I was wary about this game when it popped up out of nowhere. The superb remake of Shadowgate (2014) ended with a teaser for a supposedly upcoming Beyond Shadowgate followup. Over the next decade though, there was no further mention of this game or its progress. Now, it seems that at some point they even switched gears with it. Beyond Shadowgate is now a direct sequel to the original NES game (not so much the remake) and Shadowgate II (which is actually the first official release of a game called Shadowgate Rising that was originally in development for N64 back in 1999) is now the apparent followup to the remake…sort of. The development timeline is very convoluted and Shadowgate II is actually a pretty bad and disappointing game so where does that leave Beyond Shadowgate? In a pretty damn good place actually. Beyond Shadowgate is absolutely fantastic. To clear up any probable confusion, Beyond Shadowgate has some history worth addressing. It started out as a design document for a then-called Shadowgate II sequel for the Mac (NOT the Shadowgate II we have now, as mentioned above) but it never got made. Then the story got reworked (changed quite a bit) into a point&click style game for the TurboGrafx CD (Turbo Duo) called Beyond Shadowgate. This got released, but being on the TG16 almost nobody ever got to play it. Then the story got reworked again (closer to the original document, I believe) as a 1st-person adventure and released on the Nintendo 64 as Shadowgate: Trials of the Four Towers in 1999. Neither of the two released games were particularly great. Personally, I think the original Beyond is interesting but 64 is nearly unplayable. It seems like “3rd time’s a charm” though because they gave it one more go and fully nailed it this time. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel again, this time they deliberately went back to the original wheel and simply polished it up a lot. Everything looks and feels just like the NES Shadowgate, but slightly modernized with better graphics (particularly with the color depth, but still pixel art) and a lot of those rough edges sanded down a bit. The music is great (maybe not quite a earwormy as the original but still strong) and sounds authentically chiptune. The game is longer too. Took me about 4 hours on my first play-through. And the story is interesting, with notably more depth than the previous title. If I have one criticism it’s that it isn’t particularly challenging. You’ll definitely die a lot just from trying various things (in true Shadowgate style), but the penalties are minimal. And while I wouldn’t expect the puzzles to be as incredibly obtuse as in the original, these ones kind of swing a bit too far in the other direction. Most of the puzzles have very obvious and heavily telegraphed solutions. The only times I found myself “stuck” at all, I had just simply failed to notice something here or there. But the robustness and length of the adventure definitely make up for the over-correction in difficulty. What the game does exceptionally well is in the area of homage and even fan-service. And not in too cheap a way either (maybe a little cheap in spots, haha, but still effective). There are a number of subtle and also very overt ways in which it pays direct tribute to not only the classic Shadowgate but also all of the other MacVentures (Deja Vu, Uninvited, etc). And in pretty fun ways, at that. The whole package here is just delightful and this is easily the best offering from Shadowgate we’ve gotten since the 2014 remake. And some ways I like it even more than that one. If you have any affection for Shadowgate, you pretty much have to pick this one up. If only Shadowgate II could have been at this level.

Beyond Shadowgate completely blew me away and continues to haunt my thoughts months after its release! This gem breathes new life into the Shadowgate myth with an epic adventure lasting a solid 12 to 15 hours, filled with tricky yet brilliant puzzles, a breathtaking atmosphere and top-notch dark sarcastic humor. The pixel art visuals are stunning, although I sometimes wished they were a bit more detailed. The story develop perfectly as you progress and the time-travel twists, the nods to Uninvited and Déjà Vu, as well as the final section, left me starry-eyed. I honestly loved every second of this game and cannot recommend it enough. A must-have for all adventure fans!

It can be a quick game if you are going for a speed run (and there is a cheev for that) but really, I liked to savor it for nostalgia as I used to love playing the original on the NES. I played through once for just the fun of it. I played through a second time to have access to the happier endings because I let the imp die the first time and then I went through a third time to hunt for cheevs. I did that in 19 hours and I loved ever hour of my play. I am not sure a younger player looking for action is going to enjoy it as much but I loved it and recommend it to point and click fiends or fans of the original MacVenture series. Bonus points for having the game include a little travel to the other worlds of that long ago series.