Shadow Hunter

Much love for this game, and it was free to play?!?! I like good old Microsoft minesweeper. I think that fondness carries over to Shadow Hunter, picking out the shadows and traps behind the smoke. If you read, and pay attention, the game is explained well. I struggled getting started because I half-read things, and just started clicking away. I particularly struggled with the fight (shadow master/camp) part, totally because I read through it. I was just randomly clicking in the beginning, trying to figure out if it was a rock/paper/scissors kind of mechanic. Seriously people, read the help dialogs that come up... he gives you the answers the the fight sequences once you know what you are looking for. Many times you'll be able to enter the sequence (max of 8 rounds) before the answer fades away. Mastermind lock puzzles a big plus! I didn't pick up on a lot of RPG elements, outside of mini-quests which were totally forgettable. If you don't fail any of the shadow/trap finds, you win all the mini quests. I'm not complaining, but I was looking for RPG games in steam, and that's how I got here. I didn't really think about it until I was writing this review that it wasn't RPG, great game anyway.

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I cannot recommend this game because of its high learning curve and large amounts of random gameplay elements. The high learning curve is not a matter of difficulty; it is a matter of inadequate documentation. When starting this game, you are given very little information about the actual gameplay. The "tutorial" assumes you already know how character movement is accomplished, what the icons on your screen mean, and what gameplay jargon means. For example, the game continues to warn you about "courage" but never tells you which of the 12 meters/bars/counts on the overly complicated UI represents courage. The other major problem with this game is the amount of guessing required. In minesweeper, you have enough clues to figure out the location of the mines. This is like minesweeper in a tunnel with two different types of mines and no way to mark any of the mines.

Охотник за тенями - крайне рандомизированная и недружелюбная версия "Сапера". В игре 3 локации, и 5 уровней в каждой из них. Чтобы пройти каждый уровень, нужно очистить все затененные участки и при этом не помереть с голоду (на каждый ход тратится еда). В участках тени, могут быть либо враги, либо ловушки, либо бонусы. Ловушки обезвреживаются камнями, враги факелами, сложность здесь в том что мы заранее не знаем что есть в затененном участке, и если туда кинем к примеру камень, а там окажется враг, камень пропадет в пустую. Во время боя надо запомнить последовательность ударов сверху над врагом и далее воспроизвести её. Пополнить запас предметов можно или в редких сундуках, или открыв несколько темных участков подряд не попав ни в ловушку, ни к врагам. Снаряги очень мало, особенно это касается еды, и кончается это все очень быстро. В некоторых местах встречаются квесты, в которых нужно найти определенный предмет, для этого надо также проходить теневые участки. Плюс, в часть мест можно попасть только взломав дверь, на это есть мини-игра где нам надо отгадать последовательность нажатий кнопок. На это есть пять попыток, если взломаем на предпоследней, бонус будет жирнее. Как итог: интересная задумка вариации "сапера", но не очень удачно сделанная. Так как вся игра дичайше рандомизирована, заканчивается все тем, что мы тупо ходим по затенненым местам без снаряги, пока не помрем, или чудом не пройдем уровень. Так что эта игра больше на удачу нежели не скилл, я все же думаю, что тем кому нравится сапер, лучше играть в сапера, нежели в эту игру. 4 сапера из 10.

Shadow Hunter is primarily Minesweeper, if you played a minesweeper who had to physically navigate the board to clear spaces. And there were two types of mines, each with their own disarming item. And walls restricted your movement. And there were lockpicking puzzles and memory-based combat. And a food counter that decreased with movement. Shadow Hunter's primary flaw is that boards repeatedly put you into situations where your next move is random chance. Walls restrict your movement, with rooms entered from corridors that are a single space wide. If one of those spaces is safe, then you have to guess to progress. You can start, or be teleported into similar situations. You can clear shadows and still end up in such situations. While mistakes do not mean instant failure, they do drain resources. Stepping into a trap drains health, limiting how often you can take such chances. Using the wrong disarming item costs you that item, which requires camping to restock. Card spaces have no item that disarms them, but also deal no direct damage, instead triggering some effect. You are rewarded with bonuses for disarming multiple spaces without taking damage. This works okay. You are rewarded with bonus food for clearing multiple spaces within a single move. This does not work okay. When you move multiple spaces in a turn, you can only move in a straight line. The board layout restricts how many places even have the potential to let you move enough to trigger the food bonus. When you do attempt such a move, you are almost guaranteed to be moving into spaces for which you hold no information, and thus it is random chance whether or not you actually have a clear path or will instead hit a trap (which will reset the counter.) There is a lockpicking minigame for opening locked doors. You have five chances to find the correct order of the five pins. Failure only means that you gain no bonus gold, while the fewer the tries required means the greater the bonus you receive. While logic and memory can greatly increase your odds of clearing this puzzle, it is still random chance as to how fast you will clear it, and thus how large your reward will be. Combat (as combat can be triggered by stepping into card spaces, or seemingly just by chance when moving) is a memory game. At the start of combat you are shown, in order, the attacks that the opponent will make. You have to perform the same attacks in the same order, while the enemy sequence is removed from view after you start. Feedback for this combat is poor. In theory, minesweeper where you move through the board sounds interesting. In practice, it just doesn't work that well. Setting it in a fantasy world gives it some meaning, but seems to have also lead to the game implementing several awkward or ill-fitting mechanics together. The game is a free game, so it costs nothing but time to try. But mechanically, it just doesn't hold up.

It took me some time to get the point of the game, but after all I liked it. It looks like a bit raw, but it's still fun to play if you like this type of games.

I'm recommending this game based on its potential (after all, it's free.) The elements of a good game are all there. Shadow Hunter expands upon the simple challenge of minesweeper, and takes it in a player-centered direction, also adding some elements from mastermind. Unfortunately, I've yet to get far, as luck plays a larger role than most (myself included) are comfortable with, and neither strategy nor skill can fully mitigate chance in this game. For example, on the first two levels, the player does not have enough food to clear the whole level. in order to earn more food, the player must either take a leap of faith, or spend large amounts of food slowly clearing a room and setting up combos. So far, every game I've played has ended due to bad luck, or lack of food forcing me to take a chance and run into more bad luck. I like this game, and I see the potential. I hope that it grows into a fully-fledged strategy game one day, but for now, it seems like a 20 minute experience that will only frustrate the player.