Shadowgate

Remake of an early Macintosh first-person point-and-click adventure from 1987. Nice graphics that had a painting-like quality to them. Lots of screens to explore. Atmospheric with good music. Puzzles were pretty good with lots of possibilities. And if you play in classic mode at journeyman or master, there will be more and harder ones. Lots of red herring items at difficulties other than the default normal. You also encounter creatures but each one has to be dealt in a simple different way, like an adventure, not like a RPG. The interface was functional but was clumsy when it came to using an item from the inventory on something on the scene. You can easily switch between the new and somewhat retro graphics (think pixelated), and a talking skull provides hints. This is a remake done right.

While I can understand nostalgia (despite not having played the original myself) and appreciate some "old school" approaches, I cannot in good faith "recommend" an exploration/adventure game that stacks two different time limits on top of each other and finishes what's left of your experience off by a number of really bad puzzles. To be clear: I'm not saying all its puzzles are bad - most definitely aren't, and the game certainly has its charms if you are into this kind of gameplay. But there are few that can ruin the whole impression, especially when there is so much to explore, yet you are constantly nagged by the urgency of a curse that threatens to kill you (without ever letting you understand how much time do you actually still have). Also, I am not talking about what the game calls a "normal experience", which in fact feels like an extremely casualized version, dropping not just the time limits, but literally holding your hand every time you try to do something wrong (or take an item you don't need), offering much simplified instructions on the scrolls, dispersing direct hints when you don't ask for them and even hiding some pretty obvious context commands which would make you die to a trap. That kind of experience, in my opinion, is "abnormal" since it completely defeats the purpose of playing a game like this, so what I am talking about is the "master" difficulty, which I see as "the way it's meant to be played". To be fair, there's also an intermediate difficulty level, but the game doesn't really explain the difference and I don't want to play through it multiple times just to compare. As a minor example, your character is supposed to be a soldier, and you can find and collect a lot of different weapons in the first part of the game. However, none of these are ever needed to progress (except the one that is extensively used as a tool), and the first time you have an actual face-to-face encounter with a single enemy, any attempt to use any weapon results in your instant death (because apparently that random goblin is a much better soldier than you are). Correct solution? Use your fist, the goblin doesn't expect that! There are other examples I won't mention to avoid spoiling anything to anyone who decides to play it anyway while knowing nothing about the original - might be worth it if you are ok with time limits and arbitrary missable puzzle solutions of the kind that don't even make you ashamed for looking into a walkthrough. Just don't say you weren't warned. Oh, and don't play it "just for story": while the story is there, it really doesn't include anything beyond the standard "noble hero vs an evil dark lord seeking power". Good enough for the original game's time, irrelevant for those who are just nostalgic, but definitely not a "selling point".

Updated classic! I loved playing this on the NES back in the day. Serious retro vibes even though everything has been updated.

Its a fantastic puzzle quest point and click game. Puzzles are challenging, but logical if you think things through and use intuition. Save often because you can die in many amusing ways. The style and atmosphere are great for dark fantasy.

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☑ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☑ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☑ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☑ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☑ 9 ☐ 10

A faithful and quite enjoyable installment in the Shadowgate series, for fans of the original Macventure and/or NES versions of the original game. A total of 4 different difficulty modes including "normal" (should probably be called something else such as novice/beginner) which caters to people unfamiliar with the series and/or point and click adventure games in general. I grew up playing the NES game as a kid and just adored this game. I give much credit to Shadowgate and Zork for making a real gamer out of me in my younger years. I typically hate really hard on modern remakes of my favourite old games, but I gotta say that I am extremely glad that this exists. I just beat it and I look forward to many more playthroughs if this amazing game! Viva Shadowgate!

Shadowgate is an older game from 2014. It's a venerable 10 years old at the time of this review, but that's just this remaster... the original "MacVenture" point and click adventure this is based off (and is pretty much identical to, apart from some better, mostly static visuals) is from 1987... so really this really is a 37 year old pretending to be 10, or something. Anyway, they remastered the game so they could launch it on the Nintendo Switch, and also put it on Steam as a bit of an afterthought, as it's very much designed for the handheld/console gaming audience (but really there's no reason this couldn't have been done in a web browser). From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. The game features mostly static, barely animated 2D images, the kind of thing you expect to see in browser/flash games. While the artwork itself, while mediocre, might be considered passable, the visual presentation here is negligible, it might as well be a slideshow or a Youtube video. Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids had more advanced animation and visuals going on than this game does. The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just point and click stuff like a browser/Flash game. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here. Because this is designed for handheld/portable gaming appliances, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the low power handheld gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the mobile game developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for low power handhelds forces upon a game. While this might run well on a Steam Deck, we must remember the vast majority of gamers here are gaming on PC. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. Shadowgate didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for making a wizard friend, trivial to get, but less than 37 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, even the people who own this game weren't interested in it. The game never really caught on with the millions of gamers on Steam, with a very low peak player count close to launch, and then just a handful of players launching this game every couple of days. This is undoubtedly caused by factors such as those raised in this review. It's always helpful with buying decisions to consider how popular and successful the product is, and unfortunately while this did accumulate a few participation trophy reviews, overall, people just aren't using it. So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam? Shadowgate has the greedy, cash grab price of $15 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. FIFTEEN BUCKS FOR A THIRTY SEVEN YEAR OLD GAME. Is this some kind of joke? Or just a really greedy nostalgia gouge? Either way, it's not okay. For comparison, the $15 asking price for this game could get you games like "Halo: The Master Chief Collection", "Resident Evil Village" or "Dead Cells". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.

I played this as a kid on NES. So cool to see it remastered all these years later.

Shadowgate is a carefully crafted modern revival of a landmark adventure game, developed and published by Zojoi, that sets out not merely to preserve a classic but to reinterpret it for a contemporary audience without stripping away its identity. Rooted in the legacy of the original 1987 title, this version feels less like a remake chasing nostalgia and more like a respectful continuation of an idea: a slow, methodical descent into a hostile fantasy stronghold where intellect, caution, and curiosity matter far more than reflexes. From the moment you step inside the ominous castle, the game establishes a tone of foreboding isolation, reminding the player that every action carries consequence and that survival is never guaranteed. You take on the role of a prophesied hero, the so-called Seed of Prophecy, tasked with infiltrating the cursed fortress of Shadowgate to stop the rise of the Warlock Lord. The narrative is intentionally restrained, delivered through environmental storytelling, cryptic clues, and the occasional piece of lore rather than through overt exposition. This minimalism works in the game’s favor, allowing the castle itself to become the primary storyteller. Each room feels like a fragment of a larger, decaying history, and progression comes not from scripted plot beats but from understanding how the world functions, what dangers lurk within it, and how best to navigate its many traps. Gameplay adheres closely to traditional point-and-click adventure design, emphasizing exploration, inventory management, and puzzle solving over action. Movement is deliberate and segmented, and each screen is packed with interactive elements that demand careful inspection. Puzzles range from straightforward logical problems to more devious challenges that punish impatience or careless experimentation. The ever-present threat of instant death—whether from a hidden trap, a wrong item choice, or simply letting your torch burn out—creates a constant tension that sets Shadowgate apart from more forgiving modern adventures. Failure is frequent, but it rarely feels arbitrary; instead, it reinforces the idea that knowledge and preparation are your greatest weapons. One of the most striking aspects of this remake is its flexibility. Zojoi clearly understood that the uncompromising nature of the original could be daunting, so they introduced multiple difficulty settings that subtly adjust puzzle logic, hint availability, and resource pressure. For purists, there is a fully featured Retro Mode that recreates the look and feel of the NES version, complete with pixel art visuals, classic sound effects, and nostalgic interface elements. Conversely, the modern presentation offers richly hand-painted environments, dynamic lighting, and an immersive audio design that heightens the sense of dread and discovery. This duality allows players to tailor the experience to their preferences without undermining the core design philosophy. Visually, Shadowgate excels at atmosphere rather than spectacle. The castle’s interiors are moody and expressive, filled with crumbling stonework, flickering torchlight, and ominous details that hint at unseen dangers. The art direction strikes a balance between storybook fantasy and dark, oppressive dungeon design, making exploration feel both alluring and threatening. Complementing the visuals is a soundtrack that adapts to the player’s progress, shifting subtly to reinforce moments of tension, discovery, or impending doom. Sound effects, from creaking doors to distant echoes, further immerse the player in the castle’s oppressive presence. Despite its many strengths, Shadowgate is unapologetically old-school at heart, and that will not appeal to everyone. The pacing is slow, the interface demands patience, and puzzle logic often assumes a willingness to think laterally and accept trial-and-error learning. Players accustomed to constant guidance or streamlined interactions may find the experience frustrating, especially when progress is halted by a single overlooked detail. However, for those who embrace its design, these elements are precisely what give the game its identity and lasting appeal. Ultimately, Shadowgate stands as an excellent example of how a classic adventure can be reimagined without losing its soul. It respects the intelligence of the player, demands attention and perseverance, and rewards those willing to immerse themselves fully in its world. Whether approached as a nostalgic return to a formative piece of gaming history or as a challenging, atmospheric puzzle adventure in its own right, Shadowgate offers a memorable journey defined by tension, discovery, and the satisfaction of overcoming danger through wit rather than force. Rating: 8/10

I'll be honest. I hate this art style a lot. I know it's trying to invoke the gritty fantasy vibe that was popular at the time, but to me it just looks messy and difficult to make anything out. I don't want to belittle the obvious hard work that went into it, but when the "retro" selection on the graphics just puts a terrible low res filter over everything I just lost my patience with it. It's just too overstimulating for my sticky sinkhole of a mind. The original was rudimentary, but at least I could make everything out. Now, if you can handle the visuals and like this kinda older high risk puzzle adventure gameplay, you'll probably have a great time. It streamlines a lot of the actual more clunky interface and mechanics that make the original a difficult choice for people these days, but I personally can't recommend this one.