Shadowlands

Stay Awhile and Listen

Shadowlands is a 1992 RPG by Domark and developed by Barry Costas who created another personal favourite of mine Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters. I've wanted this game for years, and I finally have it proudly displayed on my ST shelf!! Will it live up to my expectations after all these years?

The story is based on an ancient legend of a warrior prince who was slaughtered on the battlefield. Somehow, our dead dude has magically awoken to find himself alive and kicking with the nifty ability to mind-control. So he has selected four loyal subjects to venture back into the Shadowlands and wreak his vengeance!

I don't know about you, but I'm excited and need to see some screenshots!! Onwards we go...

Earlier messages may appear rather obvious but reading them can be rewarding later on...

Don't be so quick to begin your adventure - take the time to look around this open area!

The graveyard proves a little clumsy for our warriors to navigate but the dungeons are fine.

It's that time... Dungeon Crawl time!

As you would expect, the gameplay is in real-time with characters, puzzles, and beasts to kill. We begin with the option to use the default characters or manually generate their attributes, which I suggest you do. The first level begins outside in a woodland graveyard with useful pickings before taking the plunge into the depths.

Our adventure begins once inside the creepy dungeons but the first thing that hits you is the lighting. This is incredible using a technique called Photoscape that adds a gradual gradient to the light around a character carrying a lit torch. This makes the dungeon spooky with its disturbing atmosphere. The audio isn't too shabby with fantastic title screen music and sampled sound effects throughout the game.

Let's crack on and see a few of the puzzles with some of that cool lighting...

I love how subtle many hints are! They nicely use silly wording to give you a hint.

Sometimes it's far too subtle but at least it tries to help you and I love that!

Now it's time to spend a quid... All brilliant puzzles help make this game so interesting!

Bring friends... and a torch!

Playing Shadowlands is an instant, and fascinating, experience. In fact, I couldn't wait to leave the graveyard to venture into the depths to see what nasties lurked. As you can see, we're in charge of four characters and each can lead and be controlled independently using their avatars along the bottom of the screen.

The first thing that hits you is the skills and lacking progression. Each character can offer similar talents and fight as well as each other. This takes away some of the RPG aspects as Shadowlands is more of an exploration puzzler in the dungeons. Treat each character as a solid member of your party rather than unique.

It's not always necessary to remain as a group. Sometimes, it's best to go alone when scouting in search of items. However, idle warriors should still be vigilant for critters that like to nibble!

Your four loyal subjects will need replenishment so eat, drink, and rest whenever possible but be wise and use your stock sparingly. Flasks can always be topped up from fountains but nothing stops you from having a sip or two while there. Torches are most helpful as it's so dingy plundering through the grim levels but, once again, use these sparingly and extinguish any idle ones in your inventory to make them last longer.

All dungeons should be this scary!! Hey, let's check out some more screenshots...

Look out, something hideous is creeping up on you!!!

The warrior is now a bag of bones... Perhaps he should have read the notice below?

Well, come on, it does say in plain English what not to do. He asked for it! lol

Run, think, shoot, live!

Soon into your first game, you realise how awesome the user interface is for controlling your A-Team. The inventory screen can be accessed at any time with a single right-click and is a cinch to use with extra functions like swapping items or grouping the adventurers into structured squads rather than a clumsy mob.

Each level has a superb design without losing your bearings. It's a good idea to read everything you come upon because not every puzzle is obvious; it might be a masked trap that conjures something nasty. Always beware!! Also, look out for switches, wall slots, or even rickety floor panels. Other puzzles are a fun play on words such as "weight and see" (a great way to get rid of any useless items).

Weapons vary and can be just about anything you can carry, and there are many impressive items just waiting to clobber your foe. Look around right at the start for something helpful... However, it's always good practice not to feel like you need to fight everyone all the time - sometimes it's best to simply walk away.

Enough of my boring jibber jabber, let's see more screenshots...

Okay, I've got the key to the teleporter. Where is that?

Here it is. Okay, you first! No way!! (this is how my mind would work if I was there!)

The Magician finds three suspicious holes - will he choose the correct one or will he perish?

The CryptO'pinion?

Shadowlands is epic and I'm enjoying ransacking the dungeons. However, it has a few niggles. I failed to get the save game function to work no matter what I tried (not much of a problem today when using the emulator's snapshot feature or the hard drive version). Also, guiding our loyal subjects can sometimes be awkward as they struggle to walk around the graveyard and through the odd open doorway. Yes, they're a sandwich short of a picnic and often need a gentle push to help them out. Let's end this pickyness.

I've featured a few adventure/RPGs over the years and I thought nothing would live up to Dungeon Master! Shadowlands is more of a lite RPG without aspects like races/skillsets or levelling/progression. Regardless, this leaves you to concentrate on the terrifying environment, how to beat the puzzles and stay alive.

This is truly one of the most rewarding dungeon crawlers I have ever played.

Install to hard drive with the snapshot-save feature!!
Are you stuck? AtariMania has some game tips.