Beyond Shadowgate (2024)

To be honest, this is a niche taste. the Icom Simulations MacVenture type games have not aged well. However, this was both better than I expected it to be, and has a lot of great quality of life improvements. This is the perfect blend of classic Shadowgate with modern sensibilities: On the fly saving, Rolling-back to where you last saved. an in-game hint 'familiar' pet, a good deal of examination of items and objects that goad you along with hints. It's a fantastic and well made homage to not just Shadowgate, but all three games. There are fun unlockable ingame achievements, multiple endings, and a few other secrets and fun things you can do in the game. There's quite a bit going on in here.

I only have one gripe: It's really tough to figure out the alternate endings, and the bad endings are really bad and >90% of players are probably going to get that one, and get locked into it without a guide and since they dont let you choose save slots, your playthrough will get railroaded into one of them.

The writing is just as good (if not better) than the original. Everything feels very much in the same style. The game is also pretty long, at least twice as long as the original. Parts of the game are largely broken up in different chapters where each chapter is a particular area... however there is some backtracking at times to solve some puzzles (which can be a bit tricky to figure out in the last quarter of the game) Overall the puzzles are good. Most are straightforward usually. Rooms are well designed. The first third of the game is more simple and obvious to figure out puzzles and what you can click on, or where you can go. The last third it gets more complex and starts to resemble the kind of brainteasing of the original graphic adventure puzzle-type.

Grahfmetal games did a good thing. And if you like games like this, they have some free ones in the same style

This somewhat niche genre of macventure games only became known to me with the release of Beyond Shadowgate, but I very quickly became hooked. Essentially it is a point and click game, but with a nifty map and the feel of a dungeon crawler.

The game shines with its puzzle design, as well as its sense of humor. The neverending comical ways you can die were always fun to discover, and the sheer range of areas you end up in was a nice surprise (not the biggest fantasy fan, so loved how the game switches it up with locals such as modern Chicago and a spooky mansion.)

It would’ve been a 5/5 for me, were it not for some very frustrating puzzles and the lack of a hint system. I was doing fine for the first third of the game, but the difficulty ramps up and it didn’t always feel fair. But I still really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend, especially if you have a higher tolerance to tough puzzle design.