Beyond Shadowgate is an adventure game where dying is more fun than succeeding, as it is filled with a wild array of entertaining deaths.
I am definitely guilty of brute forcing puzzles in adventure games. Just try everything in your inventory on the problem at hand to see what works. I just stop trying sometimes. In this game, doing so will usually get you killed in some spectacular fashion. Devoured by beasts that want your pocket change. Gored by minotaur guards. Falling down the stairs to your death because you couldn’t be bothered to turn on the lights. I loved trying out every possible idea I had in this game because dying always brought some creative writing about my (often silly, over-the-top) death.
But WHY are you dying so much? Well, you get pulled into the plight of a missing king, which slowly leads to getting dragged into the plot for a soon-to-be-resurrected evil force banished in the previous game, Shadowgate (which you don’t need to play, but adds something to the story if you do). To do so, you’ll need to explore a wide countryside, dank dungeons, and sinister castles, poking around for items to solve puzzles. Most of which kill you if you guess wrong. But hey, I rarely got tired of reading the next text on how my character died.
I highly enjoyed playing through this massive world – the developer’s creativity does not solely extend to your demise – as it goes to all manner of places that have been portrayed with some grim, colorful pixel art. The puzzles are also solid and feel intuitive (even though the solution is weird, it makes sense in this world), although they require that you pay attention to your surroundings and what people say if you want to figure them out. And again, if you mess up, you get another neat death. There’s few games out there where I can say I like screwing up, but Beyond Shadowgate pulls that off (and weaves together a fantastic adventure game to boot) in a darkly hilarious fashion.
Beyond Shadowgate is available now on GOG and Steam.
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