I won a copy of this game on eBay a few weeks back out of the blue.
Since I'm working on completing my US collection (I've whittled it down to a couple really rare titles and a couple extremely crappy common titles), I was pretty happy, considering I didn't even remember bidding on it.
It arrived on Saturday. I popped it in right away since I had nothing going on Saturday morning with the idea I'd spend a few minutes with it. I don't think I stopped playing for like four or five hours. I am enjoying playing through Shape Shifter (also from ICOM), which has a real "quality" feel to it despite some people's misgivings about how the game controls (which I don't personally agree with, but that's another story). Awesome graphics, music, and a unique idea. Even the quality of the audio in Shape Shifter exudes a certain "polished" and professional feel.
Beyond Shadowgate starts with a cinematic intro that picks up at the exact moment the previous NES game left off. After bringing you up to date, you find yourself waking up in a slimy jail cell. The gameplay is similar to the old King's Quest and Quest for Glory PC games, minus a text parser of course. You can cycle through commands like "look", "speak", "grab", "use" etc with one of the buttons and you control Eric with the D-pad. Your father has been murdered, and your job is to get to the bottom of things and find out what's doin'. You've been thrown in jail as the prime suspect in his death. As you break yourself out of jail you have to solve minor puzzles, find items to use in new ways, fight various people and creatures, talk to folks for information, standard adventure-y stuff. You have no weapons, just a punch attack with a limited range.
If Beyond Shadowgate has any faults, it's that some of the obstacles and dilemmas you come across in the game are too easy to figure out or overcome. I kept finding myself comparing the game to those old Quest for Glory computer games I used to play and I remember those being harder. But then I have to remind myself that was over 15 years ago and I was a lot younger. But regardless, with Beyond Shadowgate I wasn't stuck in any one situation for very long. Where Beyond Shadowgate excels is in everything else. The control scheme feels natural, and even the most critical control-whore won't find anything to complain about here. I've heard people say this game has the best graphics on the Turbo, but I say that's rubbish. But don't get me wrong. The entire game looks like one big painting, and there is a certain beauty to the style of the artwork. The music and audio has that same polished and professional quality to it that Shape Shifter does and fits the game perfectly. I remember walking up a mountain path at one point and as I got higher the audio got quieter, the scenery got darker and the sound of wind subtly moved around me in a stereoscopic manner. I literally got the chills! That's one thing about Beyond Shadowgate-- it's very good and totally sucking you into it's world, a testament to the audio and visuals. Another thing about the visuals, they are extremely varied from one area to the next. You get the feeling the land you are traveling is huge. I played for a long time and made a lot of progress but I still feel like there must be a ton I haven't seen or done yet. I have no idea how close I am to completing the game, but I haven't had a chance to play again since Saturday. I am looking forward to spending some more time with it this weekend. For all I know, things may start getting a lot more difficult as I progress. We'll see.
From what I've seen, I'd strongly recommend this game to anyone who likes questy adventures in the vein of those old Sierra titles I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, as one of the later US releases it tends to fetch higher prices, probably higher than it should. And I don't think they made a Japanese region version of this one, either. If you can find it for less than $100, you're doing well and I definitely would say it's worth it.
