Forums > Submission Feedback > zigfried's Shadow of the Beast review

While I appreciate the info and the barb at the end about how it would be more efficient to step on an ant sized creature, I wasn't really sure what you thought of the game until I saw the final score.

From the way it was written, I guessed you liked it. Of course, you do mention a couple of minor setbacks, so I suppose a 7 makes sense.

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?

You were pretty kind to it. It may be that the TGX version is just superior to the Commodore 64 version I played, which had pretty frustrating combat thanks to dubious controls, long long long loading times, and of course the habit (as mentioned in your review) to lock you into unwinnables for going in the wrong direction or firing the one shot of your vital boss killing weapon on accident before reaching them.

This is one game I wasn't able to beat even with an invulnerability cheat code.

"Deep in the earth I faced a fight that I could never win. The blameless and the base destroyed, and all that might have been. -- GK"

From what you (zig) describe, this version dealt with some of the worst problems in the game (which I assume there was a long time to do based on feedback from the other versions), though not all. It may be the most playable version, but I'm never gonna touch this game again! It's a classic memory I have of just utterly ridiculous gameplay. A game so hard there was simply no point turning it on.

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Yeah, it's too bad this wasn't the version of the game most people experienced. It's actually playable and... fun. Also, the music is incredibly good.

//Zig

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That at least is consistent with the Commodore 64 version - no surprise because sound is one thing that old beast did well. I may not have played it in years and I may not care to change that anytime soon, but I can and do still hum the theme at times.

You made me do it right now, for instance.

"Deep in the earth I faced a fight that I could never win. The blameless and the base destroyed, and all that might have been. -- GK"

The guy who wrote the music was Tim Wright. Years later he helped develop 'Music 2K' for the PS1. Without knowing this fact, I used M2K to remix a Tim Wright track from the Amiga game Leander.

Recently I tried to get him to listen to my remix, since it's the best one I did, but every remixing site has rejected it as 'u crazy, u must be on drugs' etc. and thus nobody will host it in the public eye. Well, Tim hasn't replied (when he did reply to an earlier myspace message of mine) so maybe he's written me off as crazy too.

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Funny how that can work out though. I once accidentally got in contact with the guy who wrote the beautiful haunting theme song of Gribbley's Day Out. Of course the day I have an actual heart attack is the day Sid Meier writes in about my FAQ on Pirates!...

"Deep in the earth I faced a fight that I could never win. The blameless and the base destroyed, and all that might have been. -- GK"

From someone who has never played this game in any form I found the review to be somewhat confusing. It seemed to rely on some prior knowledge (grass kills you? huh?) and I wasn't sure what you were going to score it until you did. I mean, I was expecting either a 2-3 or a 8-9.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

I didn't play the game, either, and I thought the review was more or less fine. I took the "grass kills you" thing as a joke, actually, but maybe that wasn't Zig's intention.

I can kind of see people's confusion about the tone of the review (not) matching the score, though. It did seem kind of up and down in places with regard to that, but even so, I wasn't overly confused upon seeing it. Anyway, I thought this review was pretty interesting nonetheless. I'm a little sad that all the other versions of this game apparently suck because after reading this and listening to some of the soundtracks for this on an online video game radio station I like to listen to, it did seem like something I'd want to check out eventually.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

Thanks for the feedback! In some versions of the game, the grass kills you. As in, you're running along the grass, but then you step in special "sharp" grass that hurts a lot, and kills you if you keep stepping in it. I replaced that sentence with something more direct:

In the original Amiga version, even the grass could kill you.

Hopefully that works better.

Regarding the tone of the review, it's blatant description, as opposed to hard-hitting opinion. People who consider reviews to be persuasive essays don't care for this style; the descriptive style rejects the concept that the writer's opinion is "right". For a game that relies on creative imagery, I think it's a valid approach. Describe what you see and let people form their own opinions. I could explicitly say "purple dung-dropping dragons are cool", but that won't convince someone who thinks dung-dropping dragons are stupid.

With my description of the music, improvements from other ports, and reminiscence of how this game's artful atmosphere made Psygnosis famous, people should be able to figure out where I stand. For me, the more important question is whether or not readers can figure out where they stand.

Definitely an interesting discussion.

//Zig

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> Funny how that can work out though. I once accidentally got in contact with the guy
> who wrote the beautiful haunting theme song of Gribbley's Day Out.

That game was well cute!

> Of course the day I have an actual heart attack is the day Sid Meier
> writes in about my FAQ on Pirates!...

Hahaha... the best I've done there was when John Romero wrote ASchultz and I about our Bruce Lee review. The joke for me was that back then, I didn't know who he was.

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Style wise, this reminded me of old Masters/Runinruder reviews. But as you've noticed, I was mostly carried away remembering the game.

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