Shadow Of The Beast (Amiga) - A Playguide and Review - by LemonAmiga.com
100Psygnosis were quite a power house by the time of this release in 1989. Many Amigas were sold on the back of seeing a rolling demo of this, in shop windows, or maybe on a friends computer. The game has become much maligned over the years, so lets see if it's really so bad.
If you enjoyed this, why not support me on Patreon, and make more of these possible 👍👍
https://www.patreon.com/lemontubeamiga
* Special Thanks to my Patreons: *
🌟 Bloxyman22 🌟
⭐ Predseda ⭐
❇️ Eric Johnson ❇️
Production Notes:
Captured: 2nd April 2019 (1440p @ 50fps)
Narrated: 12th November 2020
Edited: 11th - 19th November 2020
I remember seeing this for the first time on a friends computer. He showed me how to grab the orb by reaching for it, and how to get there in the maze, but I dont think we got much further. I never had a copy of this or owned it. Same story with any of the later Shadow of the Beast games; it wasnt series I was drawn to, or interested in.
Fast forward to March/April 2019, when SOTB was voted in to play in the LA competition. We played it for three weeks, and each time I got a bit further. Soon I could get to the snail, but took some time to be good enough to make it out of the well consistently. Then I had to memorise the way east from the start, in order to have enough health to make it to the castle, but try as I might, I always got the timing wrong, and ended up not having enough health for much progress after that, which is pretty much what I recorded here. There is a big gap in health, from the outside area to the top floor of the castle, and I think just one extra bottle could have helped. I have been further than this, up to the next health, but then I hadnt memorised the next traps and quickly lost it all.
-
Anyone who saw my SOTB2 video might remember I'd always hated them, but after an altercation with a fan who took his own life, I tried to be more open minded towards them. I hope his spirit can be at peace now. We played SOTB 3 recently, and I was hopeless with it, so if ever I feel the right time is to review the third one, it is unlikely to be my own footage. You'll notice I didnt say Never.
This month has also been upsetting due Covid going around the care home where my mum lives, and also handing over the competition to a new volunteer. Perhaps to cheer everyone up, I decided to release another of the Sampled Disk backers videos tomorrow. I've also released a random order patreon list of the games I've recently recorded for the next series; which I hope will be interesting for backers, and the list will hopefully have more requests as more new patrons sign up. If you enjoy these sampled audio videos, your contribution will go towards producing more, and loads of other special projects.
Danscore:
========
Shadow of the Beast seems to have a yawning divide between those who love it, and those who hate it. I can see both sides, and while learning how to play it over several weeks, I found a gradual respect for the game which I never had before. After working through the maze at the start of the tree section, its a fairly linear path to the well, the outdoors, and then the castle. If players master the timing of the punches, its possible to breeze through it without too much difficulty, and veterans who can beat this game often love to complete it. For the rest of us, learning how to master the sections is a trial by death affair; which some people have likened to a Rick Dangerous-type of memory maze. Although you wont die straight away like Rick Dangerous, and there are no spikes which pop up out of the floors to kill you instantly. What there is on offer boils down to a jolly nice looking and sounding game, a respectfully difficult set of timed punches, and a semi linear maze of non-collapsing platforms. No leaps of faith, no level timers, no pixel perfect jumps over pits of death. Yet at some points, I found the collision detection spoils the fun, as one millisecond too early or late means you'll be punished. It would have been much better if players kept the special weapon from the orb, or got some kind of sword, a gun (you get a laser gun later on in the game) or ranged attack, so that everything didnt have to come down to split second timing all the time. Even an extra health flask right inside the castle might have done the trick. Based on pure fun factor, I'd say this is difficult to compare to other platformers. I'd give this a score of 6.5 out of 10, as there is nothing too badly wrong with it, except the playability and gameplay could have been made more user friendly. Yet with an average score of 8 out of 10 on Lemon, it proves there are many fans of SOTB out there, who are proud to say its a good game. If you have any comments, good or bad to say, please drop them in the comments section below.