"Very solid for the genre."

Another reviewer here pretty much pegged it when he said (to paraphrase)
that Shadowgate 64 was pretty much panned by the press not for true
definciencies, but more for changing attitudes about video gaming. I
almost felt like running for the nearest toilet when I read the IGN review
that said something akin to ''dude, you can't kill things'' as the point of
the review. Good job guys. (sarcasm intended)
In all seriousness, Shadowgate: Trial of the Four Towers is, like most
graphical, point and click adventures, totally overlooked by the majority
of gamers. The N64 had Shadowgate, the Playstation had Echo Night; and
both titles share a wealth of similarites. (read my review of Echo Night)
As a ''Myst-style'' puzzler, Shadowgate 64 works pretty well, and if you got
through Echo Night, you can most certainly handle this one.
Unfortunately, Shadowgate's graphics aren't really any better than Echo
Night's, except there's less clipping on the N64. But down to brass tax,
SG (Shadowgate) is a far better than game than you may have heard. It's
not for everyone, but then...you should have known that when you
condemnned it (I'm speaking generically to the world).
As the central player, you explore ancient towers near Castle Shadowgate,
figuring out puzzles and logic quandries, hoping to eventually solve a
vast mystery involving an ancient magician and his old pupil. (sound a bit
like Uninvited now). The dark atmosphere works well here, and the game is
toned nicely. There are some genuinely creepy moments, but, sadly, it
would seem the game's designers ran out of steam, so the initial pace
slows down a bit when you get further in. I'm not complaining, just
pointing out that whereas somethinc like Echo Night, kept trying to scare
you (successfully) throughout the entire game, SG isn't as flashy or
elaborate. Unfortunately, SG was classified as some boring retread of a
dead genre (which isn't true anyway). it actually manages to avoid some
bad mistakes and succeeds on levels I never expected it to. For starters,
once you get to a certain point in the game, you have to backtrack
somewhat using a whole new set of powers to do different things in places
you already visited. Thats a smart way to increase the playability. It
also allows you to save your game anywhere, rather than relying on
slightly annoying save-point systems. If you're worried you might die
(which is possible), just save to test your theory.
Decent music helps the ambience out, and the sound effects are quite nice.
Things sounds like what they are, if that makes any sense. As you pick up
items, read things, and figure out puzzles, there is some good atmosphere
thanks to the surprisingly well developed story (not to mention great back
inforamtion thanks to all the books you can read). If you like this genre
of game, I honestly can't see a whole lot driving you away. There are
some noteworhty flaws though:
The graphics are pretty lame. I said it about Echo Night, and I'm saying
it about SG. They're adequate, but in many cases, unimaginative, boring,
and not up to what could have been done with N64 hardware. Also, what's
with all the compression artifacts?? The game seems heavily compressed,
but I can't imagine why, since there's no streamed music or voice or
anything. A few nice touches, like effective light sourcing, seem to only
be elements in that game's early, intro moments.
Another thing, some puzzles are just too damn vague. While observing and
reading will get you far, a few puzzles just make no sense. More
accurately, I don't know HOW you were supposed to figure out the solution
other than blind luck.
I also did not like the death factor. Echo Night at least had you
combating ghosts, but here, the deaths seem unfair because of your limited
interaction with the world. How the heck am I supposed to know that doing
X
will kill me?
In the end, my impressions of SG are positive for the genre, despite it's
flaws, but I actually think it made leaps over the ideas of the original.
(you know, the original where you died a stupid, senseless death every 5
seconds for something dumb?) If you like these titles, you MUST get
Shadowgate 64...it's as plain as that. The first hour or so of play might
seem a bitbland and devoid of story, but trust me...it picks up soon
afterward with lots of stuff to do, explore, and figure out. I do think
the game is a bit long. I don't mean that time-wise (my time beating the
game was about 5 hours), but there is some repetition. You don't notice
it that much in similar games because things stay fairly fresh, but I
think Four Towers was one to many. Specifically, the Tower of Trials.
For almost the entire game, you're told that the Trials will be the
penultimate challenge and that you'll be mind-blown to experience them.
As it turns out, they're annoying little puzzles that are hard to solve
only because they askew logic and simplicity in design. You'll KNOW the
solutions, figuring out how to implment them may, at times, frustrate you.
At this point, the game begins to slow to a crawl. True, it's near the
end, but still.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/11/01, Updated 05/11/01