193: Shadowlands

Number 193
(10.4 points)
Shadowlands
1992: 49

Crawling through dungeons is one of the classic microcomputer game genres, and Shadowlands does it with an isometric flair.

With a party of four adventurers, each of different class and abilities, you venture into dark dungeons in search of treasure and a good fight. The game uses an innovative lighting system, where you can only see what is illuminated, using torches either mounted on the wall or in your character's hand. Likewise, your four avatars can split up and lose sight of each other, and the game uses a relatively simple interface to control them. In hindsight, the game moves very slowly, and it can take time to find any enemies to fight or interesting items to collect.

It took me ages to get around to this one, because it looked like it wouldn't be very interesting at first sight, and then upon playing it appeared that I was right. Games like Ultima give you a situation, a story, a quest; this drops you in an empty world and expects you to go and find something interesting to do. The manual does little to assist you at the start. I imagine there's an interesting game lurking in there somewhere, and Amiga Power reviewed it well twice, but I just can't see the excitement myself.

Recommended TOSEC disk(s):
Shadowlands (1992)(Domark)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr SR]
Shadowlands (1992)(Domark)(Disk 2 of 2)[cr SR]