Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness

The Good
The paladin version of the game was by far the most rewarding, as you got to see everything in the game, especially if you were a thief/mage paladin like I was. The characters were more memorable than the third and first one, and actually had personality. The vampire girl I remember was sweet, but her appearance gave me nightmares. The story got more complex, and the puzzles got more fun. I enjoyed this game thoroughly as a paladin....

The Bad
....but I hated the game as the other classes. The thief had no impact on the game whatsoever, unlike the first and second game. There was no profit at all. Instead the focus came unto the paladin, who had more things to do. The battle system just fell flat on its face, and battles became a breeze to those with magic abilities and the real-life ability to hold down the magic button and let go at the the right time and an exercise in frustration to those who had to trudge through hand to hand fighting. The storyline, while the best in the series, took itself way too seriously and almost wiped out my impression of the light-heartedness of the earlier games and had no place in this series.

The Bottom Line
Buy this game so you can hate the third but appreciate the second game.

The Good
Wow,what is there not to like?? This was the first PC game I ever bought, mainly because of the great box design: graves, tentacled monsters, witches and skulls, when I saw it I fell in love. Added to this all the booklets, full of gothic puns and spooky stories I thought it couldn't get better.

This game is mostly an adventure game combined with RPG elements which make it really decision-open. You can go anything you like, click at everything and read something clever, talk to anyone and actually do anything you can think of, almost.

The graphics were superb for 1994 with very nicely drawn surroundings and some of the most distinctive faces ever made for a game (ahh... Rusalka...). The sound effects and music add very much to the eerie atmosphere and a cozy feeling of old horror stories featuring ghosts and curses in little towns were the townsfolk bolt their houses at night (for example the inn features a midi sample of Grieg's Annitra's Dance, magnificent!).

The gameplay is a bit on the easy side, with most adventuring riddles being solved with a combination of using the right item on the right place, conversing with everyone and advancing the right skills to overcome obstacles. There is so much to be done though, and the feeling of adventuring is always there so its not so much of a hindrance that the various objectives are mainly easy. There is also a bit of fighting which adds an extra flavor, although it was very badly implemented in this game .

In the end the best aspect of this game is its concept, imagery and spooky feeling. It is a combination of all the classical horror themes (vampires, werewolves, mad scientists, ghosts, graveyards, Slavic mythology along with a Poeish and Lovecraftian touch). The master aspect of all these is that they never feel out of place or disjointed like in other horror games of that time (waxworks etc), but completed each side of the story of one of the best RPG adventures ever made.

The Bad
Well there were some bugs, but I didn't care at the time.

The really hideous part of the game is one that was advertised on the box.. combat. It was badly programmed and not entertaining. There was even an option that the character's fighting was carried out by the PC on autopilot which was very awkward at first, but really logical after the first few lame battles. Also the sound effects after a victorious battle were so kitsch and out of place.. a common feature of all Sierra games. Sierra could never really criticize their games effectively and cut some stupid art or effects out of them, but hey they had just come out of the 80's eh?

The game these days can be seen as a little retro. It hasn't aged very well as most of Sierra's games unfortunately. A bit childish in some aspects too.

The Bottom Line
This is the perfect blend of a mixture of gothic horror and comedy in a PC game adventure/RPG. You have to try it out if you like graveyards, superstitious folk, vampires, bloodthirsty bunnies and early 90's gaming. Actually there hasn't been one single game to be compared to it since then.

My dream one day, is not to see the wars end and earth be a better place, but some gaming company make another game that could compete this one in gothic horror feeling , mixing traditional spookiness and a bit of comic humor and make an equally open actioned game with more clever puzzles. Is it so hard???

My only hope right now for something a bit close to this, is "A vampyre's tale" an adventure made by Autumn moon entertainment, although its more on the cute graphics , leaving a bit of horror aside.. but since its supposed to be made from the creators of the perfect Monkey Island 3 its ok I guess.

So still Shadows of darkness is as close as it gets to the perfect gothic horror themed RPG/adventure. There is always Ghost 'n Goblins of course and Castlevania but these are arcade platformers and another story.

FIN.

The Good
Many people see the battle system in this game as a disadvantage. I saw it as an definite plus to the game. It made battles quicker, but still allowed you to control the hero (that is, if you want to). Some battles, such as with the wraiths, are still a challenge.

I also found that the setting of this game was by far the best of any of the QfG series. I would go so far as to say it was the best, and most highly original plots, in any game I can remember. The transsylvanian setting coupled with the slavic folklore, like the leshy or rusalka, make a haunting and memorable game. The setting was so colorful and deep, that the feeling of loneliness and sorrow actually rubs off on you. You can feel the sadness in the lonely Mordavia, and get attached to the characters. As such the sacrifice Toby makes for the girl Tanya was quite touching.

Speaking of characters, I must say that they are all, everyone of them, memorable. From Yuri the innkeeper, to helpless old Nikolai, or even the ghost of the paladin Piotyr, they all standout in my memory perfectly. The characters had an almost eerie depth to them.

One of the best improvements from the previous games was the addition of speaking characters. the most memorable? I would say John-Rhys Davies as the narrator, or the screach of the "hungry, hunting hawk". The addition of voices was one of the best choices they could have made to improve the game.

Now the music...I think that the music from Shadows of Darkness was memorable ( as you might have noticed, this game was highly memorable to me) and, I think, was responsible for most of the depth in the game. I would pay good money to buy a Shadows of Darkness music cd. Just listen to the adventurere's guild music, and then you will fully understand how lonely the game is. Who ever wrote and performed that music, God bless ye.

"Here lies the spirit of Barney Blue, To his lover was untrue, So his lover knew just what to do, She fixed herself some Barney stew"

The Bad
In my opinion, there were but two problems with this game. Unfortunately, both are very bad. The first is that the game ends. I know it sounds weird, but I wish that the game would just continue, as I love the setting and characters so much.

The next problem was the BUGS. The god forsaken bugs. May the swamp bug die a horrible death. Just hearing someone say "error 52" still unnerves me.

The Bottom Line
Buy this game! even if you can't beat it because of bugs, just enjoy the characters and music until the glitches catch up with you.