Shivers Two: Harvest of Souls

The Good
Shivers Two shares the same gameplay mechanics as its predecessor, but expands on it in so many ways. It is a first-person puzzle game similar to Myst and incorporates the use of full-motion video, but offers 360º movement and various other features that I enjoyed making use of. It is the only sequel that was released, a couple of years before Sierra got into financial trouble.

You have just arrived in the small town of Cyclone by motorbike, where your friends, the band Trip Cyclone, disappeared along with much of the population. After booking a room at the local motel, someone left a message that says “Only a warrior can free them”. In your room, you dream about a car accident and someone in the Kachina mask. Later on, you discover that he may be responsible for their disappearances.

To become a warrior, you need to gather twelve Bahos sticks scattered around Cyclone and bring them to the Kiva. Much of the game is spent exploring locations and solving puzzles. Before they went missing, Trip Cyclone has left you clues in their music videos, and these clues are used to solve the many puzzles in the game. What I like about each location is that you can read notes and diaries, and listen to phone messages, to provide some insight to the characters.

As I just mentioned, Shivers Two shares the same game mechanics as its predecessor. You use the one cursor to move around and interact with objects. Below that, you have your inventory and the life meter. This life meter is not quite as flashy as the one in Shivers; it resembles a stick turned upside-down, with twigs pointing out from the sides. You are also allowed to carry more than one inventory item. This makes it much easier, given that you don’t have to drop items somewhere, then come back for them when needed.

A nice feature of the game is the way you are not restricted to the same location. You start in your hotel room, but can go outside and explore Cyclone. A “map” feature makes it possible to move between locations faster, providing that you travel to them by foot first. Other features in the game include the ability to adjust the panoramic view, chat to your friends over the Internet while you play the game, and bypass puzzles you find difficult (at the expense of points). What’s even better than all of this is the way you can design your own puzzles and then use them to challenge your friends.

The game boasts a detailed user manual which gives a rather nice prologue that should have been served as the introduction to Shivers Two, the ins and outs of the game, and information about the characters. As if Sierra is thanking you personally for buying the game, two CDs are shipped, with one CD containing the actual game itself while the other storing the multiple endings, five complete songs by Trip Cyclone themselves, and one seven-minute track full of sounds from the first game.

The game features some beautiful soundtracks that blend well with the overall theme. Although some of them consist of short loops, they never get boring. Most of them contain vocals, with my favorite being the one inside Pearl’s house, which is where the band rehearsals presumably took place. The sound effects are just that, and are up there with the original game.

The Bad
There are what I call “triggers” inside games, where you have to do something before an event takes place. In Shivers Two, there are so many of them and I do find them quite annoying. For example, you are supposed to acquire a Iyani piece to achieve the best ending, yet you cannot get this until you watch a specific cut-scene.

After you obtained one of the Bahos sticks, you have to go to the Kiva and stick it in a slot burned in the altar. But first you have to do some useless tasks, like finding a certain symbol in the Devil’s Mouth Canyon matching the ones where you found the Bahos stick. There are so many symbols that wasting time trying to find the right one results in your life meter being drained. There are spiral drawings that restore some of your life, but most of these are hard to see.

The Bottom Line
Shivers Two is an excellent game from Sierra. It takes what made Shivers great and expands on it, adding a ton of amazing features. There is an actual story in the game, and this story unfolds as you discover and search the many locations in the game. The graphics are great, the story is interesting, the ambient music is well composed, the music videos are entertaining to watch, and the game can be solved in different ways. It is a shame that there was never a third game in the series; it would have been amazing. Two thumbs up!