Shadowgate 2

It's bad. It feels really amateur and not in the good way.

As promised, a more proper take now that the the biggest game blocking bug has been fixed. Ancient evils are stirring again in the castle Shadowgate. Sorceress Raven, the great, great granddaughter of wizard Lakmir, enters the ancient castle the see if she can fix the situation. Shadowgate 2 is, at heart, a puzzle game, just like the original was and the 2014 remake and the rather fantastic 2024 Beyond Shadowgate. But unlike the previous entries to the series, Shadowgate 2 adds turn based combat into the mix. The combat is, however, more of a puzzle rather than test of raw strength. During her stroll through the castle, Raven is at times recalling stories she has heard in the past. These stories are not mere flavor text, they are clues on how you should best proceed in the various battles on her way. Besides monsters, Raven's exploration is halted by other dilemmas as well. Generally, these puzzles are pretty easy. Solving some of these puzzles do require her to travel in past on an occasion, luckily she can do it with her grandfathers magical orb. And it's not only the puzzles that need time travelling, some monsters need a little time warp as well. Magic is also important part of the story. In the beginning, Raven knows only a handful of spells, but after every battle her powers grow a bit more, unlocking new magic. Then there's the Djinn, who gives her riddles to solve in for exchange of new powers. Another huge difference in between the previous games and Shadowgate 2 are the graphics and game play. Shadowgate 2 is a real time 3D title, played from 1st person perspective. This does cause some issues in some locations, which just feel a bit empty and at times even a bit boring and bland. The music is just as good as it has been on the previous games. The voice acting is decent as well. Shadowgate 2 might not be as good of a game as the previous entries in the series, it is relatively flawed in terms of game play and puzzles. but it's still fun enough of a puzzle adventure with some okay battle scenes in the mix, if you keep your expectations in check. v--------- my original note about the game-------v I can not recommend the game in its current state. There are several game breaking bugs, which will render any progress beyond them impossible. I'll write a proper review if and when the bugs are patched out.

I'm 3 or so hours in, and I can't say I like it. In fact, I wish I hadn't. I wanted to try despite the review bombing- I even put on Shadowgate NES music, because the game forgot that music is important to tone. Narrative is provided in "stories she remembers," and I have to read; so some stairs will make her think of some fable that has nothing to do with stairs, seemingly written by people who didn't really want to think that hard. Yorick, the skull, is useless as a hint system (not that you'll need it), as a companion (not memorable), and I wonder if he's just some producer's hard-on as opposed to a thoughtful addition. The environments are bland, and don't offer enough detail to even meaningfully connect with my sleuthing mind. A throne with a skeleton in it is just that, and further investigations are meaningless outside of the obvious key next to it. The UI is ugly, and doesn't feel like the style of the MAC/NES inspirations, OR their dirtscaped remake look. Despite the game's reliance on collecting objects to solve puzzles, some solutions they keep so hidden through ineptitude or anticipated timesucking in order to provide refund-protection. I had to look up a needed item for a solution, that had me randomly pixel hunting for a very small object in a room, which ALSO had a missing panel of floor texture, making me think it was there. I was randomly clicking all over, when supposedly, despite me in no way seeing it, I found it. The battles are nothing more than progression checks, ensuring you've gotten all the required spells before allowing you to beat the monster in the only approved sequence of events, in the order intended. None of this, is fun- and I had to restart the game 4 times, not including resolution issues that forced me to play in windowed. Wow, no- stay away. I'm gonna look up a speed run and call it a day. I hope IP owners, whoever you all are, are paying attention. We want exploration, clever victories and unexpected deathes, amazing music, and a sense of dread outside of actually playing a bad game. It's not good- this shouldn't have left the gates, and I'm glad I only tried it on sale. Those looking for a better, truer (I guess) sequel, should check out Beyond Shadowgate. It's not perfect, but MAN does it understand what this series could/should be. Update: There is no one speedrunning this game, so I'll just forget this ever happened. Further Update: Watched the ending online. Honestly, outside of the horrible voice acting, it's not the worst idea, but kinda disrespectful of some elements from the original series. Not sure what this series is, or should be- but someone has to jump in there, and figure out how to right this ship. Looking at the pictures in game, their "riffs" are like floating crystals- those are NOT the same thing, yo! Like, just a simple bit of giving a crap, and you could've bought a DIFFERENT Unity asset that looks like a black hole or something. Just so many bad decisions, and it feels like half the content was left on the cutting room floor. Ending could've been decent, with the right reveals, and a more realized version of the vision. Disappointing.

[i]The quality of this game reminds me of stories I'd hear while taking out the trash....[/i] I feel bad about this, because as a Shadowgate superfan, who absolutely adores this lore and world, I want more Shadowgate, but after finishing the game, I have to change my review to negative. It's not fair that we have to endure kusoge as fans of this series. Beyond Shadowgate was proof of that! This was such a disappointing journey. Along the way, I encountered so many bugs and issues. A lack of polish, inspiration, or care, all made more frustrating by the fact that there were moments of potential. If the game was actually polished-- even in its current state-- mostly free of bugs, egregious typos, and careless mistakes, I would be able to recommend the game. But it's not, so I can't. [H1]Pros:[/H1] -Very different from SG 1; similar to Mines of Mythrok. -Dragon Quest style combat. -Music is solid, but it's not inspired the way SG64's was, and it's basically just 2 tracks through the entire game. -Return of some bits of lore from Shadowgate series (not much....) and an attempt at Shadowgate Rising (another bad one). [H1]Cons:[/H1] -MULTIPLE GAME BREAKING BUGS-- so far I was softlocked at [spoiler]the Djinn's first riddle solution[/spoiler] and broken save/load bugs. HUGE list of bugs-- was stymied and locked out of progression multiple times, including in the last stage. It's a bad look for a puzzle game to leave you more puzzled by broken mechanics than its actual puzzles. -Very different from SG 1; similar to Mines of Mythrok, but also uninspired. The environments never feel like Shadowgate. Even the closest we see to any reference to the Circle of Twelve looks like some generic Unity asset. -Outsourced devs-- if you look at their recent works it's all mid. It shows here, too. -Turn based RPG combat that becomes a passionless recital of telegraphed moves, which is a weird step back, even if interesting at times. -Simplified actions-- you can take and use items, but that's all. -I didn't know SG64 was a stylistic choice we'd have to live with in every 3-D Shadowgate-- these assets look terrible. Did you think a game in 2025 would be released with a bones texture pasted on a geometric shape? I sure didn't see that in my 2025 bingo. -No explanation of changing targeting on bosses when it's crucial by your second fight. -UI elements are missing or just omnipresent to annoyance. No need to see Raven all the time or one of TWO equipable items. Similar, it'd been nice to know, being that the graphics don't necessarily indicate, if you're in the present with your chrono orb or another timeline. -The game fights you playing it the entire way-- whether it's trying to scroll through your list of spells or slowly walk amongst the mostly empty environment in which you must be 3 feet tall. -The way the devs try to build in storytelling lore is immersion-breaking at best and insipid at worst; SG64, Beyond Shadowgate, and Shadowgate would never let you walk through a library without the capability to read a book. This feels extra silly being that your character just suddenly remembers random tales relevant to upcoming fights. In past SG, you'd read a library, and the correct answer was in the pile of books in the library along with 20 world-building red herrings. Instead, the tales are basically word salads to telegraph fights, and that's all it comes down to. -The possibility of any actual ambiance this game could have given is ruined by static monsters standing around, which especially ruins immersion at the end of the game. -Actually engaging with Yorick makes the game a chore, as he simply tells you what to do without any further inspiration. But the game is so featureless you feel starved for content if you don't engage with Yorick. Yorick's best voice lines are for when you die, because playing this game makes you want to kill yourself. -Which leads me to my final issue, the castle is not actually deadly until the final stage, and even then, it's a few pitfall traps. This is a shallow rendition of the allure the Shadowgate franchise holds over players, and a travesty. Most all of the memes this franchise hold are in the deaths you can face. But nothing in these environments feels living in the first place at all. Not the monsters, not the characters, not the castle, especially. And the whole point of this franchise is that you're in a LIVING castle.

The fire pillar puzzle early in the game is impossible to beat. There is a door and keypad next to it. The keypad has 9 runes, which should be pressed in correct order. The room also has these pillars, which each has some runes etched to them. I suppose this should be the clue for the player on which order to input the runes, but honestly, nothing works. Pillars only have 7 of the 9 runes, so no matter which order you end up with, you still need to guess the remaining two. It takes forever to guess the solution. I've been stuck in this room for weeks now. Not worth the time anymore. Poorly designed.

Hard crash cold boot. I wouldn't recommend till they fix it

This game gave me huge Shadowgate 64 vibes (almost in a good way), but I would still recommend that over this. I don't even know why this is called Shadowgate. Most of the puzzles are in the goofy battles, where Raven will just decide to remember a story while in the middle of a hallway (over and over). From here you translate the story and adapt it into the next combat encounter. The other puzzles are pretty typical fare that aren't too difficult, but more often than not you will be stumped only to learn that you didn't pick up a random item that was hidden in the darkness or didn't highlight at the right time. There's no music at all, so all you get to hear are the ambient sounds of Raven's hoof feet clomping away down the hallways of Shadowgate. I experienced no real major bugs, just small quirks, but the game is finishable with no major issues, but one of the achievements is still bugged (all stories), otherwise all the achievements are story related for those who care. There are better ways to experience Shadowgate, or games similar to Shadowgate, and this is by far the worst one.

More like SADowgate. Too bad they didn't fix this game. Not even a bit. It would have been ok then ...