Shadowcaster: Dark Temple, Dark Castle, Dark

I still can't get over this pillar. I guess younger me assumed it was a spiral staircase. Because there's no ceiling or anything.

Its very blue. I think I like this compared to Wolfenstein, however. Probably the lighting New enemy, bats, about as terrifying as you'd think.

The way back is gone. Was that supposed to be a teleport and they couldn't get it to work? Or miscommunication between level designers and it was too late to change it? Or intentional for some reason.

A lot of these textures look like they were in Heretic afterward

This would be a door. I don't know whether or not to say its badly designed. On one hand, it doesn't really pop out as such. On the other, I did know it was a door right away.

Behind the door is, surprise, more imps. This room confounds me. It is built like some grand hall, but only has one door, to the side of it. This exit leads to a hallway with multiple doors on the other side of it. Its a curious piece of level design that doesn't really make any sense.

Door no. 1, a broken axe. Is this where someone died, or a jail cell of sorts? Hmm.

Door no. 2, a fight with imps and a bunch of more doors. More on this later. Door no. 3, another imp. They seem to have appropriate range for someone with a spear. More doors. It seems this leads back to the area behind door no. 2. Curious.

That leaves me with a southern area from which is touched only by Door no. 2. It contains a chest and a bat. The early chest encounter was not unique, you need to punch open every chest. Inside, a potion of strength and a potion of mana. How useful, I guess.

A simple puzzle involving the shuriken and a target moving over a wall.

The areas north of no. 3, turn out to be, except one path has a door and one does not. The imps thusly jump out as soon as I open the door. Curious. I move some of my potions to the Maorin, since if I need the extra power and mana, I'll need to be using four arms.

This turns out to be not to far away, as I see a Maorin skeleton* and his two imp companions. Better finish them off, then get the big guy. As the Maorin. Seems fitting.

I said, finish them off...Is the sword not capable of dealing damage to the imps? No matter, that's what the potion of strength does.

Even as a Maorin, this fellow seems tall. With the combination of the sword and the strength potion, he goes down quickly. He deals a lot of damage, so that's a good thing.

Another changing stone. Better heal up, I suspect this is a trap.

I'll get to the new form when I need it, but first...I'll deal with nothing. That's just a portal. What's in the two side doors?

Oh, another imp and a chest...with a Dragon Horn. I'm sure that's going to be used in a puzzle.

The other door has another imp and nothing. Except this wonderful image.

The cutscene explains that this is the castle of the Werewolf Lord. It used to belong to the shapeshifters, but now it belongs to The Dark One.

Not sure I needed a cutscene to explain that, I can't see further than two feet and there's a lot of open ground to cover.

I swear you could see this better when I screenshoted it

Oh...man, Raven used to have sweet monster designs. That's a...something. Well, we don't need names, but this thing eats up health like crazy. Fortunately I don't have to give up the shuriken, well, ever. Unfortunately, I have to wait again. Joy.

The next encounter goes down...interestingly. I fight another of these, when I notice little balls of energy hitting me. In a panic, I go after them.

I am introduced to what will be a bane for some time, blue necromancers, or mana drainers. They drain your mana, they're friends with the red necromancers, or health drainers.

The next few sections were a bit of a blur. Cautiously fight enemy, go into side room, clean out, then hit glowing ceiling coin. These must do something, but what will be a question I won't answer, because I probably don't know.

The only actual exit out of this grand, dark cathedral-like room, is directly into a Maorin skeleton. Either this one is beefed up, or that strength potion did more than I hoped. I get quite a few hits in and use up the ice wand I got earlier on him. Still nearly died and had to run off.

The new transformation I got was the Caun, a small, brownie-like thing. Or a classic tiny elf if you will. One of the traits of the Caun, and they have many, is healing. At 20 points of health, just use the healing spell once and you're back in the fight.

Yeah, see it? On the left?

After resting, I enter cautious, and find myself in a portal room. One with multiple portals. I can tell because my map shows these portals, even if I can't reach them until later. Only one portal is open. That's a good place to stop, I think.

*Later, I discovered these are called Zardoz, presumably named so in the cutscene I missed. Let's not kid ourselves, these are Maorin skeletons.