Shadowcaster (PC-98,1994)

Name:Shadowcaster
Number:165
Year:1994
Publisher:Electronic Arts Victor
Developer:Raven Software
Genre:FPS/RPG
Difficulty:3/5
Time:7 hours 40 minutes
Won:Yes (63W/58L)

I said the last time that I played Shadowcaster that it would be the last time, unless I played the PC-98 version. Guess this really is the last time I play this game. I can't say I regret that. It's a good game, it just has some issues. Yeah, I played the game for under 8 hours, but counting time I just had the game running in the background, you could double that.

The game unceremoniously tosses you into combat, a bit of a theme.

If you're unfamiliar with the game, you can think of it as Ultima Underworld by way of the Wolfenstein 3D engine. You have a fancy save system like UUW, a map system that puts most used in Wolf source ports to shame, and a fancy control scheme. I don't really have anything bad to say about any of them. The controls are the kind of game where turning and moving is ideally done without the mouse, as that functions independently of the gameworld. Like UUW, its better than it sounds. I do note that when I played the CD version, that had a glitch with the save system that this didn't have. Bug added by the CD version, or bug fixed by the PC-98 version? Considering that the infamous glitch from UUW was only fixed in the CD version, not the various ports, I think the former.

The third and last time I used this guy.

The central concept of Shadowcaster, playing as one of the last members of a shapeshifting race, is interesting. Running around being able to change into different forms for different situations is interesting, its just that this combined with the RPG aspect of it is kind of awkward. Each form has its own experience and is implied to be its own character independent of the human one. The player has three metrics which are improved by increasing score/XP. Mana/power in the base, human form, health in all forms, and in one, the amount of time some relatively unimportant spells last.

This incentivizes you to use the human form as much as possible, to ensure you have the highest possible mana. While XP gotten in non-human forms transfers over a little to the human form, you don't get much out of it for most forms. Let's take the first form, the Maorin, a cat warrior. There is only one place you really get something out of him, and even that you can sort of just rush through. While he does do more damage, there's not really any reason to use him over the human form. Sure, its harder now, but later you'll really appreciate it when you have a ton of mana.

Meanwhile we have the Caun, an old-school elf or brownie-type. It is actual suicide to use this guy in melee, he's a pure special purpose form. Except most of his spells are useless. Hiding from enemies is pointless, stunning enemies is pointless, and reaching in the distance nearly so. You do not get anything from avoiding enemies. Instead the creature's only purpose is to cast healing and light spells, and jump over a few obstacles. This is also the only creature to actually get non-health advantage from XP, the strength of some spells increase as it levels up. You'd have to be dedicated to give it more than a few. You don't really get anything out of this, short of an increased length for its light spell.

Enemies can get stuck like this, and it absolutely is intentional.

Then the forms become useless or of limited utility as you get later forms. The Opsis is good for a little while, as it can fly and cast fireballs, iceballs and some other things you don't really need, its useless once you get the much faster Ssair, which only has a fireballs attack but can actually survive in melee. Nothing you'll fight at that point won't fall to one of its two attacks. The resistance each enemy has to various kinds of attacks does vary, but it doesn't come up much. Very few creatures have a high resistance to a combination of physical and whatever magical attacks you're likely to use. I had an issue last time trying to drive up as much XP to the base form as possible, which can only use physical attacks without items.

These red cloaked fellows absorb your health, making them one of the most dangerous enemies in the game.

Now, that said, combat isn't necessarily as straight-forward as I describe. Certainly, despite some forms having multiple physical attacks, you're going to focus on certain ones, at least before you get a sword, but I did find myself in some interesting fights. While you can blindly melee fight a good chunk of the fights, I found that some of the few sections that worked a fun reprieve from the more troublesome sections. I've been dividing things by physical and everything else, because that's more or less how it functions. Physical attacks don't cost any power, and even the physical ranged weapon, a shuriken, is infinite. Magical attacks either cost mana, on top of the usual maintenance cost for being in a different form, or are from items with a limited number of charges.

With the enemies you can't brute-force, you have an interesting variety of attacks. Obvious attacks usually come in the form of a special item you just got, like a silver sword against a werewolf, or the form you just got having special attacks that work against this section's enemies. If an enemy isn't swift enough, you can pelt them with the shuriken and avoid their attacks. Still, it feels somewhat underutilized. You don't really need to shift between a lot of forms if the terrain doesn't force you to.

Fighting a flying enemy with the shuriken, something I'm forced to do as I don't have a form with a ranged attack yet.

Moving back to not being able to brute-force, should you not have the option of a special attack or worse yet, run out of mana, you can run away. Its part and parcel of playing the game, unfortunately. Like most RPGs, you can heal when you're away from combat. As this is built on the Wolfenstein 3D engine, this works in strange ways. You just sit there and wait. No, no rest button. Yes, I do think the game should have had a rest button. Unless you're building a game around a lack of resting ability you should have one. You just wait some fifteen or so minutes every time you need to heal. I'd even be okay with it having an ungodly high amount chance of enemies spawning.

I'm torn as to whether or not this was a conscious design choice or one forced on them. There's a strict number of enemies throughout the game, for instance the base form can only just reach level 8, at least I think, I got to level 7 here, and the XP required increases quite a lot. Because there are no or very limited respawning enemies, you have to track all their positions as you sleep, in the Wolfenstein engine. Even just the alert ones would be annoying. I can see the design choice being that they thought was a cool idea, "you're always in danger", they think. Good luck, I'm hiding behind 7 doors.

Two of the items I have here could be ignored without any penalty whatsoever

And that leads into the game's items. I don't really think there's a good sense of how they should be paced out. I ended the game, me, an expert in the game supposedly, with quite a few more items than I needed. Health and mana items are a hard thing to get a sense of, because you can get to be very good at running away in this game. The only time they're truly needed is at the end of the game. Damage items aren't much better, because the enemies you want to use them against are bosses, who are introduced with little fanfare. Sometimes they even just look like every other enemy. And of course, using them too freely puts you in a bad place against the final boss.

This all gives the impression I don't like the game. I do, but it feels unfinished in the sense it feels like its missing something. Its not like a lot of games where it feels like they gave up near the end, rather, they managed it so it feels like some of the middle sections are lacking. The game basically has twice the running time it should have thanks to that regeneration system. Is that why it was added? It just feels like there could be more, more levels, more ways to take advantage of each characters forms. With games like Dungeon Master, Ultima Underworld and Pathways into Darkness, I know what it could be.

Fighting a lava monster as a dragon over lava, what could be easier?

This is in part because the game does some things very well. It didn't occur to me until this particular playthrough that Shadowcaster does something very rare for a first-person game of this era and technological limitations. Every section is unique. Not something you see in every dungeon crawler or FPS from the time. Quite the opposite. Even games that succeed at making levels interesting tend to look very samey. And to this day games can struggle with succeeding at this, both professional and indie titles.

A lot of the game feels just right, and its not necessarily an opinion I just got either, when I think back to my memories of my first proper playthrough, in many ways it felt well-balanced. Perhaps on the easy side in that you should be able to figure it out the first time you play through the game. I made fun of some of them, like a puzzle that consisted of a rope along with putting boulders on pressure plates, but it is hardly enough to put a damper on the experience.

An aspect of the game that works out surprisingly well is the game's visuals, specifically the fog. People tend to dislike anything that reduces visibility because we shouldn't have anything. Once again, I think this is an intentional choice, and it works. The thing about fog from a player perspective is that it only matters if it impacts you in a negative way. Like you can't shoot someone or you get shot at. Because Shadowcaster is primarily a melee game, that's not an issue. It does a lot for the game, causing some encounters to sneak up on you and improving the mood of the game.

This game does more than you would think at first glance. Its by no means a must-play, but I think the game does enough interesting things to make up for its short-comings. Others will probably be put off by the long resting times. It always comes back to that. Some things are good, some things are pretty good, but none of it ever truly makes up for that stupid little design choice.

Weapons:
Melee is satisfying, but its rules are unclear. Ranged combat is very interesting, as I mentioned the item issue. Using them has a sense of liberation about it. When you can finally attack enemies from a distance is a satisfying as other games ultimate weapons. 3/10

Enemies:
The AI is subtly clever. Its hard to see. Enemies run away if they're damaged enough, but continue attacking if cornered. If they chase after the player and lose sight of them, they actually chase after where they last saw them. Not that you'd ever see that most of the time. Otherwise there's some surprising variety here. Even though you can broadly categorize enemies into ranged and melee enemies, they feel different from each other. A werewolf fights differently than a skeleton or a wereboar. 5/10

Non-Enemies:
Some simple non-hostiles in one of the stages. 0/10

Levels:
Each section feels unique, but not always good. The castle section, despite having a very mazey part of it, did a good job in creating unique situations and encounters that this wasn't a problem. There's also the factor that some of the less good sections might be suffering only due to poor choice of the player's form. 7/10

Player Agency:
I've never found the right words to describe the Ultima Underworld style of controls, where you use the mouse as a sort of menu in addition to having normal-ish FPS controls. It works, but kind of strangely. You basically need three hands, one on the numpad, on resting in the middle, and one on the mouse. I like how the inventory itself works, especially right click to rapidly change items, but not how I might have to change between 3 forms to give an item to a form that needs it. Or how dropping items and picking them up in some forms is more annoying than doing this. Otherwise its fine, no real complaints about fighting or moving. 6/10

Interactivity:
Interactions are mostly limited to using a few scenery objects along with the odd destroyable wall. 2/10

Atmosphere:
There's a very good sense of travelling through the disused ruins of a once great civilization. From the overgrown gardens to lonely, abandoned areas, the game keeps a nice, dark mood. 7/10

Graphics:
Everything looks nice; wall graphics, even the more generic designs, feel like they belong together. Enemy sprites, while limited, are well-drawn. 7/10

Story:
A simple story, told primarily through two cutscenes at the beginning and end. The CD version was better with multiple cutscenes, even if those didn't age well. 2/10

Sound/Music:
The sound effects are nice and punchy, though I wish enemies made alert noises. Musically, it sounds nice, but its not anything special. 5/10

That's 44. Up 2 points from the last time I played. The difference, surprisingly, isn't just that I gave the sound category more, most things have jumped around. No pity point for non-enemies, atmosphere and story were a bit over rated, and weapons, enemies and levels were a bit under rated. Were it not for the increase in sound I actually would have rated the game one point less.

I still recommend this, but I have to admit, this doesn't really appeal to anyone. RPG fans, even those hungering for an old-school dungeon crawler, won't like how it has a smattering of RPG elements. FPS fans aren't going to like it because its very unusual. Even if this game uses the same mechanics as PS2 era action-adventure games, I doubt fans of that era would care. Those interested in augmenting their Japanese learning with video games are not going to care for a western game they could already play, when Ultima Underworld is right there. But yeah, for the two people out there for whom this sounds interesting and don't mind dealing with the awkward healing, its worth it. But perhaps I'll be proven wrong whenever the CRPG Addict ever gets to this.

Game 25: Shadowcaster

Name:Shadowcaster
Number:25
Year:1993
Publisher:Origin
Developer:Raven Software
Genre:FPS/RPG
Difficulty:3/5
Time:25 Hours

Going in on this, I had nothing to complain about. Going out, I still really don't. Shadowcaster is less of a real FPS and more of a weird true 3D Dungeon Master clone, and all the good and bad that entails. Don't like switching between screens to see if your health is back up? I wouldn't suggest it. You don't mind? Play it.

In Shadowcaster, you play as Kirt, the last free member of the People, a race of shapeshifting humans. You go across various worlds, seeking to undo the evil the Veste has done in the name of Melkor, a dark god. As opposed to the People's various good gods. The real gem of the story is what Veste did, which is described in the Cluebook that came with the original version of the game. Its worth a quick read even if you don't play the actual game.

Kirt has several forms he can change into, some of which become quickly useless. As a human, Kirt knows martial arts and can jump. This is, as can be expected, the most important form. In every other form Kirt drains his mana (called power, but eh, lame name) until he changes back. The human form is unique in that it also gains mana whenever the player levels up, and that they get experience from the other forms. In theory, you could play through most of the game in this form, which isn't a bad idea up to a certain point.

There's the Maorin, a muscle-bound four-armed catman. They sink like stones, or so the manual says. Wasn't exactly running around the water with them. They get special vision and can also jump, neither of which were really useful after the opening levels. To be honest, I only used this guy this time because I wanted to see if there was any point. Realistically, you don't need him and he doesn't offer that much more damage than Kirt. His special eyesight can only be activated some of the time, and, I'll be honest, isn't really needed. It only reveals a few traps, of which consist of the first level, and the second-to-last CD level. The first time I went through the game, I didn't even know I could use that and avoid damage.

There's the Caun, which is a brownie elf, which serves as your regeneration form, and a few times there are items out of range you need them to grab. They can also jump, which is needed a few times. Fight with him? Ha! He has a bunch of other stuff that either isn't needed, or, like his light ability, run out before its useful.

There's the Opsis, a floating two-tentacled beholder. He has various magic attacks, which are immensely useful against a few enemies some of the time. Fire, ice, a death attack I didn't bother using. Probably useless. A shout which did effectively nothing. And a map increasing thing. He's also slow. Each character, surprisingly, has different speed, and most of them are okay, but this freaking thing goes like a Nissan Fairlady someone's transporting sixteen tons of gold in. Which makes it a problem for the two sections you only have him to fly in.

There's the Kapha, which is a fishman. He swims, that's it. Yeah, he has an electric attack and a shout attack. Neither of those are very useful. The electric attack seemingly is, but it has a very poor rate of fire and seems weak. A check of the booklet reveals the shout would have been useful...underwater.

There's the Ssair, which is a dragon man, with no legs. Shoots fire, but it eats up mana. He has a tail too, you don't want to use the tail, because his bonus for using a weapon effectively makes all weapons better than the tail. Also, his claws do more damage than the tail. Fast, but not really stronger than Opsis for some reason.

Finally, there's the Grost, a stoneman, a giant tank. He doesn't come out until near the end, but he gets 50% of the running time at that point. Magic damage? Gone. Physical damage? Usually tolerable? Damage with a weapon? Double, basically. He even has an anti-air+crowd control attack in an earthquake. And a paralysis attack.

Because of the weird way this came about, this game is very...interesting in its design. The things you will be doing the most is melee fighting, not shooting. Shooting makes use of limited resources, either items or magic spells. You're not going to have the later until a third of the way through, effectively. There is a shuriken, but its better to use that in melee, oddly, because of your ability to throw it and punch someone. This effectively makes it the first melee FPS, at least until I find something more.
So, this is ultimately a game about tearing people apart with a sword and using magic on those that can't be torn apart. Its good at that, for the most part. I have some issues, though. I played this at the hardest difficulty, because I knew what I was doing, for the most part. There were two types of enemies, the kind I could easily kill, the kind that nearly killed me. For a good chunk of the time, this would fall into the ranged enemy category, but a few melee enemy types got the better of me. Which leads into what a good chunk of the game's running time is about. Waiting. You passively regenerate health and mana. This was about a 1 every 10 seconds. By the end of the game, I had 175 mana, and that was my top for around the last half or so. For about ten hours of gameplay, it was alternated between killing something, then running away and healing. Rinse, repeat. It happened in the beginning too, but that was more manageable.

I can't say there are any other real flaws that don't come down to personal opinion. I like the level design, but I've played it three times willingly, what does that mean? I like the art direction, especially of the enemies. It shares some things with Heretic, but feels different from it. This feels more...distant...alone, despite actually have other people.

I have two suggestions for anyone who ever wants to play this. Play the floppy version and don't play on the hardest difficulty. Honestly, the later one isn't as bad if you play the floppy either. Seriously, the CD version only adds some 3D cutscenes, voiceover and some pretty annoying levels. Are you someone who has to have that pre-rendered '90s 3D goodness? Some cheesy narration? Is it worth it spending two hours waiting for your mana to recharge?

Weapons:
There was a great deal of variety, however, most weapons fell into two categories. 1) Melee weapons or 2)Wands with a limited charge. For the most part, there was some arcane mumbo-jumbo regarding damage that I didn't quite get until later. Which is a problem stemming from it being a Dungeon Master-style FPS, really. 2/10

Enemies:
Most of the enemies fall into the melee side of things, and generally don't deviate from being easy to fight. The ones that aren't easy are a pain to fight. It's at the level of a typical RPG where the enemies don't have much character. Even the bosses aren't really that impressive. Some thought was put into it, however. 3/10

Non-Enemies:
There's a guy and some odd things running around that aren't eager to kill you. Nothing really impressive though. 1/10

Levels:
Shadowcaster stradles the line from being a good Wolfenstein clone to being memorably good. With the obvious exception of the bonus levels, there wasn't really a time where I considered it outright bad, just annoying. 6/10

Player Agency:
I don't quite feel satisfied, but I don't really have anything to complain about. You move slightly as if you are on ice, but not in a really troublesome way. The slower forms are not really a problem, because you rarely need to just use those forms to move around. 6/10

Interactivity:
This is mostly limited to puzzles that rarely deviate from the incredibly obvious. I think even if this wasn't the third time I went through this, I would know what to do. There are a few little touchs, but mostly what you expect for the era. 2/10

Atmosphere:
Shadowcaster hits a unique kind of feeling that just no other game really hits. You really feel like you're traveling through the dark, desocated husks of what was once a good, thriving civilization. 9/10

Graphics:
Outside of a few fog issues, the game has a very good art direction for the time. There are all these dark tones and colors, but they're not needlessly dark, you can tell what everything is and most importantly, it looks good. 7/10

Story:
The story, as presented in the game, is a fairly straight-forward, but slightly morose hero's journey. No, the gold here is in the cluebook, describing in great detail how Veste and Melkor turned Kirt's people to ruin. But given that it isn't in the actual game... 4/10

Sound/Music:
The sounds are okay. They don't always activate in key situations, which is really a problem. Now, the music is made by one Marc Schaefgen, who did some additional music for a few other Origin games before this. So this was his big break. Before I reveal the big bit about this, I want to point out that I couldn't get the music to work in-game, so I used the internet to listen to the soundtrack, and I also listened to Cradle of Filth - The Manticore and Other Stories toward the end, and a few others, let's be honest.
It...exists. Its not good, its not bad. There's not really any distinct themes or overall tone beyond generic fantasy music. 2/10

That is 42. I'm not going to remove any points for regenerating health and mana, I figure that's sort of accounted for. You really play through it not because its hardcore shooting action, but because its a fun experience. This puts it at the 4th highest game, below Alone in the Dark and above Bram Stoker's Dracula. Undoubtedly, both of those things will change in the future.
Oddly, I have to add something the creator said, for once. Brian Raffel, in a quote once upon a time on the Raven website, said that he loved the concept, but hated the story and name. I wonder how he hated the story, was it the lack of it in the game proper, or the story in general? It also might have been Black Crypt 2. Black Crypt being an Amiga RPG, a Dungeon Master-clone.
Origin and Raven will be a future mainstay of this blog. Origin having released a few unimportant space sims, among other things and Raven having done a few shooters over the years. I guess the only thing they ever did that wasn't a shooter would be the Marvel games they did.
As for me? I think this is going to be the last time I play this. Not because it isn't a good game, but because it has a LOT of issues I don't want to deal with again. If I do, well, there's a PC-98 version, and you know, I always did want to learn how to translate a game...