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REVIEW: SHADOW OF THE BEAST (PS4)

30/5/2016

9 Comments

 
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If you've ever come out of a long-term relationship, you might've experienced a brief period of wondering who the hell you actually are.

Ideally, a good life goal is finding someone who you love, with whom you don't have to compromise, because you agree on more or less everything. And anything you don't agree about you don't really care about anyway.

​Unfortunately, too many of us end up settling, and having to compromise and squash down who we are, just for the sake of a quiet life. 

Case in point: when I first got my own place I didn't know how to decorate it. I didn't know what my style was. I bought a melting Salvador Dali clock, and stuck it on a shelf. I bought a Buddha head statue. A Moroccan-style lamp. Some Lego. Nothing was gelling.

A divorcee mate of mine has framed prints of various album covers on the walls of his house. I decided that, well, maybe that was the sort of thing I wanted up in my home too; I love music. Time to express that visually.

To this end, I bought a print of the gatefold artwork from the first Marillion album, Script For a Jester's Tear. It's a painting of a grimy bedsit, with the titular harlequin peering out of a window, as he attempts to write a love song. It's achingly pretentious.
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ASSUME THE MANTLEPIECE
In the two years that print sat on the mantlepiece in my dining room I never got around to framing it.

Eventually, I admitted to myself the reason why: while technically excellent, and had meant a lot to me growing up, it's a horrible, horrible, painting, and not the sort of thing anyone in their right mind would want on their wall.

Indeed, the same could be said for much prog rock album artwork. 


Along with Marillion's Mark Wilkinson, and Pink Floyd's Storm Thorgenson, the other icon of the genre is Roger Dean - who created most of the artwork for many terrible albums by the band Yes.

​To gamers of a certain vintage, Dean is better known as the bloke who did the covers for the Shadow of the Beast series.

THE DRAW
Arguably, the main draw of the original Shadow of the Best was its art design. Inspired by Roger Dean's distinct, surrealistic, style (which also heavily influenced the movie Avatar), they were - for the time - unfeasibly gorgeous games, and the only reason normal people had to envy Amiga owners.

​Remember: those were the days when games would proudly declare how many colours were on screen at once, and Shadow of the Beast looked like it had all of them.

The game itself was fine - a side-scrolling beat 'em up/shoot 'em up. Though I'd reason that it's probably not quite as good as people gave it credit for at the time; such is the power of a nice face (and you can check for yourself: the original is hidden away in this new version).

Nevertheless, a remake isn't the worst idea in the world. There's a certain brand awareness in the franchise, something iconic in the hunched walk of Aarbron - the horned beast of the title - and a drop-dead gorgeous platformer-cum-beat 'em up inspired by prog rock album artwork is probably something every gamer can get behind.

Unfortunately, rather than throw its not inconsiderable resources at a proper reboot, Sony has given us this budget, straight-to-PlayStation Store effort. 

It plays, for the most part, like a tepid God of War. Repetitive and sluggish, there's a weird momentum to Aggrobum's movement. His default moves are gouging, throwing, and, y'know, jumping. And pressing buttons, and draining enemies of blood.

Still, you can unlock plenty more moves using in-game credits. Absurdly, you also have to unlock the story in this fashion. I couldn't be bothered to do that, so Aggadoo's story - and why he's looking for babies, or not, or whatever's actually going on - remains a mystery to me.
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SLAV? WELL, SLAV-ISH 
Shadow of the Beast's heart is in the right place, but hampered by what is clearly a limited budget - and adhering​ slavishly to the side-scrolling gameplay of the original - means there's none of the inspiration displayed by the original games

Instead it becomes - barring the odd puzzle element - a succession of repetitive,walled-off melee fights, with boss battles, and hidden areas to stumble across.

Not exactly groundbreaking.

Given that this is a reboot for a series that was known for its powerful, imaginative, visuals, that feels like a missed opportunity. The way to do a reboot is either to evoke nostalgia, or update for a modern generation. Shadow of the Beast succeeds at neither, ending up as a sort of derisory rummage through Sony's attic to see if there were any old brands that could be dusted off.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, I did discover my interior decorating style in the end; I'm pretty big on the old wattle and daub. Also, I live in an upturned coracle, called Hazelnut Cottage.

SUMMARY: Script for an Amiga fan's tear.

SCORE: A1000 out of A4000

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
​REVIEW: LUMO (PS4, XBOX ONE, PC, MAC, PSVITA - PS4 VERSION TESTED)
CAN YOU HELP OLIVER CROMWELL DISCOVER WHAT IS UNDER NOTCH'S HAT?
SAD BUT TRUE: SHORTLY AFTER THESE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN, THESE 90S GAMERS DISAPPEARED AND WERE NEVER SEEN AGAIN

9 Comments
Spiney O'Sullivan
30/5/2016 01:42:28 pm

I am shocked to the core that this barely-anticipated reboot that didn't get any publicity isn't great.

Shocked I say!

Reply
Kelvin Green link
30/5/2016 02:57:15 pm

You were never going to give this a good review, you Amigaphobic blackguard you!

I joke, of course. I didn't even know this existed until I saw my brother wittering on about it, and I somehow knew it wasn't going to be any good. The best approach would probably have been to do something with amazing pixel art, a supercharged version of the original; imagine seeing the Dean-inspired graphics in a resolution more befitting them.

Reply
Nicholas Taylor
30/5/2016 09:24:13 pm

It might be argued that it's bit late for me to say, but then it isn't my fault nobody thought to consult me before spending anything, but in cases where you have an old franchise where the game was more about its characters than the game itself, I would recommend approaching companies with existing games e.g. Blizzard and their online World of Warcraft game, where the underlying game is already there, and every so often a pack is released that gives players new worlds, characters and quests. Shadow of the beast is a great example of a game that would make an excellent Warcraft pack. Take your time over it too since its timeless, but you must must must have weeping guitars and synth music to accompany the action. I can imagine a few games that could do well such as monkey island, lionheart, turrican, ruff n tumble, first samurai or the last ninja. I've studied games for as long as I've been playing them since the early days of the c64. I always find myself coming up with ideas that would really turn a game from a bad purchase into a good one. Even if it's as simple as adding a world map or giving the player more time to complete a level. E.g. Black Fire was so almost a good game, if only an arrow pointed in the direction you needed to go, and the controls were tweaked. If asked, I'll always do my best to help steer a project to success, so please send me an email.

Reply
Bruce Flagpole
30/5/2016 11:54:08 pm

Every time I see shadow of the beast mentioned, I think of altered beast. I thought that was a terrible game, so I assume shadow of the beast is too, then I remember they're not the same game.
True story.

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Dacanesta
31/5/2016 02:46:26 am

Well I still love Amigas and everything attached to them! They were finished when you said they were (street fighter 2 confirmed this to me back in the day), but in their peak I loved it......syndicate, cannon fodder, kick off 2, elite 2, championship manager, stunt car racer, monkey island, crazy cars 3, speedball 2, xenon 2, project X, moonstone, star control.......I know a couple of those are not liked by some but I loved them to bits. Sorry unrealistic owners tarnished the machine for you, but I loved it and still pop on the emulator I've got now and again. At the time people want to just defend the money they've spent on it and so live in denial, but either way, it was a 'beast' back in the day.never ever liked shadow of the beast though.

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Dacanesta
31/5/2016 02:48:08 am

And midi music is wicked as, man.

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Frank Chickens
31/5/2016 09:08:21 am

Seems like a faithful remake. The original was pretty and dull, too.

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Paul Jon Thrillin'
31/5/2016 01:43:11 pm

Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga had a great atmosphere and looked unbelievably exotic to Young Me as I watched it being played in Dixons. Finally got a go at a pal's house and it played kind of terribly. That didn't really matter, though! The atmosphere pretty much justified the game, I think.

This new version looks like it misses the point, a bit. It was never about hacking and slashing and racking up combos, it was about going "THE BEAST IS RUNNING, THAT IS A NICE BACKGROUND, OH WHAT IS THIS BIT HERE, OH I HAVE DIED?"

You know. That sort of thing.

Reply
lilock3
31/5/2016 01:43:33 pm

Roger Dean may have done artwork for the terrible Yes albums, but he's also done artwork for the really good ones too, of which there are many, many more.

Reply



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