Shadow Caster: Air, Land, and Water

 

A globe shows this world to be quite a bit different from Earth.

       

As I closed the first entry, I had just gained the ability to transform into a Caun. Caun are the physical size of toddlers, but they have a number of special abilities, including faster regular healing, a healing spell, sneaking, the ability to create light, the ability to create a shield, a kind of "insect swarm" spell, and the ability to grab things at a distance. They are the rogues to the Maorin's fighter.

   

Although he isn't a great warrior, I spent much of the early part of this session as a Caun, just so I could level him up. The human gains a small percentage of experience from the other forms' kills, but the forms do not grant experience to each other. Since the Caun doesn't last very long in combat, I had him kill enemies with the shuriken.

        

The Caun can barely see above the shuriken to hit the skeleton.

        

I'm glad I took MorpheusKitami's advice and let myself look at the cluebook. First of all, it's the only way to assign names to the areas and the monsters, and it's the only way to see how much relative damage your weapons do. That's one Dungeon Master tradition that I wish other games had not adopted. Unfortunately, it also means that I know exactly how many areas the game offers. I had finished the Garden Ruins, the Flooded Palace, the Misty Ruins, and the Dark Temple during the first session. There were 10 more--which isn't a lot, even accounting for the probability that they'll get larger and more complex as the game goes on.

   

This session opened in the Temple of the Dark God, where Veste had sacrificed two of his top lieutenants to gain the power needed to defeat the People. It was a small map, consisting of one long corridor with chambers on each end (entrance and exit) and four apartments, two on each side. Each of the apartments had a "Disk of Woe" high on the wall that I had to destroy to access the final chamber. The space in between was the home of roaming skeletons, blue phantoms, and rice snakes. The skeletons and rice snakes had no ranged attack and were thus easy to kill with the shuriken. The blue phantoms had a blast attack, but it got caught up on walls and corners easily, as did the enemies themselves.

       

About to die to "rice snakes."

       

Destroying the four disks opened the last chamber, where another six-armed Zardaz Guardian attacked. He had a powerful ranged attack, and it was easiest to take him out by switching to the Maorin. Thanks to the manual, I know that the Maorin does 2-8 damage with his claw attack but 8-14 with the magic sword, so I equipped him with the weapon, and he took care of the guardian while losing about half of his health. I switched back to the Caun to heal up (if one form heals, all heal, but some heal faster) before moving on.

    

The teleporter from the temple brought me to Castle Dorneon, "the oldest structure in the worlds known to shapeshifters," although it doesn't specify that shapeshifters lived there. Honestly, the world-building in this game is so bad that they might as well have not even tried. Veste conquered it with werewolves--whether these werewolves were forms offered to the disgruntled members of the People or an external force is unclear.

     

Some interesting artwork in the castle.

      

The area starts in the dungeon, with a werewolf right in front of the arriving player. I lost a ton of health killing it. The arrival area turned out to be one of many dungeon cells in a long corridor. A chain at the end of the corridor unlocked the cells. There was a guy in one of the cells, but I couldn't get him to talk or otherwise offer anything.

      

Just say one thing and this game's GIMLET goes up 2 points.

       

The rest of the level wound through a torture room and a large room with skeletons on the floor. There were barrels that I had to switch to Caun form to jump over. The same barrels trapped the werewolves, so I could kill them (although it took a long time) with the shuriken.

       

Making use of the Caun's special talent.

       

The torture room had a swampy area with a chain hanging from the ceiling. Pulling it (for some reason) caused a piece of armor to pop out of the swamp. I started to swim for it, taking damage, before I remembered the Caun's "far grab" action. The armor was called Caun armor, so I naturally gave it to him. I hope it's enough to just put it in the inventory. There doesn't seem to be any way to actively wear it. I could be missing something. The controls can be confusing. It's not entirely clear when you're supposed to right-click and when you're supposed to left-click. Every time I want to use something like a potion, I have to bumble around until I get it right. Sometimes you have to turn off the attack actions to interact with something in the environment and sometimes you don't. I should also note that the numberpad allows you strafing options, but that doesn't work well with the right hand on the mouse (which you really need--too much in the game requires precise aiming), so it forces you into an awkward hand configuration unless you're lucky enough to have an external numberpad. That still doesn't excuse this Alienware gaming laptop from not having one, Dell.

 

I also found a Power Potion, a Frost Wand, and a Silver Sword in the dungeon. Without the cluebook, I would have twisted myself into knots wondering if the Silver Sword was better than the Magic Sword or vice versa, but thanks to the cluebook I know that the Magic Sword is better, except against werewolves.

      

It's cat vs. dog!

       

The exit from the dungeon led upward, but there was a quick foray down to a wine cellar--casks lined the walls--with more clerics and a chest. The chest had a journal in it. The final entry read: "The Opsis fled the castle when the werewolves came. I have locked myself in the wine cellar, but I fear I'm losing my sanity. The howling, howling . . ." This wouldn't make much sense without the cluebook's backstory.

  

The way onward was up a flight of stairs to the castle keep, which apparently once boasted a vast library of tomes from other worlds, replaced by books doing nothing but glorifying Veste and Morloch. Other than werewolves, the level had flying blue eyes called blue monitors and robed figures called clerics. The throne room was large and airy, with columns, tapestries, frescoes, and shields. The graphics are about as good as they could be for the era, which is not quite good enough to really immerse you. A couple more years are going to make a big difference. As it is, I spent a lot of time wondering what some complicated blobs are supposed to be depicting.

      

The castle hall is almost there, but not quite.

      

The library, accessed from a teleportation pad in the throne room, was full of more blue phantoms and clerics. I had to retreat to the throne room a few times to rest and heal. When I had cleared them out, I found a single book that told of pools of magic water that refresh power. "One such pool is said to be located in the north side of this castle!" I had found the pool but didn't realize what it was. When you stand in it, it slowly refreshes your magic power. It apparently only has a finite amount of power, though, as it dried up while I was standing in it. So it's basically a potion you can't take with you.

      

Nice try, Tyranthraxus.

      

From the keep, the only exit went down again. I found myself in another section of the Dark Temple that I had conquered earlier. I faced about a dozen werewolves and a werewolf lord, who dropped a Staff of Power and an obelisk tip. A nearby room had a Chalice of Power, a Crystal of Light, and a Caun Sword. The cluebook clarifies that the Caun Sword is "Caun-made, not specifically for the Caun." It does less damage than the other two swords despite looking cooler.

 

When I put the obelisk tip on the nearby obelisk, I got the form of the Opsis, "a magical race with many powers." The obelisk bade me to then "restore the Tree of Life in the Mines."

      

Let's hope it doesn't require sunshine.

     

Aside from being a disgusting one-eyed beholder thing with two tentacles, the Opsis is pretty cool. His tentacles do a paltry 0-1 damage and he moves quite slow, but he has five awesome spells: "Fireball," "Cold Blast" (which was needed almost immediately to put out some fire squares), "Slow Time," "Mortal Terror," and "Death Blast." The last one straight-up kills anything you point it at, although it takes about a third of the mana bar. I used it to kill the next few enemies I faced, including another Zardoz Guardian.

        

The new guy makes his first kill.

     

This time, the only exit led to what the book calls the Slave Mines, where Veste put Caun slaves to work mining crystals.They were apparently prized for their ability to see in the dark and heal rapidly from wounds, including those caused by the mining explosives. A Caun resistance fighter named Geirob thought he could buy his people's freedom by smuggling in a seed of the Tree of Life and planting it, but he was captured before he could see his plan to fruition. Veste, the book reports, "ordered the seed planted and tended, but starved of water and nourishment so that it would bear no fruit, as a symbol of the absolute stranglehold he had on the Caun."

 

I ignored the little Caun as I explored picking up blue and red bombs. Enemies were large, tusked boars led by a Boar Lord. None of them could fit through the narrower corridors, so it was easy to kill them at range, though it took forever. There were also hostile mushrooms in one section of the mines.

    

The boar guards can't fit down the corridor.

      

At the end of the level, I found something that looked like a stick in the ground. I just touched it, and the game said: "With the tree restored, the slaves will be free from Veste's tyranny. You're doing well, Kirt, very well. Go to the Mines below these and restore the obelisk." I'm not really sure how the tree keeps the Caun free, but I guess I'm happy to help. The tree drops red and blue fruit, which act like health and mana potions. I was starting to run out of inventory space as I went through the portal to the next area. 

   

I arrived in a very dark place. While I was trying to figure out how to get the Light Crystal to work, spiders came crawling along the walls and floors and killed me despite my swinging away at them. On a reload, I started tossing bombs at them, and I was satisfied at how quickly they vaporized. The Opsis's "Cold Blast" also did a good job. There were much larger spiders later on in the level.

        

Greeted by ceiling and floor spiders.

      

The cluebook said I was in the Spider Den, with enemies named Shrooms, Giant Spiders, Floor Spiders, Ceiling Spiders, and Skull Mines. It had been the base of operations for Geirob, but Veste defeated him by turning his only water source to poison and multiplying the spiders until one caught Geirob in his web and consumed him.

   

I couldn't find any way to productively interact with webs covering passageways and sacs hanging from the ceilings. One of the sacs looked like it had someone in it.

       

Geirob?

      

I flew the Opsis over an area of poison and pulled a chain to get access to some parts of the level. Caverns were full of Shrooms, difficult because they had a ranged attack. I found a power-restoration pool across another lake of poison. My inventory filled up with items I didn't understand: Cane of Force, Shock Horn, Tri-Wand, green and blue crystals, and so forth. I even found a second shuriken. 

       

A good place for the Opsis.

      

At the conclusion of the level, I restored another obelisk tip to an obelisk and got my fourth form: a Kahpa, or frogman. "With this form you rule the waters," the obelisk said. "Now return to the Temple; the Ssair need your help."

      

Maybe I'll find a princess.

      

The Kahpa has a pathetic "claw" attack, but he has "Shock" and "Sonic" attacks, the second of which is particularly powerful underwater. He has no other special abilities. I expect I'll need him primarily for his water-breathing ability.  

   

The Kahpa contemplates taking on some enemies.

      

I didn't know who the Ssair were, but a teleporter took me to yet another unexplored part of the Dark Temple. It was short--a couple of Rice Snakes and Green Ssairs who apparently did not need my help because they attacked me. A hidden door brought me back to the main part of the temple that I'd already cleared, where a new teleporter took me onward to the Flooded Caverns. I enjoy water levels as much as I always have, which is not much at all, so I think I'll wrap up there.

   

Some miscellaneous notes:

   

• I kept the music, credited to John Miles, on for a while. It's not bad. The exploration melody is sparse, with drum beats, staccato plinks, and drones that suggest half-melody, half-background sound effects. When you're in combat, everything but the drum beats and the drones fade away, but an absurdly bombastic victory tune accompanies every kill. I left it on for a little while. 

• I didn't notice until late in the session that the player can set a difficulty level from a list of five options

        

Modern games would try to take some of the sting away from the lowest ones by calling them "story mode" or "casual," or something, but this one pulls no punches.

         

• The perspectives and sizes of objects shift when you change forms. The Caun's perspective is closer to the floor, and he sees everything as larger, for instance.

• The game is very linear. Once you teleport to a new area, you generally cannot go back to a previous one.

     

I end the second session feeling much like I did after the first one. The game isn't bad. It moves along at a good clip. The shapeshifting is more interesting and less bothersome than I thought it would be. I just wish it was more of a proper RPG, with proper leveling, a real equipment system, and maybe an NPC or two. At least it looks like it won't linger too long--I might be able to wrap it up in one more.

     

Time so far: 6 hours