Shadow of the Evil: Writing in the Walls

Thought this was a cool graphic of a plant monster.

       

Shadow of the Evil continues to be a modestly-fun, odd title. I mapped two more areas, both keeping to the same 25 x 18 size. As I explored, some game mechanics became clear that I didn't cover last time:

   

• Sound effects are generally limited to walking steps and thuds and clinks in combat. There is an original music "score," but music only plays for a few seconds when you transition between areas. That's my kind of game music.

• Weapons break after a few battles. You need backups. Fortunately, most enemies drop them.

       

My sword broke on his rock-hard abs.

      

• Sometimes you don't find objects on the floor unless you hit "Search." I've been doing that in corners and dead ends, but I'm not going to do it in every square.

• I suspect the purpose of the individual bags of 5 gold pieces is to bribe enemies to go away. I haven't had it work yet, though.

• Successful use of the "Disguise" command lets you walk past enemies.

• The English continues to be pretty horrid. I'm not pointing that out to be a snob, but because I'm worried that I'm going to encounter a puzzle where the confusing translation causes problems. See the "math problem" below, for instance.

       

The game's "statistics" screen. "Catched hurts" would be cute if it wasn't indicative of a more serious problem that may affect gameplay.

      

• Enemies do respawn. I'm not sure if this is related to leaving a level and returning, or if they just do it over time naturally. 

• While you can rest anywhere, there is a chance that a special "sleep ghost" will appear and attack you. Since you're usually at low health when you rest anyway, the demon is usually fatal. If you successfully hit him a few times, he'll say, "That's it! You awake!" and take off. What a dick.

        

"Your enemy could hit you!" is the game's way of saying that your enemy did, in fact, hit you.

     

• I started the session with my inventory full and continued to have big inventory problems throughout the session. Keys are absolutely choking me--I found five or six more during this session, and I verified that even though some keys look the same, they aren't the same. You really do need all of them. I may have to identify a central hub to leave inventory items if I don't find a container that allows for more space.

     

The second area was accessible from the first via a teleportation pentagram. It turns out that these are two-way (or, at least, they have been so far). I arrived in what I mapped as the southwest corner of the new area. This area was odd for several reasons. First, there were no enemies. I explored the entire thing without fighting a single combat. Second, the authors seemed to adopt a "worm tunnel" approach rather than a "razor wall" approach for this one area. There were a lot of empty spaces in the middle and a large inaccessible area in what I mapped as the northwest.

   

There were only a few things to find in the area. Treasure squares contained a healing potion (each one good for 3 uses) and another bag with 5 coins. A second pentagram led to a new area, but the destination square had a locked door that none of my keys would open. There was this message on the wall: "Four dozen plus one n' first hundred and twenty and two, halve, and take one away, double, n' leave fifty-nine." This seems to be a math puzzle, but the odd English makes the answer a bit unclear. 4961 is the best I can guess right now. Either way, I haven't found any places in which a number is needed.

       

This looks like it goes some place important.

      

A short hallway ended in an encounter with an "ugly mass" in a passageway. "It seems very long," the game offered, "so you may need some help from your bag to get through." Nothing in my current bag helped, and I can't quite tell from the image what is even being depicted. The lighter doesn't work to make the area any lighter, and a rope that I found in another area wasn't the solution.

       

I'm not sure what I've met here, but no option works.

      

With no other ways forward, I had to retreat back to the initial area and try the gateway. This led to another "razor wall" area with enemies. In addition to the monstrous guards and one-eyed cat things I faced in the first area, this third area offered giant rats, giant snakes, and fanged humanoids with scimitars. These latter enemies were particularly hard, and I died at their blades twice. I had to rest after every successful encounter.

       

The second area I explored during this session, third total.

           

Interesting encounters in this area included:

   

• Treasures: a second bag (couldn't use it), another bag of coins, two jars of water (provide minor healing), two healing potions, a diamond, the aforementioned rope, boots, a knife, and a shield.

• A room with a giant plant. It wasn't hard to kill, and it didn't leave any special treasures.

• The first puzzle. Searching a wall with a decorative shield, I was told there was a switch above me. This was the first time the game used the "look up" feature to show me something on the ceiling. To hit the switch, I needed to first equip the stick found in my first session. It opened a wall behind me.

      

Before he remembers his stick, my character repeatedly jumps for the switch on the ceiling.

    

• This message on a wall at the end of a spiral: "If the night's dark open down nearly dead who brave, use your hand before that dawn, strike towards the grave." I guess I admire that they made it rhyme in translation, but I otherwise have no idea what it means.

• This even more mysterious message: "Loves you / Pictures come from all / The walls / Make your choice and / Throw sku'!"

         

Anyone want to speculate what "throw sku'" means?

      

There were four new exits from this area: two pentagrams and two gateways. I tried one of the pentagrams and found myself in a three-square hallway with no treasures and no exits. I tested the walls, and damned if one of them wasn't a secret door. It was my first confirmation that the game has secret doors that you can find by walking into. The level turned out to be full of them. Before I explored it, I went back to the previous areas and made sure I hit every wall, but I only found one other illusory wall in doing so. It led to a couple of potions.

   

As an aside, let me say that while I have never been diagnosed with any OCD tendencies, I would be physically incapable of designing a razor-wall dungeon that had a dozen random squares of "dead space" scattered haphazardly throughout. I could see using dead space to depict pillars or in a symmetrical way to achieve a desired dungeon layout, but these maps just irritate me.

      

They were so committed to the odd placement of the definite article that they wrote it in stone.

       

Once I had tested the previously explored areas, I returned to the new one. It was weird. I initially mapped it as a new area, but when I was finished, it fit perfectly in the "unused" part of the second area, so I figured it must go there. Aside from one jug of water, there was nothing to find for most of the dungeon. There was a single door guarded by an armored mace-wielding guy. But when I killed him and entered the door, I just found a two-square dead-end room with nothing in it. His mace didn't even have a good attack value. The only reason to map this area seemed to be to note that the walls spell out "SOTE."

      

The only enemy on an entire level.

   

I returned to the third area and chose one of the gateways, not noticing until I was on the other side that it was one-way. I'm having a tough time in this area. There's something weird going on with rotating walls in one part of the level. I haven't figured out how to map it or even exactly how to predict it. Worse, I keep encountering these horned, bare-chested enemies that I can't kill. 

   

I probably need to explore the other areas and come back to this one. The problem is that there are not many ways to get stronger. There seems to be no leveling in the game, and in this entire session, I only got one equipment upgrade--a small shield for a larger, stronger shield. I keep collecting clues without associated puzzles, keys without doors, and finding entire areas with no apparent purpose. I wonder if I'm not missing some vital gameplay element, but I've tried all the options and don't know what it would be. 

        

Swapping my old shield for a new one. Look how many keys I have!

      

I am enjoying the graphics, and I'm never completely unsatisfied when I'm making maps on graph paper.

        

Time so far: 7 hours