SOTE: Shadow of the Evil: Summary and Rating

One of the encounters I never quite figured out.

        

SOTE: Shadow of the Evil

Hungary
Ultraforce Software Team (developer); Markt und Technik (publisher, via 64'er magazine)

Released 1993 for Commodore 64

Date Started: 24 November 2022

Date Ended: 30 December 2022

Total Hours: 10 (unfinished)

Difficulty: Moderate (3.0/5)

Final Rating: 19

Ranking at Time of Posting: 142/483 (29%)

         

Summary:

A nonsense modern-day framing story puts a single character in a first-person dungeon with a mission to save his girlfriend from the evil Harcon. This diskmag game plays like a standard tile-based, turn-based dungeon crawler like The Bard's Tale, though with interface elements that suggest some influence from Fate: Gates of Dawn. The dungeon experience is relatively standard, with locked doors, illusory walls, messages on the walls, and occasional special encounters. Combat is turn-based, with a few spells supplementing various options for physical attacks. With only a single character, no character development, and only minor inventory improvements, the game strips a lot of what makes its sources "RPGs," though it does have some complex encounter options. Translation issues or just general confusion meant that I never quite figured out what the game wanted from me.

     

****

    

I'm going to bail prematurely on Shadow of the Evil. I've made this decision partly because it isn't really an RPG (there's no character development), partly because I'm stuck, but mostly because events of the last month have created such havoc with my playing that I need a fresh start with something new.

      

As far as I got in the final area that I mapped.

    

I only explored one new area after the last entry, and even here not completely. The trip to this level was one-way. Amidst a tangle of combats, locked doors, and false walls, I found only four key encounters:

  

• A message on a wall: "Six and six is the same, three times the four, too, it's part of twenty-four of course twelve's division." Simple math. I'm not sure what it was trying to tell me.

           

So . . . 12?

     

• An encounter with an orb that called itself "Gurgan the True Teller." It said that it serves Harcon (the game's big evil) with its "knowliedge." Looking into the orb reveals the number 52. I couldn't get anything else to happen with it except to smash it, which accomplishes nothing.

• An encounter with what I guess is a vampire. Hell, for all I know, it's Harcon. I could not defeat it in multiple trials, and there's really no way to get stronger.

         

That's just rude.

      

• A locked door seals off a large part of the level, and I assume the vampire has the key, or it's found in the square beyond him. I further assume that the way back to the previous levels is beyond the locked door. I don't know for sure about either of those things.

      

All in all, I feel like a lot was lost in translation with Shadow. On the four levels that I mapped or partly mapped, I ran into numerous encounters and messages, but I never really figured out what they were saying or wanted me to do. I grew enormously frustrated with the game's approach to inventory. It fills you with keys and quest items that you're paranoid to drop, meaning you have to leave a lot of useful items (e.g., potions, backup weapons) on the dungeon floor. I got one equipment upgrade this session, from my leather gloves to what looks like chain gloves.

   

I'm moving on with a GIMLET of 19, mostly 2s. Sorry for the short entry, but I am back, and you should see a regular posting schedule for the near future.