Adventure Gamers - Forums

Since there’s no comments section on the articles, I wanted to welcome the new addition of “Flashback review” of Shadow of the Comet on the website. The last one was for The Dark Crystal if I’m not mistaken, and these articles are exactly the thing and “spark” this website needs, and paradoxically - it’s in the past, to make the present and future brighter.

I also love the premise for these flashback reviews, to review the game from today’s perspective, rather than from the perspective of the time it was released. Still, that approach needs a little balance - for example, we can’t blame The Beatles for lacking the sound of a new distortion pedal that was released in 2023, and we can’t really blame early 90’s game for having some dead-ends and spiced up difficulty when it was normal back then.

Now, I’ve played Shadow of the Comet long after it was released, somewhere in 2007/2008. Previously, I only heard and read things about it, so I’d like to comment on this very thorough review. I enjoyed reading it and agree with a lot of things said in it, save for a couple of things:

1. “So when this ‘old fashioned’ (according to Computer Gaming World magazine, August 1993) horror adventure game appeared, people were a little perplexed.”

Now, Computer Gaming World might have called the game “old fashioned,” but it might only have been in comparison to the 3D view of previous Infogrames game “Alone in the Dark” (1992), as 3D was in the early stages and big news. But in reality, there was really nothing old fashioned about Shadow of the Comet’s graphics for a January 1993 game. I actually remember some reviews praising the graphics and wonderful character portraits quality. It wasn’t the most beautiful game of its time, and in 1993, we had a giant graphic leap in the form of Day of the Tentacle, but if we look at Shadow of the Comet it’s no better or worse than “your-average” 1993 adventure game:

Shadow of the Comet

Shadow of the Comet

Return of the Phantom (1993)

Armaeth: The Lost Kingdom (1993)

Simon the Sorcerer 1 (1993)

Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist (1993)

And remember, adventure games were dictating the graphic improvement at the time.

2. “There are those who absolutely adore Shadow of the Comet, and it is possible to see why, but for me it’s a piece of gaming history that is probably best experienced by watching a playthrough.”

Now, this is the main reason I decided to comment - I have nothing against watching a playthrough; sometimes I do it when I’m too lazy to play the game and just want to experience the atmosphere and perhaps see how the game plays, the interface, and one puzzle. But I would never suggest watching a complete playthrough instead of actually playing the game, especially a game that is a piece of history. It is true the game is VERY HARD to complete without a playthrough (very similar reasons like I found Conquests of the Longbow incredibly hard - plenty of locations, HUGE environment, timed sequences, dead-ends…) but I would rather suggest experiencing it as it is, with today’s knowledge that it might be hard and unforgiving at times, and having the walkthrough ready by to cut the frustration. Even though I haven’t played it quite recently, I don’t remember there being places where you will play for hours until you realize that you can’t win the game - dead-ends will be fairly obvious and you can just load the saved game.

Why? Because Shadow of the Comet is really a testament of time and needs to be experienced with all its faults. There are not a lot of games that can bring the chill to your spine only with a simple premise of a guy coming to town to photograph the comet and providing you a huge freedom in the way you explore the game world. The interface is actually a precursor (pun not intended) to Grim Fandango in a way - you’re navigating the hero with a keyboard, and there’s a line of sight that he sees in order to spot the objects.

I have never played this one, but from what I had read, it reminds me of LSL2; I had three kinds of Save-Games, one to restore where I left the game, another to load in case of deaths, and one to replay half of the game in case of a dead-end

I don’t think I can take that kind of frustration today, as you said diego, it is a testament to its time, and I guess am past that time, only looking for the best relaxing kind of adventures today.

I agree with your point of never watching a full playthru, I never do it myself, I only watch the last parts of any when I know that I am almost done, but lost total interest in it near its finale

This used to be one of my favourite horror adventures back in the day, haven’t replayed it for a long time, so I’ll need to come up with my thoughts. But I’m glad such articles are reappearing, and I also don’t mind looking at those games from a modern perspective. Although it should be mentioned that the game was originally intended to be controlled using keyboard only (mouse was added in the later CD version, along with voices and several other changes, including less - or maybe none at all - dead-ends and more animations). I played the floppy disk version first, and still enjoyed the hell out of it, but I preferred the CD version on my replays.

I think this very thing was mentioned on the “It’s getting out of hand” thread. Also started by Diego. I agree that this is the type of interesting material that can breathe new life in the forum by taking an occasional critical look at it’s past. I also agree that eliminating the audience’s ability to comment on reviews was a mistake. (Of course it has to be moderated lest it turn into the type of fiasco that Dale, thankfully, put an end to.)

I’ll also reserve comment on the use of YouTube video’s as an alternative to actually playing the game, since that is the position I currently find myself in the TWAU play though. Cheer up! Surgery is scheduled for March 4th.