Every now & then I browse the PlayStation Store to see if anything catches my eye. Recently I noticed a game called Shadow of the Beast which looked pretty cool & reminded me of an old school side scroller - of course, this is not surprising as this is a remake of 1989 classic of the same name. So for less than €10, I thought to myself why not download it & give a go.
I like salty snacks, I know they are not particularly good for you & are no substitute for a good meal but I like to indulge in them all the same. I am quite partial to roasted peanuts but you can't eat them alone, you need a good to drink to go with them. While playing Shadow of the Beast I had to ask myself was I enjoying a tasty salty snack with a drink or was I eating them solo & left feeling dried out & horrible?
The story puts you in the shoes (or he would have shoes if not for his clawed feet) of Aarbron; weapon, killer, slave. The mage Maletoth has sent you out on a mission; capture a special child who is the seventh son of a seventh son that will help to create an ultimate weapon. After remembering how you were created you free yourself from your captor & hunt down the one who created you.
As a whole, the story is not very engaging & while you do get information on the beasts you are fighting, which is a little interesting I just found it hard to get fully invested in the characters or the story. Perhaps had I played the original growing up I would have found the story better, but as a newcomer I found it hard to get excited.
While the story may not be the most exciting the game certainly makes up for it with some of the visuals. The world has a mixed look; part sci-fi, part medieval & part fantasy. The back drops in the game vary massively, some of them include; the beauiful plains of Karamoon, the murky depths of the Swamp of Decay, the barren Arid Wastes & the grim soul despairing Graveyard of the Fallen. Each with a very unique & often dark feel.
Aarbron's cool design along with the many beasts in the world make for a nice visual spectacle. One feature that I felt looked cool was the blood splatter on the screen, the more kills you get the higher the chance of it happening.
While I like to hear good musical scores in games I felt this one was a little out of place, heavy use of strings & brass made it feel more like a movie soundtrack which did not really suit what I was seeing on screen.
The composer for the score was Ian Livingston his works are very varied & include; Batman Begins (Game), Boom Boom Rocket (Game), Napoleon: Total War (Game), My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding (TV Series) & The Great British Sewing Bee (TV Series). The composer for the original game was David Whitaker & there are definitely nods to it in the new score which I think is a nice touch.
The score as a whole is not bad but overall I just did not think it suited the game, my favorite pieces included; 'Shadow of the Beast (2016 Theme)', 'Grass Plain of Karamoon' & 'Kingdoms of the Dyrad Queen'.
The gameplay is good & the combat is pretty solid I only wished there had been more fighting in it. Your main weapon in the game are your claws, as the game progresses you add to your arsenal but additional weapons are nothing to write home about. I felt the jumping & climbing to be a little awkward & clunky feeling.
I liked that the studio went for an old school game set up having a boss at the end of each level, I sometimes miss not having bosses at the end of levels in modern games. The end boss battle was a little strange & random, while normally I like that kind of thing the whole game felt very different so it just felt out of place.
There were a ton of extras which you can unlock/buy, for example; you can play the original 1989 version of the game, listen to David Whitaker's original score, buy a translator so that you can understand what the various races are telling you.
Overall the combat felt good but the rest of it felt a little so so, the ending really turned me off the whole thing, by the time I finished it I had no real drive to replay the game despite there being many extras to unlock.
I won't lie when I started the game I was intrigued, maybe even excited but after just over fours I had lost interest. I would love not have given this game such a hard time but there was just so much that felt below par. Overall I finished the game feeling dry & empty inside, with that being said I can only give the game 2 out of 5
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