Shadow of Destiny

The Good
Somebody murders you. But you get an opportunity to correct things. You are sent back to our world shortly before the tragic event took place. Now you must save yourself, do something with the time which has been given to you, and reverse the wheels of fate. You receive a special device which allows you to travel in time. You can travel one hour or several centuries in the past. During those travels, you must investigate the mystery and reveal the secret of your premature death.

Shadow of Destiny is a unique and rather bizarre time-based game. The genre it belongs to cannot be clearly defined. It has virtually no puzzles to be considered a full-fledged adventure. There are no action sequences in the game, but there is tension, as your time is limited and you have to act quickly. There are no monsters to fight, but the feeling of horror hangs in the air...

Many games claimed to flow in real time. In the best case, it meant that the game in question had its own faster-paced internal clock affecting character schedules and certain events. Shadow of Destiny, however, is a true real-time game: minutes and second matter, and the whole concept of the game revolves around manipulating time and finding out not only what to do, but also when to do it. I think the only other game that treated time as strictly was Last Express

It is strangely involving to wander along the narrow streets of Lebensbaum, to feel the seconds tick away, thinking what is to be done in order to avoid the horrible death. The game is divided into small chapters, each one of which has the same objective: escape from the claws of the mysterious assassin. Every time you figure out how to avoid death, your enemy invents new ways of murdering you. The chapters are small and have a time limit, forcing you to act quickly. You explore the town in various time periods: today, several years ago, hundred years ago, five hundred years ago, etc. The game begins with fairly easy and elementary tasks, but soon you find out you are investigating something even more important than your own murder, and become involved in a complex story that deals with the beloved topic of time travel and changing the future. The plot is full of unexpected, yet tastefully presented twists and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

Unlike the vast majority of adventure games, Shadow of Destiny is truly non-linear, at least once the different time periods open up and you become less restricted in your travels. You really do affect the course of the story with your actions, your decisions do matter, and the variety of endings you'll be able to achieve do correspond to your choices rather than being confusingly determined by something you weren't even aware of doing (Blade Runner, I'm looking at you). On top of that, once you complete the game you can start it again with new dialogue options based on your previous actions appearing very early. Thus, Shadow of Destiny contains something quite atypical of its genre: replay value.

The Bad
Many situations in the game seem contrived: once you figure out the correct solution for escaping death, you realize there could have been a much more straightforward and simple way to do that. The time aspect is not always carefully and logically handled, with certain restrictions imposed on you without a good reason, and noticeable artificiality in the way the future is affected by your deeds. At those moments we are reminded of the game's limitations as a "time-traveling simulator": the concept is great, but it could have been more generously executed, giving you extended possibilities and more in-depth treatment of causes and effects.

This leads to the main problem of Shadow of Destiny: its gameplay is not rich and varied enough to truly benefit from its concept. Virtually all the tasks in the game are solved by finding the exact spot in the exact timeline. There are no real puzzles and no other challenge except figuring out what location and time period are best suited for your current goal. Unfortunately, even that is often all too obvious, with the game giving you clear clues and pushing you towards the solution. I expected the missions to become more and more twisted and complicated, but in reality they turned out to be disappointingly mild and simple.

With its lack of challenge and abundance of cutscenes, Shadow of Destiny is revealed to be a short game that relies too much on its replay value to make a lasting impression. The game world, reduced to a small town due to the demands of the plot, offers only few things to do. Interaction is almost non-existent; the few locations within the town are mere decorations, and there is little to find besides hunting for energy orbs you need to power your time-traveling device. Wandering around through seemingly dead town where you can't perform the simplest activity may fit the game's almost surreal atmosphere, but I still don't see why busier locations with perhaps eccentric, but more numerous characters would ruin it.

The Bottom Line
Shadow of Destiny has a bold concept, and its dedication to real-time gameplay is commendable. However, with all its cool ideas and gimmicks, it lacks that gameplay backbone and generosity that would make it enjoyable and challenging once you're done admiring its originality.

The Good
Make no mistake. This games was unique. Never before had something such as this been done, and the story I felt really differenciated the product once it hit the market.

Films have used this idea, however playing as the heroine puts an entirely different perspective on a story that works!

The multiple endings also added a huge replay value, and more games should have them. Everyone likes to have a good ending, a cliffhanger, in my eyes the endings were all relevant, and could really make way for a successful sequal.

The Bad
Confusion occurs in this game, as alot of retracing is required. The puzzles are annoying but then puzzles always are when it takes ages to figure them out!

The Bottom Line
The overall sense this gamer captures is a general fear of unnervingness. The fact that you are dead, and at times see yourself is freaky, and really brings the player into the game.

For me the curiousity hit another level, at the mask scene....

The Good
Wow ... I loved this game!

Imagine, if you will, that you could go back in time and change not only your destiny, but the fate of others. Choices you make, good or bad, effect history - generations of persons along a continuous time line. This is what Shadow of Destiny is all about. Mix in a sinister character whose masked motivation actually revolves around self-preservation, and you have a humdinger of a plot. Plug in specific decision points that make a huge impact on the outcome - then it becomes replayable. Konami's design team made it possible to play it not just once more, but 4 more times - each with completely different results. And, as if you need more, after those 5 endings have been seen - there are bonus scenarios in which your character remembers everything from his past experience and goes out to "make it right". What value! What creativity!

I was impressed with the way the characters bodies moved, especially during conversations. Their body language emitted their personalities. Graphics are wonderful - all of the characters are handsomely drawn .. right down to their eyelashes. Voice acting, too, is excellent and lip-sync handled extremely well. Music and sound effects were apropos but did not stand out as exceptional. The musical score consists of small, haunting melodies rather than orchestrated symphonic songs.

Time is the key to successful completion of the game. In fact, complete it in optimum time and you are rewarded! The time is "real" .. your clock, not the game's. Because you must act quickly and waste no time, the feeling of urgency is always there (and that's why Eike is always running). And, speaking of time, the town is represented in 3 distinct time periods in its history. Although the buildings and streets change somewhat throughout the centuries, the location of the main landmarks stay the same. Thanks, Konami, for the reference maps! Each of the periods is represented well - authentic looking costumes and atmosphere.

Because the story was so involving, I didn't even notice that there were no "real" adventure-type puzzles until I was finished! There are a few instances when it is necessary to "use" an object in a certain place or show something to an NPC, but that's as close as it gets.

The Bad
Even though I loved Shadow of Destiny overall, there are a few things I found not to like.

For one, the Windows version was too much like a console game .. collecting "power" modules and not being able to save mid-chapter were most notable.

Secondly, the camera angles were sometimes totally weird. One particular sub-quest involved saving a woman from a mugging. Eike was supposed to follow her to prevent the mugging but I couldn't get him to move fast enough in the proper direction because of the angle of the camera!

The music sometimes drowned out the voices. I was continually adjusting my speaker volume to compensate.

The Bottom Line
Shadow of Destiny really surprised me! Although I had read several reviews, I really had no idea I would like it so much. In retrospect, the few "dislikes" I listed above are of no consequence when considering my whole gaming experience. Multiple endings, interesting characters and a fabulous story make this a must play, especially for adventure game fans.