8-Bit Adventure Anthology
Containing Déjà Vu, The Uninvited and Shadowgate. These are PC ports of the NES ports.
Iiit's been a while, but I'm back with a round-up of these three games I've played.
My original plan was to start with Déjà Vu first to get spookier as I approach Hallowe'en, however I ended up not finishing Uninvited let alone even starting Shadowgate by Halloween anyway. I say that but then I should probably have done Shadowgate before Uninvited, but I wanted to be able to go right from Shadowgate to Beyond Shadowgate. I also figured I'd be the least interested in Déjà Vu, so get it out of the way first. I started The Uninvited right on Halloween and it was a good Halloween game.
Starting with...
Déjà Vu
Summary:
It’s 1942 and you wake up in a seedy bathroom with no idea how you got here or, for that matter, who you are. You grab a .38 hanging on the door, stumble up the stairs and find some stiff slumped over a desk with three bullet holes in him. You check your gun. Three bullets are missing. This is gonna be a bad day.
Wander, find evidence, avoid getting mugged or arrested. Find a way to heal fix your memory.
It was... fine. I wonder if it would have been a little better as a one session game. I did it in two with a five day gap so I was a little lost and out of touch with things on my second session.
I didn't feel like there were many puzzles. There was a lot of just find stuff and sometimes had to shoot things. There were a few things, but overall eh.
I read the original had a time limit with actions counting as 'turns'. And honestly in some ways that was probably better. I mean from a time saving point it was good for me especially since I was eh on the game anyway, but if you did have to worry about 'turns' you'd need to think more about what to actually take and employ some strategy. I was just taking everything I could get my greedy hands on--I've been trained by other adventure games! Steal a man's chocolate? Sure! Completely clean out a medicine cabinet? Yeah! My inventory was a disaster. I guess my greedy ways were punished a bit in that it was a nuisance to get through my inventory repeatedly. Still, the turn limit was maybe a key feature that shouldn't have been removed to keep up the tension and stakes. I was getting warnings of not feeling so good and whatnot but nothing comes of it.
I still died or got a game-over eight times.
Deaths: 8 Sewer alligator Blown up by a car bomb Fell in a construction pit... twice. The same pit--victim of my gap between sessions Arrested at the police station and never regained memory Arrested after not paying a taxi driver Got shot Arrested at the end for still holding incriminating evidence
Alligator guest spot of honour.
The end after a little monologue as only befits a private detective
So that was Déjà Vu.
(side note and complaint/eye-roll/heavy sigh: did we really need the kidnapped woman to be 400 pounds and have descriptions riddled with fat phobia? Reaaaally? There was 0 reason for that. 80s and 90s media for you... except fatphobia is still rampant, whoo).
Next up....
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The Uninvited
Summary:
The last thing you remember was a figure appearing in the middle of the road and the sound of your sister’s screams over the screeching tires. When you come to, you discover two horrifying things: your sister is missing and the mansion that now looms before you seems to be calling your name…
I enjoyed this one a lot more than Déjà Vu and Déjà Vu feels even more bland to me now in comparison and after some time away from it. The Uninvited is also more my genre of choice being more horror fantasy. I enjoyed its atmosphere more in wandering the mansion and its outer areas.
There were more puzzles, albeit some obtuse ones (using a spider to scare a ghost? Really? Really?). There are also a few spells! They're very limited in use, but it's fun having them in a game.
While searching the mansion you get the basic background story from diaries and scrolls and beyond rescuing your sister you have to deal with the main villain you learn of... and a demon. I'm not sure how the two were related exactly, but the place was full of bad things now, so... I guess it's just all connected in evil doings.
In the original version there's time limit done by "turns", so a number of actions. That's not present in this version. I'm sure I would have been doomed if it was. I was definitely bumbling and fumbling and wandering.
I died a lot. 23 times that I counted, but I stopped counting my deaths to Dracan. I was struggling with what to do with him. So, 23+ times.
I saw this screen a lot:
My deaths:
1: car fire at the start 2: killed by ghost lady x4 3: trapped in a cell x2 4: killed by a ghost x2 5: Ate fruit and rapidly aged to death 6: killed by a ghost with acid x4 7: killed by giant spider despite all warnings. I had to try! 8: killed by starving animals x2 9: killed by Dracan x3 10: killed by giant spider x2 11: killed by demon
There's also a cute demon imp critter I recognized from Beyond Shadowgate. That was a fun to see! These are the kind of connections I wanted to play these for in the first place.
Hi, buddy, hi.
And some live if disjointed thoughts as I was playing in a Bluesky thread here: https://bsky.app/profile/siverwrites.bsky.social/post/3m4lscyhyfs2k
Another one down.
And finally...
--
Shadowgate
Summary:
The wind whistles through the halls as you step through the stone threshold. You’ve just entered Shadowgate, a once shining castle, now an evil, dark smouldering ruin. Swallow your fear and take up your torch. You are the ‘Seed of Prophesy’ and in your hand lies the fate of the world itself.
You've been sent by Lakmir to stop the evil warlock. Like Uninvited you find more of the story and lore as you go along like learning a bit about the Circle of Twelve from which the evil warlock came and betrayed them.
I watched a Let's Play of it along with Beyond Shadowgate, which is what led to all this. So, unlike the previous two, this one wasn't blind for me and more of a touring romp with a few sticky points I didn't quite remember, but otherwise yeah, just enjoyed the ride and stressed about torches.
Because unlike the previous two losing their time-limits, this one has torches that dwindle down and if you let one die you die. There are several to pick up along the way but it's still scary...
It's a pretty ignoble sad death too.
Trip in the dark and die.
It's harder for me to judge since I already mostly knew what I was doing, but I feel like it has more obtuse things, or just very easily missable points to interact with (the thing to get the water... the spot to put the rod... for some reason...), than Uninvited and Uninvited definitely has some as well. But, I feel like I would have gotten more nastily stuck in Shadowgate especially while worrying about torch usage. I can see getting part way and running out of torches so you reset with what you know to be more efficient and progress that way. Old games!
I had fun with my wander through anyway.
I died a lot regardless, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally.
Deaths I counted. I might've missed a couple: 21
1: took book and fell down pit trap 2: fell down a broken ladder 3: Slimed 4: Fell down a hole 5: torch died x2 6: dragon fire 7: sucked into space through a portal 8: cut down by mirror shards 9: bridge troll death x2 10: killed by a mutated dog 11: pot of gold trap 12: crushed by granite slab 13: plunged into lava 14: death by gargoyles 15: killed by hellhound x2 16: killed by wyvern 17: jumped down a well and went squish 18: placed wrong thing in wrong spot 19: killed by warlock 2 or 3 times
But in the end I saved the day and defeated the evil Warlock.
And that's my little overview of all three games. It was fun to experience these and continue playing some old adventure games I missed.
Not as much as Uninvited but a live thread here for Shadowgate too: https://bsky.app/profile/siverwrites.bsky.social/post/3m4mkoc34yk2c
Afterthoughts:
Man, I didn't even die that much in Déjà Vu. It's just fallen further down in my regard as I played the other two. It just felt bland!
I was reminded there's a sequel coming for The Uninvited by the same team as Beyond Shadowgate and I'm interested, so that's back on my radar. I had found out but forgot.
There's just something comfy about the interfaces in these games. They are not cozy! But it's like, I dunno, snuggling down with a good book. Although getting through all the inventory can be a bit of a hassle once it piles up. Of course you don't need to pick up everything, but adventure games instincts say I do (except at the spot you can't in Shadowgate 'cause you'll get incinerated). So. Mess of inventory for me.
Adventure games whoo!