Shadow of the Beast

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Image:Shadowofthebeast.jpg Shadow of the Beast (also "officially" known as simply Beast) is a side-scrolling platform computer game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis in 1989. The original version was released for the Commodore Amiga, but the game has been ported to many other systems.

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The first Beast

Psygnosis had published numerous side scrollers with high quality graphics before (most notably Obliterator), but Shadow of the Beast was a jaw-dropping experience for many since now the beauty of graphics (with many more colours on screen and multiple levels of parallax scrolling backdrops) seemed to be something that was not seen before in action games. In addition Beast had a stunning soundtrack composed by David Whittaker using high-quality instrument samples that fit into the game's atmosphere perfectly. Some reviewers complained that the game was too difficult, and many criticised the game as a matter of style over substance, but for most gamers this was not a problem and the game became a huge hit, paving the way for two sequels. Because the game took advantage of the Amiga's superior graphics and sound capabilities, conversions to other gaming platforms were often inferior.

The box artwork of the game, like many Psygnosis releases of the time, was created by acclaimed fantasy artist Roger Dean, in a style reminiscent of his Yes album cover artwork.

The game's story is about a man named Aarbron who was kidnapped as a child and corrupted through magic into a monstrous warrior-executioner for the evil beast lord Maletoth. The creature's memory of his human life returns when he is ordered to execute a prisoner he recognizes as his father, prompting him to seek revenge.

Image:Shadowofthebeast2.gif There were two sequels for the game: Shadow of the Beast II in 1990 and Shadow of the Beast III in 1992. The former was again ported to a number of platforms.

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Shadow of the Beast II

Shadow of the Beast II finds the hero in half-beast form, wandering the lands of Karamoon in search of his kidnapped sister. She had been taken away from her mother's cottage by the dragon-form of the Beast Mage, Zelek, servant to Maletoth. Along the way, Aarbron befriends the wise dragon Barloom, and must defeat the evil dragon Ishran. Tree Pygmies in the forest and the goblins in the Crystal Caverns serve as interactive, complicated foes. For example, a bottle of booze picked up at the Karamoon oasis must be given to the goblin jailer to free Aarbron from his cell. Only after Aarbron gives the old man his ring and his parchment does he achieve a spell-attack powerful enough to defeat Zelek. The game is very difficult, with apparently rather little thought for the actual player. For example, a number of puzzles offered only one attempt before the game would kill you, and there was no mechanism to stop you getting ahead of yourself by entering a certain area without equipment you needed. Thus, many players had to cheat to see more than a fraction of it, by asking the first Pygmy to his right about "ten pints".

As in the first game, the cover art for Shadow of the Beast II was done by Roger Dean and the game was packaged with a promotional black T-Shirt that featured Roger Dean's artwork. The tribal music of Beast II was composed by Tim Wright and additional music for the project is available from his Cold Storage website.

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Shadow of the Beast III

The final chapter of the saga, Shadow of the Beast III was released for Amiga in 1992. It did not get as much attention as its predecessors, in spite of the overwhelmingly positive reviews, with most praising the improvements in gameplay and toning down of the difficulty level. Its graphics and sound - though still high quality - were not revolutionary anymore in 1992. Beast III had four distinct stages instead of one big area. The game placed less of an emphasis on the action elements so prominent in the first two games, instead preferring a more cerebral approach. The Beast III package did not contain a T-shirt, but a badge with a game logo instead.

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Soundtracks

The soundtrack of the first Beast game by David Whittaker is the most famous one. Also, Tim Wright's more atmospheric soundtracks for sequels are noteworthy. The original Amiga music for Beast games can be downloaded from the web (see external links below) and can be listened with Deliplayer (when using Windows). In addition, the full soundtrack to the first Beast game was arranged, studio recorded and released in 1999, on a CD entitled Immortal (see external links), which also contains music from other Amiga games.

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Ports

The success on the Commodore Amiga Beast launched a number of ports to almost all other home computer systems and video games consoles of the time, including the Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Atari Lynx, TurboCD. A later version with improved graphics and sounds was released in 1991 for the FM-Towns under the title Shadow Of The Beast Complete. Most of these ports are considered to be watered-down or lacking the performance of the Amiga version. Shadow of the Beast II had also been ported, albeit to fewer platforms. Versions of Beast II are known to exist for Atari ST and FM-Towns computers, as well as Sega Genesis, and Sega CD consoles. The Sega CD post of the game has all new graphics, and adds full-motion CG cinematics to key points of the game. It also introduces an RPG element, complete with voice-acted dialogue sequences. There are no known ports of Shadow of the Beast III.

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Trivia

The Mega Drive port is considered even today to be one of the hardest videogames of all time, probably impossible to finish without cheating. From 1989 to 1992 players around the world tried in vain to finish it before finally Sega revealed the invincibility cheat in January 1992.

C64 port

Atari Lynx port

Atari ST port

Sega Master System port

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Different Versions

The Japanese Megadrive version of Shadow of the Beast, released by Victor Industries, had drasticly altered graphics and music compared to the US Sega Genesis version.

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External links

fr:Shadow of the Beast fi:Shadow of the Beast

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