The Shadow Horror

I would Have thought that a “choose your own adventure” decision-based game would have led for a somewhat shallow experience from beginning to end. I would have been wrong. The possibilities are seemingly endless, with varied paths to go through, an inventory system (you can pick up objects and use them), health to look after - to say nothing of the superb narration. This is an author, here, and if I figure out the author’s name, I’ll be disappointed if there aren’t books written by him/her. Well done. Sequel!

I've really enjoyed other games from this developer, but this one missed the mark. The story is creative, ambitious, and intriguing in premise, but something goes wrong in the execution and it just feels messy, repetitive and nonsensical.

Decent story, but the was so buggy, I found it impossible to complete. Not worth it until this is corrected.

The game starts out fun and has good pacing and great descriptions. Unfortunately it has serious bugs that can prevent you from winning. For example, your companion tells you we must get to the basement when you're already in the basement; and he needs notes from another room but when you get there nothing happens. Soon you are running in circles with both locations telling you to go to the other location - while the clock ticks and you lose more and more health. I wish the game had been tested more as I really got into the narrative and would love to see how it ends.

It wasn't actually that scary on first play through, but the imagery will linger in your mind for a long time. The story was compelling and the author commentary was interesting. An amazing amount of coding must have gone into the game. There are multitudes of choices and (thank heavens) multiple ways to solve puzzles that don't solely depend on finding one specific object. The replay value is decent, and you will be motivated to find all of the different endings. Enjoy!

For best results play in the dark

There's a lot that could go wrong when buying a game that just came out. There are bugs, typos, or just plain old boring. But Shadow Horror quickly proves that it was worth the buy. If you're a fan of the Chose Your Own Adventure games this is for you, as it has a very interesting story, and even more interesting endings (even if some feel anticlimactic). I won't ruin the story, but I encourage you to embrace the Shadows so you can find the golden light at the end.