Shadow of the Beast III (AMI, 1992)
Graphics-7 Sound-7.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-8 Story-5
Level Design-6 Frustration-9 Fun-6 Originality-6?
Overall Score-6
+
Decent intro (minor animation, nice artwork but less of a cohesive or engaging story than in the prequel)
Level select for the first four levels (Journey (1983), Ice Climber, Dragon Buster, Xain'd Sleena) however you can only pick between the first two at first
Some decent puzzles (luring the beast in the first level to take care of the falling trap, block/object pushing puzzles - pretty fast, switch puzzles, water level altering to make a wooden platform reach a switch, lifting objects with cranes, etc.)
Some advanced physics for the time (marble paths - Incredible Machine?, rock slab sliding over marbles, interactive swing platform and melting the ice block with molten metal in level 4)
Enemies can climb ladders
Some friendly and neutral creatures (ride a rescued bird in level 3 - can fly)
Pretty good art direction overall (fantasy with some steampunk elements)
+/-
Level-based structure (no attempt at an interconnect world here) - can't replay previous levels
Mid-level checkpoints although some are placed before lengthy puzzles - no save feature
Can't aim upwards (some weapons have a downwards arc when thrown)
Frequently respawning enemies coming from both sides in some segments (Kung-Fu/Contra-style)
Some points of no return during levels
Can't move while crouching nor while shooting/throwing
No difficulty options
Some gore
No healing items (SotB 2)
Kind of odd how the bird can say "help" and also how it doesn't talk more after being rescued (the calm music when finding the blood fountain is also odd)
Sliding block puzzle mini-game in level 4 (kinda confusing but apparently a hint to the next puzzle where you make fish eat each other)
-
Three lives and no continues!
Some control/interface issues (can't map jump to a button (up) although I was able to do it somehow in FS-UAE, pretty much no invincibility time after taking a hit, can't look up/down - some leaps of faith)
Trial & error (some shots from off screen (level 3), often have to kill yourself if you screw up a puzzle, need to pick up a random boulder on your way up after getting past the falling trap in level 1 by steering the elevator platform into it (+ if it's leaning then the boulder will fly away as if it was just rubble, , water level raising puzzle in lvl 2 - if you hit the switch too soon then you can't manually revert it so you'll drown, some cheap traps and enemy placements (acid in level 2, bird in level 3), seesaw puzzle in level 3, marbles as a "conveyor belt" for the slab of rock in level 3 would've been a good puzzle if the hammer was explained and you couldn't screw it up before getting the hammer, inconsistent how you can survive underwater in level 3 and break the second ice block yourself in level 4)
Some spongy enemies early on
Enemies don't drop health
Odd color choices overall (some objects like your avatar, some enemies, fire and keys don't have washed out colors while other things+the backgrounds do which looks inconsistent)
Poorly animated boss sprites, Single color water
Very generic NPC dialogue
Short (about 30m if you know what to do, level 5 is just the final boss fight)
Doesn't make sense that the statue head used to free the bird destroys the seesaw instead of throwing you upwards when it lands
Some waiting for moving platforms or other objects/NPCs
Easy level 3 boss (and bosses are pretty simplistic in general)
Unavoidable damage vs the final boss?
So-so ending (scrolling text over some artwork)
Controls:
UP - JUMP
FIRE (R Ctrl) - USE CURRENT OBJECT
F1 - SCROLL THROUGH INVENTORY
F10 - QUIT
ESC - SUICIDE (LOSE A LIFE)
P - PAUSE
HELP (End) - RESTART FROM LAST LOAD
https://fs-uae.net/docs/keyboard-mapping
Level Design-6 Frustration-9 Fun-6 Originality-6?
Overall Score-6
+
Decent intro (minor animation, nice artwork but less of a cohesive or engaging story than in the prequel)
Level select for the first four levels (Journey (1983), Ice Climber, Dragon Buster, Xain'd Sleena) however you can only pick between the first two at first
Some decent puzzles (luring the beast in the first level to take care of the falling trap, block/object pushing puzzles - pretty fast, switch puzzles, water level altering to make a wooden platform reach a switch, lifting objects with cranes, etc.)
Some advanced physics for the time (marble paths - Incredible Machine?, rock slab sliding over marbles, interactive swing platform and melting the ice block with molten metal in level 4)
Enemies can climb ladders
Some friendly and neutral creatures (ride a rescued bird in level 3 - can fly)
Pretty good art direction overall (fantasy with some steampunk elements)
+/-
Level-based structure (no attempt at an interconnect world here) - can't replay previous levels
Mid-level checkpoints although some are placed before lengthy puzzles - no save feature
Can't aim upwards (some weapons have a downwards arc when thrown)
Frequently respawning enemies coming from both sides in some segments (Kung-Fu/Contra-style)
Some points of no return during levels
Can't move while crouching nor while shooting/throwing
No difficulty options
Some gore
No healing items (SotB 2)
Kind of odd how the bird can say "help" and also how it doesn't talk more after being rescued (the calm music when finding the blood fountain is also odd)
Sliding block puzzle mini-game in level 4 (kinda confusing but apparently a hint to the next puzzle where you make fish eat each other)
-
Three lives and no continues!
Some control/interface issues (can't map jump to a button (up) although I was able to do it somehow in FS-UAE, pretty much no invincibility time after taking a hit, can't look up/down - some leaps of faith)
Trial & error (some shots from off screen (level 3), often have to kill yourself if you screw up a puzzle, need to pick up a random boulder on your way up after getting past the falling trap in level 1 by steering the elevator platform into it (+ if it's leaning then the boulder will fly away as if it was just rubble, , water level raising puzzle in lvl 2 - if you hit the switch too soon then you can't manually revert it so you'll drown, some cheap traps and enemy placements (acid in level 2, bird in level 3), seesaw puzzle in level 3, marbles as a "conveyor belt" for the slab of rock in level 3 would've been a good puzzle if the hammer was explained and you couldn't screw it up before getting the hammer, inconsistent how you can survive underwater in level 3 and break the second ice block yourself in level 4)
Some spongy enemies early on
Enemies don't drop health
Odd color choices overall (some objects like your avatar, some enemies, fire and keys don't have washed out colors while other things+the backgrounds do which looks inconsistent)
Poorly animated boss sprites, Single color water
Very generic NPC dialogue
Short (about 30m if you know what to do, level 5 is just the final boss fight)
Doesn't make sense that the statue head used to free the bird destroys the seesaw instead of throwing you upwards when it lands
Some waiting for moving platforms or other objects/NPCs
Easy level 3 boss (and bosses are pretty simplistic in general)
Unavoidable damage vs the final boss?
So-so ending (scrolling text over some artwork)
Controls:
UP - JUMP
FIRE (R Ctrl) - USE CURRENT OBJECT
F1 - SCROLL THROUGH INVENTORY
F10 - QUIT
ESC - SUICIDE (LOSE A LIFE)
P - PAUSE
HELP (End) - RESTART FROM LAST LOAD
https://fs-uae.net/docs/keyboard-mapping