Shadowgate is an adventure game released by Mindscape in 1987. Players will control the main character, a great king to join the journey to destroy the evil Warlock Lord.
Warlock hides in mysterious castles. Players will control their characters to solve the mystery behind the castles to search and destroy the Warlock. Characters will own only a torch. He uses a torch to illuminate the entrances of the castle. After finding the entrance, he must quickly find the codes in the rooms. The torch will be turned off after a period of use and the number of torches is limited. Players need to quickly decode the drawings in the rooms to be able to find a suitable path and find a new torch. If their decoding time is too long, the torch will turn off and they will stumble. Players are taken to the castle door looking to redo the game when the torch is off. While decoding rooms, players can collect a number of weapons such as swords, ropes, and some other ancient weapons. In certain cases, these weapons can be used to kill enemies.
When exploring the rooms, players will encounter many obstacles and dangers. The codes hidden on the walls mean a lot. If the player misunderstands the meaning, it can lead the player to a dangerous room containing many enemies. Losing in the attacks of enemies will cause them to return to the starting point of the castle. Players can also be killed by enemies such as: burned by dragons, eaten by wolves, attacked and eaten by sharks, sucked by mirrors, etc. These enemies appear randomly in every castle. The correct codes will contain clues to the next room. Decoding all of them will help the player go to the next castle. The difficulty of the codes will increase in the castle. The game is not boring by battles with enemies that often occur with players. Items collected as weapons can also be upgraded. After the code in the castle is decoded, the player will be led to a maze – the hiding place of the evil Warlock to participate in the final battle. By gathering weapons, they will quickly destroy the final boss and complete the task.
