Shadowfire Review

By Kristan Reed Published 26 October, 2007

Iconic.

Version tested: Retro

With the thoroughly traumatic implosion of Liverpool's Imagine the previous summer, some of the members of the infamous 'Mega Team' decided to form Denton Design - one of the first ever definable development teams.

After its first well-received Speccy game, Gift from the Gods, Shadowfire emerged to absolutely raucous acclaim on the brand new Beyond label for being the first game to utilise an icon-based control system; kind of a point and click action-RPG, but years ahead of its time.

Set in the far-flung future, this Star-Trek influenced title involved controlling the actions of six highly specialised heroes on a mission to board the Zoff 5 spaceship, rescue an ambassador, and halt an impending war.

Each character had some basic stats, such as strength, agility and stamina, which contributed to how much you could carry. Designed with an elegant interface, Shadowfire could be initially confusing - but only because games tended to be completely self-explanatory back in the day.

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With a little patience (and, shock, reading the manual), you'd find yourself moving characters around, putting the most combat proficient in the firing line, and using certain specialist characters in whichever situation demanded it. Featuring 160 rooms, the actual depiction of the 'action' was primitive to say the least, but it didn't matter. This was something new, but not something Denton really explored beyond the inferior, more real-time action oriented Enigma Force.

Although released simultaneously on C64 and Spectrum (in a lavish, easy to destroy cardboard box), the former version appeared to be the 'no compromise' edition with far more colourful illustrations and a thumping tune which drove you through this one-of-a-kind game. With that in mind, we'd recommend that you plump for the C64 version if you're thinking about revisiting this absorbing and interesting title.

7 / 10

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About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (3) Latest comment 5 years ago

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  • Gnort #1 5 years ago

    I remember how cool I thought the character designs were in this game, from the bionic augmented Zark to the insectoid Sylk to that bird guy who's name I can't remember (and has wikipedia deleted the game's entry? Can't find it). Looking at the game now, it's just one portrait and a tiny icon, so I guess we just used to rely on our imagination more back in those days, and perhaps our imaginations were more vivid when we were younger.

    Tried playing it again, and the icon control system, which we all thought was so revolutionary, is really, really obtuse by modern standards, and it takes too long to do anything. Also, the game is brutally difficult. Music is still catchy, though.

  • Blerk #2 5 years ago

    Another one I spent hours playing. It really was quite unlike anything else I'd ever played at the time.

  • TriggerHippie #3 5 years ago

    Yeah my Shadowfire box is in tatters. Some fantastic games there and could easily have been a list of 100+

    Now I've got the Shadowfire music stuck in my head. No bad thing :p