Shadow of the Comet – Final Rating

By limbeck

The first time I played Shadow of the Comet was probably some time in the late '90s or early 2000s. I was relatively fresh in RPGs and the Cthulhu Mythos, and still at university. So, a Cthulhu Mythos inspired adventure game definitely looked like just what I needed to fill my appetite for relevant pop culture.

I don't remember much from that playthrough, but I sure as hell remember being impressed by the fact that I could face some of the Great Old Ones (GOOs) and frantically looking for walkthroughs through my brave dial-up connection to get through the final stages.

“Frantic” is a word perfectly associated with some parts of the game

Shadow of the Comet – Won!

Written by limbeck

And so we arrive at the final showdown. The town itself is cleansed from the four families that were working to bring their evil plans to fruition, but all is not yet clear in the skies over Illsmouth. NARACKAMUS is still alive and the comet's passing is tonight. I have a lot of work still ahead of me and not enough time.

In the end of the previous post, Dr COBBLE gave me a message and a warning. The message was from Mr UNDERHOUSE, who was requesting my help. The warning was about Sgt. BRAGGS, who considered me responsible for last night's carnage (and with good reasons I will add). So, I need to go to the post office without running into BRAGGS.

Or Miss PICOTT, but that seems impossible.

Shadow of the Comet – Social calls

Written by limbeck

It took me several sessions to finish Shadow of the comet and you will probably understand it from this post (Edit: and the next one. I had to split the post in two). This last part of the game was much more action-adventurey than I could take, so some pauses to calm down were required. Despite that, the game reached an adequate conclusion, featuring quite a few of the Cthulhu Mythos regulars. But on to the story.

I had left the previous session at the start of the catacombs in JONAS HAMBLETON's tomb. The catacombs turned out to be an obstacle course maze. And it is not a small one. For its first part I have to collect two skulls and place them on top of two pillars to open a gate to the inner chambers. Meanwhile, I have to dodge rats and bats, avoid pits that I don't even know they exist and step around quicksand.

And enjoy grotesque statues that play no role whatsoever

Shadow of the Comet – Flight of Icarus

By limbeck

Things have progressed more smoothly in this session, with a bit of excitement and a lot more exposition. I finished the previous one after getting a quest from Mr UNDERHOUSE to get a diary from the Mayor's safe and with Miss PICOTT vehemently refusing to give me her Bible. I need the Bible to find the aforementioned safe's combination.

No amount of talk seems to change Miss PICOTT's mind, so I leave her and do some more walking around. My wanderings bring me to MYER's shop again. He obviously does not mention WILBUR or keys casually left on counters, but he gets to what he knows best: business. He tells me he received a lot of nice new goodies overnight, such as a cheap locket, an even cheaper brooch and more photosensitive plates. I buy the lot, because I still have access to Mr GRIFFITH's funds. I feel quite satisfied with my purchase, but as soon as I get out of the store, the pin falls off the brooch.

I have been scammed!

Shadow of the Comet – Development Hell

Written by limbeck

So, the last session finished with me recovering from last night's events and Dr COBBLE prescribing me some pills to stop a heart attack. As I get off bed and put on my clothes, I have two goals for the day: get these pills from the pharmacy; and develop the plates from last night, again at the pharmacy. So, without much delay, I gather the prescription from the desk and head out. Oh, I also have a look at the parchment from the ritual, but I cannot read it. Maybe JUGG will be able to help later. Just to be on the safe side, I try to use it very near the desk, but it doesn't work.

Maybe I won't come across Miss PICOTT this time

Shadow of the Comet – Miss PICOTT's Dominion

Written by limbeck

The town of Illsmouth is quaint, but what about the forest surrounding it? I am curious to scout the forest, in case there are any locations I was missing. I am wrong. The forest consists of a sort of a maze, with only a handful of different screens, that I believe are connected in the same way. So if I went left in location A, I would always end up in location B. I could have been moving west for ten screens only to go east once and end up in the town. Anyway, in my hikes I pick up three branches and a creeper for no apparent reason other than that my lasersight identified them.

Having wasted about twenty minutes trying to map the forest, in vain for the reasons explained above, I decide that I need a map, so I head back to my room to see if Boleskine's map would be of any use. But while I am passing through the town square, it is occupied by a troupe of gypsies, fully staffed with guitarist, dancer and bear. While I listen to their music, a policeman (Sgt BAGGS) arrives and does what policemen do according to my experience.

Bully some easy targets

Shadow of the Comet – A Friendly Little Town

Written by limbeck

So, here I am, in my not so austere room, getting to grips with the controls of the game. I can move with the arrow buttons, but only on four directions, which seems fair. Sometimes, though, you jump to the next screen by stepping at the wrong point.

Walking around the room, I notice that, as I pass close to an item, a line from my face to that object appears. Handy. I welcomed it with satisfaction at first, but I may reconsider, as it misled me into thinking that it works with all items. More on that later.

Look at my lasersight!

Fortunately, the all-keyboard interface is intuitive and not hard to grasp. You press O for objects in your inventory, U for using an item, G for getting. Even if you haven't read the manual, you get the hang of it quickly. And that's really it.

So, once I have perfected my baby steps, I explore the room and pick up whatever I can, which is BOLESKINE's diary and a telegram from my provisioners. Reading the diary gives me my first clue: a 12-year-old boy had served BOLESKINE as a guide, so there is a chance he is still alive and can point me to the precise spot in the forest. Other than that, BOLESKINE clearly had a poor grasp of astronomy, not recognising the familiar constellations and just randomly inventing new ones.

The telegram was more annoying, because it said that I have to find my own photographic plates. This is critical to my mission, as Mr GRIFFITH really expects “spectacular photographs”. I hope this backwater town has a hardware store or something.

Game 116: Shadow of the Comet (1993) – Introduction

By limbeck

In 1992, Infogrames released Alone in the Dark, which put the player in the role of an unsuspecting investigator who experiences the horrors of the mansion of an eccentric magnate, after said eccentric magnate committed suicide. The player tries to escape from the mansion, the unspeakable lurking fears that haunt it in the dark and from the raving madness that the secrets of the mansion could deliver. It is exciting, deadly and pioneering (Hell, it won our very own Charles Darwin Award for 1992!). It even spawned a few sequels and an Uwe Boll film starring Christian Slater, which, contrary to the series that inspired it, is considered among the worst of all time.

Don't worry, we'll get our share of celebrities (and monsters) in the game as well (Image from here)

But this is not the story of that game. Andy Panthro played it thoroughly and did a fine job (go read it here if you haven't already). In one of the game posts, Andy referred to a book describing an adventure titled “Prisoners of Ice”, which is also the name of a Lovecraftian adventure game by Infogrames, which was published in 1995. This is not the story of that game either.