“Shore” is a Cthulhu-style first-person horror adventure game produced by Ares Dragonis, in the game, players will play Andrew to find his missing daughter through the coast and the void.
In terms of plot, after the game starts, the male protagonist Andrew wakes up on the shore. Before the male protagonist wakes up, the game does not give players an opening animation or plot overview, which leads to players not knowing what they should do next if they have not learned about the game in advance. There is not much plot expression in the early stage of the game, and players can only learn about the story background through diaries collected on the coastline. In the middle stage, the protagonist no longer mentions his daughter until the end when his daughter appears again, followed by the male protagonist’s identity, which is confusing.
The graphics are also a part of the players’ attention. Compared with other indie games, the graphics of this work are still good, but there are also problems such as dropped frames, threading, and slow loading speed. Obvious dropped frames and shaking shots will make players feel dizzy, even if you are not 3D dizzy. The music part of this work is very consistent with the theme of Cthulhu. When the monument in the game starts to move or Dagon is liberated, the game’s music will change accordingly, which not only creates a depressing atmosphere but also reduces the san value of the side line. In contrast, the sound effect produced by the artifact in the protagonist’s hand that can emit lasers when repelling monsters is very out of place.
[Game Play]
The gameplay of this game can be divided into two parts: puzzle-solving and combat. Compared to other puzzle games, the puzzle-solving part of this game is very boring. The puzzles in the game are basically “transporting” items from a specific location to another specific location, such as taking out the stone slabs in the lighthouse and putting them into specific stone slabs, removing the hands of humanoid statues and putting them into stone slabs without any prompts. The longest part of the game that stuck me was when the protagonist was teleported to another world and found the one with the mark on the top of his head among many skulls. There were no prompts before and after the teleportation, which was really frustrating. But if you are a fan of Cthulhu, the frequently appearing Cthulhu creatures such as Black Goat Kid, Old Rulers, and Azatos will make you very satisfied!
Looking for a head all over the ground?
Apart from the boring puzzle-solving, the combat system of this game can be said to be optional. The combat part of “Shore” can be divided into two parts: chase and boss battles. Some creatures in the game cannot be eliminated by lasers, so players can only fight back monsters while looking for a way out. Due to the monsters themselves being too strong, coupled with the lack of breathing and health display in the game, the player’s gaming experience is directly reduced. The so-called boss battles in the game are only for clearing a large number of enemies. Taking the first boss as an example, players need to use lasers to extinguish all the light pillars in the field. Whenever a light pillar extinguishes the boss in the field, they will summon small monsters. After all the light pillars are extinguished, they can take the light balls produced by the boss to end the game…
The operation of this work, whether it is the handle control or keyboard control, is very poor. When players use the mouse operation, they often cannot emit lasers normally. Switching the handle operation is anti- human . The left joystick moves the right joystick to accelerate and run. The game itself does not support changing keys.
[Review Summary]
Overall, “Shore” is a game specially made for Cthulhu fans. The puzzles and battles in the game are not fun, and the plot requires players to explore on their own based on the files collected in the game. If you don’t understand English, you may not even know what the game is about after completing it. If you are a Cthulhu fan, I recommend this game to you. If you are just looking for a horror game, this game will disappoint you. The two-hour process content is really too little.
