Shadow Tower’s setup is nothing particularly interesting and is not even explained to the player very well when beginning the game. You play a mercenary for hire who has been wandering around performing tasks. Landing into the town of Zepter, you meet a nice, old lady who becomes the sole person who cares for you. Eventually you leave to go off on a journey, but upon returning you find that the town of Zepter has completely vanished without a trace. All that lies in the midst of the once living town is a dark and foreboding tower with a mysterious secret that must be solved or all is lost.

The problems with this game are apparent right from the beginning of the game. Starting up you are thrown onto a small ledge that I fell off of a couple of times before getting down the annoyingly slow control scheme. Wandering around I immediately noticed that in no way has there been a significant improvement in how the game’s environments and enemies have been created. All we have are the same bland and overused textures that we have seen before. A few of the environments can be downright spooky at times (like areas where there are torture chambers set up), but many times any type of atmospheric adventuring that might occur is hindered by the horrible game engine. The engine is weakly designed so that there has to be a large mask of black a few feet in front of the player in order to keep the game from slowing down and becoming unplayable.

As mentioned before, the installment of games similar to Shadow Tower have been notorious for being slow paced. Shadow Tower is no different, though it would not be so much a problem if there was more going on, but sadly, there isn't. I found myself maneuvering around with nothing in sight for a good amount of time, with the only thing to keep me company was the occasional atmospheric sound effect. I will give the game credit for that; the atmospheric sounds that were created did spook me out more than once or twice as I was twisting and turning my way through the dungeon. They definitely sent a shiver down my spine. A severe lack of music, however, was something I found somewhat odd. Musical accompaniment could enhance an experience such as this, but there was many a time where I found myself sitting there in a dark, confined, scary place that was lacking any type of suspense because of music. Having good music can engulf the player into the game, and Shadow Tower lacks the feeling of “bringing” the player into the game quite a bit.

Other quirks that hinder playing Shadow Tower are the fact that in the beginning of the game you start off so weak that within a few hits it’ll all be over in a matter of seconds. Around a few turns there are two bat-like creatures hanging from the ceiling that you have to deal with, and they attack using pink “rays”. These rays are shot in batches of three or four, and after being hit by one it is near impossible to dodge the others. Problem is, if you are hit by all of them, chances are you’re done for. Eventually after leveling up, certain situations like this can be avoided, but in the beginning all it does it cause frustration. Compounding this particular problem is the terrible aiming scheme that has been devised. It’s slow, it’s cumbersome and a big pain to use.