Shadow Point
Year: 2019
Rating: E
Time Played: ~7.5 hours
One of the most underappreciated kinds of virtual reality games are the ones that both tell a great story and have interesting gameplay mechanics. In Shadow Point, the story follows a lost girl who finds herself trapped in a parallel universe and enjoying the freedom this bizarre world gives her. Its gameplay centers on a form of “shadow puppets” that the player creates using light and a variety of found objects. There is enough content in both portions of this game to be entertaining right up to the end of the emotionally gripping climax.
With narration provided by Patrick Stewart, Shadow Point jumps along the young girl’s timeline with each subsequent world explored via the observatory “hub world.” As she grows up fending for herself, the initial excitement involved with exploring this new world gradually fades. Her voice actor expertly captures this change as the game progresses, eventually leading to one of the most emotional moments I’ve had playing a VR game. While the story strings the narrative of the gameplay along through the disparate worlds, it really strengthens the overall experience of solving puzzles by making shadow puppets.
In terms of the core gameplay mechanic, Shadow Point uses a variety of techniques to keep the puzzles fresh with each iterative world. Using mirrors, altered gravity, and awareness of the player’s surroundings, the shadow puzzles never felt so difficult that I couldn’t eventually figure them out. The optional “bonus” puzzles ramp up their difficulty as the game progresses, leading me to stop trying to find these bonus puzzles as the story was engaging enough that I didn’t want to stop and explore. The one qualm I have with this game is how often it crashed on me. I didn’t feel like I was trying to push the limits of the game, but there were far too many times when it couldn’t handle what I was doing and completely froze.
A great story with innovative gameplay mechanics, I give Shadow Point 4.0 stars out of 5.
