Shadow Tower Review

This is the studio's early instinct pushed to its most hostile conclusion. The tower is dark, the enemies are pitiable rather than frightening, and the whole thing is soaked in a sense of decay that the later games would learn to make beautiful. Weapons and armour wear down as you use them and cannot be repaired in any practical way, which changes the calculation of every fight: killing a thing you did not need to kill costs you durability you cannot get back, so avoidance becomes a legitimate strategy long before that was fashionable.

Souls collected from the dead serve as currency and as the only way to sustain yourself, which is a lineage worth noting. It is also punishing without being fair. There is no map in a warren designed to disorient, the movement is glacial, the visuals are muddy even by the standards of the King's Field line, and progress often hinges on finding a door you walked past twice.