Shadow Shelter and Nevosoft

On the basis of Vampireville and now Shadow Shelter, I've become a Nevosoft fan. I abandoned Shadow Shelter the first time I tried it after a few minutes of play when an HO screen asked for 12 faucets/valves. I have little patience with plumbing oriented tasks. For one thing, I knew perfectly well that if in reality I needed a faucet or valve and happened to have a cobwebbed pile of them, not one would fit and I would have to go--oh shudder--to Home Depot or Lowe's; for another, those graphics while well rendered were intrinsically, innately, and indubitably of faucets and valve handles.

This time I persevered after rereading a thread on Shadow Shelter on this board. I discovered a challenging stand-out casual game well worth the long loading times. Shadow Shelter comes complete with a helping hand reminiscent of a Jean Cocteau film for me and for younger players, probably of a Disney movie gone Goth. The hand is an essential part of the narrative and not cutesy. The circumstances of its gloomy back story force it to remain on a side table downstairs so you don't have to lug it around or watch it grow animated to force a hint upon you.

Forgive the faucets. Shadow Shelter is a Halloween treat.

This is a great recommendation for Halloween; I too enjoyed the game very much.

Being as you have become a Nevosoft fan, have you ever tried Mushroom Age? It's quite an old game now, but it's very quirky. Let's just say that it gives new meaning to the word "strange." It was very popular with players when it was first released.

Another one worthy of mention is The Emptiness. Lots of players enjoyed it here and it's quite different from the usual fare. This one does not come from Nevosoft, but it would make a nice Halloween game as well.

Dreamland also has the Nevosoft name on it. Again, very popular with players. Quite a few puzzles and mini-games, as I recall (as well as some hidden object scenes).

Thanks for the recommendations 8dognight and Marian. Marian, do you know if Dreamland plays on Windows 7? It only lists XP, Vista, and 8.

That's a good question. Looking at the year it was released, I played it on Windows XP, so I don't know for sure.

OK, thanks. Wasn't sure if you might have played it on Windows 7 but even if you had, doesn't mean it would work on mine.

Games that support Vista generally run on Windows 7 as well, but who knows with this one. We can download the demo and give it a try.

I bought Dreamland a couple of days ago and was enjoying it until, oh curses and foul language, I hit a notorious glitch halfway through an HO screen at what is called the cafe. In the BFG forum I learned that in this cafe, which looks like a carnival food stand, different things can go wrong. Mine was the carrot; other players came to grief over cherries. Apparently earlier in the game I missed a crucial trigger. The forum recommendation was to start over with a new profile which was successful for some players. As I didn't see the trigger described in detail or in truth even delve further to find it, I am not yet ready to start over, maybe someday as Dreamland is quite good and a definite cut above the ordinary despite some sparkles and the obligatory search for a kidnapped relative.

When I restart Dreamland with a new name on the order of you-better-work-this-time-you-rascal, I first will read every post on the BFG game forum that has the word "cafe" in the title because in Dreamland I can see techniques and concepts that became the seeds of several other games and series.

EDITED TO ADD: Okay, I think I may have found the solution. At the cafe (and maybe elsewhere, I don't know), finish the whole HO before backing out or quitting. I found that in the technical issue thread and sounds right to me because I remember that advice for a few other games, so I am going to try it.

I hope that suggestion fixes things for you, 8dognight.

It did fix it. I have a good guess why the same thing happened to numerous other players with various items in that screen. The banality of the objects and the scene itself were visually boring, so I said the heck with this. I'll come back later, only to discover a glitch. While the cafe is dull, the rest of game is entertaining, not top ten ever yet standing up well over time.

Good to know.

Thanks for reminding me about Dreamland. I bought it in 2011 and never played it or I played it and forgot about it. At my age, either is possible. Either way, I'm off to play it now. BTW, Shadow Shelter is an awesome game.

I hope you enjoy it.

I just finished playing Mushroom Age and I must say it is one weird game. Very different and fun to play but also very frustrating in a few places. I did have to use the hint button on a few HO's and I had to find a walkthrough to help me with one mini game. I also had to use Google for two of the puzzles.

If the game did not only save at the end of a chapter, I may not have become so frustrated with the one mini game and may not have had to use a walkthrough, but I did not want to have to replay the whole chapter even though the chapters are short. I felt "trapped" in the game !

I know what you mean - I did not like the way the save system worked. Apart from that, Mushroom Age was a weird game, for sure. I enjoyed it for the most part, but I think I liked Vampireville more.

I have Vampireville on a disc and according to my game list, I played it apparently sometime between 2011 and 2015. I don't remember it though.

Vampireville has the same format which reduces replay value drastically. Shadow Shelter doesn't suffer from that flaw and I will play it again, Sam but not for a while. The downside of reviewing, for me, seems to be that I end up remembering too many details of games I like a lot and have to wait for memories to fade unless the game so fantastic that I want to explore what I may have missed.

I played at least part of Mushroom Age and am ashamed to say that I don't recollect if I liked it or even if I finished it.

I have had Shadow Shelter on my "to buy" list for awhile now. I started to say since this thread started but then looked at the date of the first posting and said "WHAT?". It doesn't seem that long since I read this. Is the 2017 date right? Anyway, some day I hope to buy and play it. I'm starting to get worried though about buying older games that don't show Windows 10 compatibility. I know that doesn't necessarily mean they won't play but I already have so many of them, I'm not sure I should add another.

Ah, I probably put the game on my list in June after it was featured in the "reviews and recommendations" thread. Still, I feel I read this particular thread not that long ago.

I would think you could download the trial and find out, right?

I don't have Windows 10 yet; just looking ahead to when I will. I've never done the trial on a Big Fish game. I just go ahead and buy. Besides, problems can always happen at some later point in the game as well as with a OS that is supposed to be compatible. I periodically tried playing Echoes of the Past 6 for about 2 years (on my compatible Win 7) before it would finally play, so...

I got a kick out of that disembodied hand! Never saw anything like that in one of these little games. Pretty good story, although frustrating at times, and I have marked it for Replay later.

The hand gets a nice credit at the end:

Alexander Alexandrov:
Alexander Alexandrov's Hand