8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I Review

8-bit Adventure Anthology is a collection of games that contains new detailed versions of three of the best 8-bit point-and-click adventure games of all time. Each of these independent adventures, whose original versions went on sale between 1987 and 1991, contains the same impressive puzzles, graphics and music that fascinated that generations of players.

You can enjoy Shadowgate, The Uninvited and Déjà Vu as it should be: with a command in the hands and worlds waiting to be discovered! Set in realms of fantasy, horror and film noir, these three magnificent stories can't miss on the shelves of those who enjoy games of traditional adventures and this is just the Volume I, so expect more of this great games in the future!

Duration

This great collection will take you to nostalgia, thanks to three of the best and pioneering point & click games that today is so well established, each game will take us around 30 to 1 hours if you are familiar with these titles or genre, however, can offer you more hours, if they get stuck in some of the numerous puzzles that you offer these games

Gameplay

The story of Shadowgate, tells how the evil sorcerer Talimar takes control of the castle that gives name to the adventure. As expected, this place is much more than a simple stone fortress, since inside it houses a great magical power that this villain wants to control to plunge the world into darkness, something that of course, you can't afford, since you are the chosen one destined to save humanity. As you can see, the argument is not that it is exactly original, but it's very well narrated (many descriptions have a black humor that feels great) and provides enough mysteries for you to continue moving forward and discover more about the castle, it's inhabitants and Talimar.

The game is as challenging as you want it to be, it keeps intact the essence of the original and gives you a super ambience. It's not a title for impatient, because to stay stuck and die will be your daily bread, but it knows how to reward the advance and offer you very good moments while defeating creatures that seemed to have no weak points, you solve all kinds of twisted puzzles and you dodged the deadliest traps you could imagine.

In Uninvited, you drive along a lonely road, when suddenly a shadow figure pounces on your car. When you try to dodge it, you spin and you crash into a tree. When you regain consciousness, you realize that your sister is not there. Have you gone to ask for help to this impressive mansion? Suddenly, a strong smell of gas comes to you. He must have punctured the tank. After opening the car door with some effort, you manage to escape in time from the explosion of the car. A lavish mansion stands before your eyes. Is your sister there? The first thing you should know about Uninvited is it's traditional graphic adventure mechanics, which makes it a game very similar to Shadowgate and Deja Vu.

In Deja Vu, it's the year 1942 and you wake up in a sordid bathroom without knowing how you ended up there or what your name is. You take a 38-caliber revolver that hangs on the door, you climb the stairs and find a corpse with three bullet holes slumped on a table. You take a look at the weapon. Three bullets are missing. This is going to be a bad day. Deja Vu, is a fantastic point & click game, it offers a very good combination between mystery and puzzles, combined with a small part of terror.

Graphics & Design

This collection allows you to use the sounds, text fonts and animations of the veteran game of NES, adapted of course to this generation. Although they are really minimal changes, i could consider them a small gift for all those gamers who are over thirty and remember those long summer afternoons squeezing the coconut trying to reveal the secrets of Shadowgate, Uninvited and Deja Vu.

Graphically, this collection looks pretty great if you’re examining it as a retro game. In modern graphics, looks pretty mediocre. However, it’s clear Abstraction Games wanted to keep these titles in their original style—though with some clear upscaling and sharpening of some of the visuals—and thus that makes this look great for an older anthology of titles. The same can be said of the music which never gets old thanks to the tones you remember best from classic NES titles. None of these games have voice acting though so be prepared to only hear simple noises and sounds when talking with someone or engaging with someone.

Conclusion

This great collection takes us to the days when the adventure games were simple and in many (really many) strange moments or easy to get lost, although at the same time the beauty of these old titles is that you can see where the games come from in the late 80's and early 90's. We are talking about three games for an extremely affordable price.

• Game: 8-bit Adventure Anthology: Volume I
• Developer: Abstraction Games
• Publisher: Reverb Publishing
• Genre: Adventure, Collection, Point & Click
• Price: $7.99
• Size: 376.56 MB
• Release date: October 31st 2017
• For more info: http://www.8bitaa.com/
• Download from Microsoft Store