Ludography
Shadow Sorcerer cover

1991 · U.S. Gold · Adventure · Real-time strategy

Shadow Sorcerer

Shadow Sorcerer is a tie-in with the Dragonlance series of novels. The player controls a party of four adventurers that have just rescued 800 slaves and must shepherd them through the wilderness before the evil Dragon army catches up with them. There are three levels to the game:

Released
1991
Platforms
AmigaAtari STAtari ST/STEMS-DOSWindows
Genres
AdventureReal-time strategyRole-playingStrategy
Developers
U.S. Gold
Publishers
Strategic Simulations
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
Fantasy
Country
United Kingdom
Languages
English

About

Shadow Sorcerer is a role-playing video game published in 1991 by Strategic Simulations. The game is the sequel to Heroes of the Lance and Dragons of Flame. It is based on the third and fourth Dragonlance campaign modules, Dragons of Hope and Dragons of Desolation.

Keywords

  • physical copy protection

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

The plot is a faithful representation of the third and fourth module of Dragonlance, Dragons of Hope and Dragons of Desolation. The same two modules were also adapted into a novel, Dragons of the Dwarven Depths.

Reception

Matt Regan of CU Amiga noted that Shadow Sorcerer largely lacked role-playing elements, but summarized that "for AD&D junkies this is an amusing diversion with a novel outlook for the genre". In Zero, David Wilson called the game "a marked improvement in AD&D computer gaming" compared to other output from Strategic Simulations, aside from Eye of the Beholder. He concluded that "Shadow Sorcerer is another sign that SSI is finally getting its act together to produce games that justify the mighty AD&D licence".

The One gave the Amiga version of Shadow Sorcerer an overall score of 77%, beginning their review by stating that 'it's a pity' that Shadow Sorcerer "doesn't offer as much" as Eye of the Beholder, furthermore saying that "Shadow Sorcerer fails in that there is either too much or too little going on at one time". The One expresses that the refugees the player must protect "move at such a slow pace that you can't help getting bored waiting for them" and if the player leaves them to explore, the player is punished in that the refugees are open to attack, and isn't able to get back to them in time. The One criticises Shadow Sorcerer's combat, stating that the computer has no sense of simple strategy; the players will often get into combat and prepare the wizard to cast a fireball spell, only to find that the rest of the characters have run into the fight and got in the way, completely wasting it. The One calls Shadow Sorcerer good "to a certain extent", and expresses that it "never quite reaches [what] other RPGs have managed to".

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Amiga31 December 1991Worldwide
MS-DOS31 December 1991Worldwide
Atari ST/STE31 December 1991Worldwide
Windows27 March 2023Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Based on
Dungeons & Dragons
Included in
Silver Box Classics
Follows
Dragons of Flame

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

Genres

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.