Shame Legacy, the little horror story that tried and fell flat… Shamefully.
Shame Legacy was developed by Fairyship Games and its subsidiary, Revenant Games. Although Fairyship doesn’t have any games that were previously released, they do have another game in development, Testament: The Order of High-Human. The Publishers, Destructive Creations, on the other hand, are known for games like Hatred and War Mongrels.
Shame Legacy is part of the survival-horror genre, which, of late, has made a huge comeback in the last few years. This is a genre that was initially made incredibly popular by games such as Silent Hill, the first game that was released in 1999, and Resident Evil, which was released in 1996. After these two giants, games with a more unique look to the genre, such as Amnesia or even Phasmophobia and Five Nights at Freddy’s, came to be while raising the bar for this genre even more.
While Shame Legacy is a slightly forgiving survival horror, which in some cases seems a little like Outlast, however, it does include some pretty great safe zones filled with puzzles for a breather. You start the game with an intriguing cutscene: the character you play, William, wakes up in a clearing, injured and with no memory of how he got there. Of course, there is only one direction to walk, which is towards a village.
Not everything in the village is as it seems, as most of the villagers have been possessed. Unfortunately, in Shame Legacy, right from the start, you have no way to defend yourself, and you’ll need to sneak and make use of the hiding places to get around the possessed villagers while making your way towards the first puzzle. This introduces your first mechanic, noise. Noise is a big thing around the villagers. If you move too fast, you make more noise and can therefore be found more easily. Sneaking around is pretty much your only option in the beginning.
When you enter the first puzzle area, you will find an ominous staff with a glowing headpiece. You will need to find certain items or seals to unlock different parts of the staff, such as the eagle or bull symbol. These seals allow you to work the puzzle podiums, while other pieces require you to use your staff as a key. The puzzles are incredibly easy, and most of the clues for them are out in the open, making them somewhat trivial.
The staff will also become your defensive weapon; however, William is only able to fend off one villager at a time, any more than jump on you, and it’s game over. This leads to the second mechanic and something you will have to manage throughout the game.
Much like the protagonist of Blair Witch, Ellis Jeremy Lynch, William seems to have a few issues, and when jumped on by a villager, he will start having a panic attack. When this happens, he will go into what Shame Legacy calls ‘Panic Mode’. Unfortunately, unlike Ellis, you won’t have a cute canine companion to keep you calm and will have to make do with potions that are littered around the map to calm yourself down.
Unfortunately, Villagers are not the only ones who induce this state. You will eventually come across something called a ‘Crucified’. These humans are not possessed but are instead tortured, so when they see William, they will let out piercing cries that bring the attention of the demon towards him. You will go into a panic state if you stay in the range of the crucified for too long or pass by quite a few, since it seems the gauge for the panic attack doesn’t diminish once you are out of range.
The demon is incredibly cliched, and while it is, in fact, violent when it catches you, and every death animation is different, it is not as unique as it could be. There isn’t an explanation about why the demon is chasing William or how it came to be. In most places, it seems as if it was placed there to get a few scares, which somehow makes you take the demon less seriously than you should.
This is where this review may go into spoiler territory. Shame Legacy has well-written lore entries scattered around, which give more detail about the cult and the world. Still, William’s backstory is highly ambiguous, with only vague glimpses into his psyche and his traumatic upbringing, as well as what was happening before this whole thing started. Because of this, the ending is highly confusing because certain key details aren’t fully explained, leaving the player to wonder what is going on and what the point of Shame Legacy’s story.
Shame Legacy’s sound design does its best to immerse you within the story and create a sense of fear that is lacking elsewhere. From the screams of the tortured to the crackling fires and eerie hallways in the puzzle rooms, it sometimes feels as if you are walking alongside William. The music is not repetitive but, much like the demon, brings down the immersive feel created by the game’s sound design, as it feels incredibly generic and uninspired.
The overall character design is creepy and unsettling, which fits the theme of the game. Since encounters with the villagers are mostly jump scares, it does make them seem scarier, but seeing the same faces over and over again just gets very tiring very quickly, making these encounters more annoying than scary. It would have been nice to see a lot more deviation than what seems like three different models for the villagers. While you don’t see much of William besides his hands or his torso in certain cutscenes, his character model seems to be of the same quality as the villagers, generic and uninspired.
Williams’ character model, or what can be seen by it, portrays someone who woke up in the mud while covered in his own blood well enough, which is seen by his hands being covered in dirt and mud as well as a wound on the torso. Unfortunately, the character models fall short when representing 19th-century apparel, making Shame Legacy feel more set towards the early 20th century.
The animation is smooth, so whether you’re vaulting over debris, climbing into a chest, having a closet to hide from villagers, or even just running for your life, you’ll at least get some good and consistent animation quality. What adds to the horrific atmosphere are the environmental animations, such as the buildings burning down or the wind rustling the trees.
While Shame Legacy does have voice acting, it would be nice for the character’s voice acting to have more to it than a slightly flat tone, even though certain emotions, such as fear or despair, are done well. This falls a little short in some of the scenes and becomes incredibly underwhelming. A lot of the character lines are highly repetitive, and in some cases, they are highly clichéd.
Overall, Shame Legacy has a scare factor but is severely lacking in parts where it’s most important. Having aimed a bit too high for what they wanted, even with the game having an incredible amount of potential in terms of the lore and world setting, it has fallen short because of an overuse of cliches that have been used in just about every survival-horror game to date.
