ShadowCaster is a first-person Action RPG, made by Raven Software in 1993.
A long time ago, the people of a magical land enjoyed a position of favour with the gods, and a special relationship with the inhabitants of other planes: they were able to swap forms with those inhabitants, granting them access to myriad powers and traits.
But evil arose amidst this people, and with it strife. Their once-grand civilisation fell, and the people's shapeshifting power dwindled.
At last only two of the people retained the power of shapeshifting. They together had a child named Kirt—who had the curious property that not even the gods could see his future. He seemed to cast a metaphorical shadow over all that would come.
When Veste, the leader of the evil faction, attacked the remnants of the people, Kirt was transported to another world in the hopes that he would be safe there.
Now the time has come for Kirt to return to the world of his birth, venture through its ruins and creature-haunted structures, and confront at last the evil of Veste.
Mechanically, ShadowCaster is essentially an Action RPG, albeit that it's rather light on the RPG elements. The player explores the levels of the game freely, viewing the world from a first-person perspective. Within these spaces they find weapons, progress MacGuffins, and the obelisks that grant access to new forms. Combat takes place in real-time, with the player arming themselves with swords, wands, powers, and more, and then clicking at their opponent in order to attack. Experience Points are gained as one defeats opponents, and grant increases in health and magical power with each new level.
Behind the scenes, the game uses a derivative of the Wolfenstein 3-D engine, much-altered to rather expand the rendering capabilities of said engine. It thus retains Wolfenstein's blocky level-layouts, while adding things like sky-textures, vertical movement, connected over- and under- water sections, and so on.
The game provides examples of:
- Can't Catch Up: Experience points are awarded to the player's current form, and not to other forms. As a result, forms that the player uses more often will tend to become more powerful than forms that the player uses less often—which in turn may encourage the player to use the former even more often and the latter even less often...
- Cephalothorax: Two of the enemy-types encountered in the first few areas of the game are essentially blobby head-bodies on a pair thick-set legs, and armed with a great big toothsome maw at the front. One attacks with an awkward-looking kick, while the other summons balls of electricity from its forehead.
- Dem Bones: An early area features red-boned skeletons hung up on poles. Drawing near causes them to animate, whereupon they attack the player with sword and shield.
- Experience Points: Killing foes grants points, and after enough points are accumulated, a new level is reached. Each new level then grants a boost to health and magical power. Notably, each form gains experience independently of the others, meaning that a neglected form can end up "left behind" in terms of combat potential.
- Hit Points: A simple number that represents the player's current distance from—or closeness to—dying. This value is common (by percentage, at least) to all forms: if one form is near death, all are near death.
- Life Meter: Located at the top of the screen is a horizontal red bar, showing how much health the player has before death.
- Magic Wand: Several can be found—and fairly plentifully—scattered throughout the levels. Each functions essentially as a magical "gun", providing ranged attacks limited by a fixed number of "charges". The resulting projectile varies from wand-type to wand-type, and includes such things as fireballs, ice-bolts, lightning-balls, and spinning globes of coloured light.
- Mana Points: Here simply called "power", it's the resource that's consumed in order to change forms, and to use various abilities available to certain forms. This resource is common (by percentage, at least) to all forms: if one form is low on power, all are low on power.
- Mana Meter: Located at the top of the screen is a horizontal blue bar, depicting how much power the player has available. Hovering the cursor over it provides a numerical readout of its current value.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: One of the forms available to the player is the Maorin, a tall, four-armed cat-like being. It makes for an effective warrior-form with decent strength and health—but it drowns with remarkable swiftness in water.
- Oculothorax:
- One of the forms available to the player is the Opsis, a round, floating spheroid being with a large mouth, feeble tentacles, and a single, large eye at its centre.
- Amongst the player's foes are beings similar to the Opsis: round, floating bodies with single large eyes. In place of tentacles, however, their sport a pair of clawed, two-fingered arms. They attack by firing various magical blasts at the player from their eyes.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: They're tall, bipedal, fur-covered, and wolf-headed. In terms of origin, they're produced by a magical ritual, with no indication that a bite is involved.
- Punny Name: Some of the species whose forms the player can take have names that are somewhat on-the-nose:
- The cat-like warrior is called a "Maorin".
- The large-eyed wizard is called an "Opsis".
- The flying dragon-like being is called a "Ssair".
- Shock and Awe: Both certain enemies and the player—the latter via artefacts or the powers of certain forms—can project flying balls of electricity by which to damage their opponents.
- Super Drowning Skills: Most of the forms available to the player—including the base "human" form—drown underwater, losing health with varying degrees of rapidity.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Via arrangements with beings from other worlds, the protagonist's people can exchange forms with those beings. There are six such available to the player, gained over the course of the game. The main villain, being of the same people as the player-character, evinces the same power, with their own set of forms, during the final battle.
