Shame Legacy is a new survival horror game developed by Fairyship Games and Revenant Games. I got to review Shame Legacy on PC and as a fan of the horror genre, I personally thought that the game could have been so much better if there was just one thing that made it satisfying or an aspect that made it stand out. Unfortunately, Shame Legacy can feel like a generic copy of any horror game that has come over the past few years. This review will talk about what you can expect from the game, how the game runs and plays, and highlight some of the negatives that make it an average game at best.
Shame Legacy begins with you taking the role of William. Disoriented and injured with a stab wound to the torso, you begin the journey instantly without any backstory. As you proceed, you realize that you are in a wooded area in the very late hours of the day, heading in any direction where you can make sense of things. You soon realize that you’re initially looking for your daughter, as indicated by her screams screaming for her father. The location itself is Wakefield Village, which soon turns out to be a small village run by a cult.
The main mechanic of the game requires you to approach everything with stealth as you try to sneak past enemies to make it to the other side and progress in the story. The enemies that you have to worry about are the possessed villagers, mumbling their words, but actively looking for you. While the other main enemy is the demon-like figure that is always on fire. This enemy reminded me of Nemesis from the Resident Evil series but was nothing that scary, apart from the occasional jump scares that you can kind of already anticipate.
The story of Shame Legacy takes quite some time to make any sense. This becomes apparent very quickly as you try to grasp things and try to make sense of whatever mystery the game wants you to uncover. In addition, the story isn’t the only thing that will have you confused, but it is also the gameplay that is frustrating. It is frustrating not because of any bug, but how the gameplay is designed, especially when trying to deal with enemies. Since the game wants the player to approach everything by sneaking around, getting caught by an enemy leaves you helpless as there is certainly no way to defeat them in any way, other than to release yourself from their clutches and continue running.
If you remember games like Amnesia, followed by most horror games that have come over the years ever since you will be familiar with hiding inside closets to escape from an enemy’s sight and to evade. Shame Legacy does this with the poorest of designs and zero practicality. With a bizarre mechanic of moving the whole mouse up and down to crack open the door and peek out from inside the closet, this mechanic is quite useless when it comes to learning about an enemy’s position. You can only watch the enemy in one direction, while the angle of your sight is so narrow that it never really helps you in showing where the enemy is.
While the heavy focus is on a stealthy approach, this becomes very boring fast. This is because the lowest noise you can make is by crouch walking, and this slows you down. To avoid enemies, you have to crouch walk in almost all locations, making it boring really quickly. If you do get caught by an enemy, you will get one chance to get away but are also left hurt and vulnerable for the next time. You can get healing items, that can increase your chances of survival. However, without any health, you will die the next time an enemy catches you again.
The main way of unlocking the mystery and progressing in the story is by pushing on and by completing puzzles. Shame Legacy will often throw puzzles in locations that you will first need to solve in order to unlock the next area. This is nothing new in horror games, but I quite enjoyed some real challenges when it came to solving a puzzle. The only thing that annoyed me about the puzzles was the clues that I had to find. Since the game offers no help in finding a hidden item, I had to sweep every location, corner, and space to find what was required for the puzzle.
Final Verdict
Shame Legacy is just another horror game that brings nothing special to the genre. For newcomers that are totally new to the concept of such horror survival games with jumpscares, this might be something new. However, that is highly unlikely considering that there are so many games that you can compare it to. From Blair Witch and Amnesia to Layers of Fear, and any other horror game that you might have played over the past years. As frustrating as the gameplay can be, there isn’t much to offer when it comes to its story or anything that makes it stand out. For these reasons, Shame Legacy is an average game that isn’t lame or broken but is nothing great either. If you are intereseted in the game, check out Shame Legacy on Steam.
Final Verdict: 5.0/10
