Shining in the Darkness review - Sega Megadrive

Okay, so I might not be the biggest role-playing fan in the World, but if one comes into the office that's a particularly good example of the genre or has enough interesing features, I'll most certainly play it. I thought that this fitted both the above catergories when I first played it - the graphics are stunning, the menu system and presentation is the best I've seen in a console RPG. However, there are a couple of flaws which marred my enjoyment. Firstly, the passive combat is too random - I'd prefer to have the chance to use my own skills to win a battle, rather than have the computer do it for me. And secondly, there's not enough variety or excitement. Fans of pure role-playing games might enjoy the action, but considering the game is £50.00, I'd strongly recommend you take a good look beforehand.

The moment you slap Shining in the Darkness into your Megadrive, you're in for a visual treat. The front-end of the game is more than impressive, with large and detailed sprites conversing with or attacking you. The sound isn't bad either, with a variety of tunes playing according to the situations (dramatic in combat, classical when in the Kings' court and so on), although the sound effects are pretty sparse. However, this quality doesn't quite extend to the gameplay. The exploration part is quite fun, but the combat system, however pretty the monsters, makes the going slow and detracts a lot of excitement from the game. Role-playing fans may enjoy this, but it still pales in comparison to the likes of Sword of Vermillion.

I still vividly recall the pre-release hype that surrounded this game. I was a massive fan of Dungeon Master on the Atari ST, and if I remember rightly the Japanese news correspondent in Sega Pro magazine hailed this as something of a Dungeon Master-beater. Unfortunately, this was wildly inaccurate. The only thing the two games had in common was the first-person viewpoint. Whereas Dungeon Master was real-time, Shining simply took the turned based, random combat of traditional Japanese RPGs and forced you to view it through the character's eyes. Although there will be many Sega fanboys out there who disagree with the harsh score, I personally believe that the MM team were bang on the money yet again. Shining is ultimately a frustrating and rather dull experience that will have you wishing you were playing something else - namely the game that Sega Pro said this would better!