Shame Legacy from Destructive Creations and Fairyship Games is a first-person stealth horror experience set in a cultist village. Learn more about it in our Shame Legacy review!
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Shame Legacy from Destructive Creations and Fairyship Games is a first-person stealth horror experience set in a cultist village. Your name is William. You wake up in the forest with no recollection of what has happened. You have a severe wound in your abdomen and are still bleeding from it. You manage to make your way to a nearby settlement, only to collapse as soon as you set foot within Wakefield Village. What follows is probably a hallucination since you see the whole place burning while a priest scolds you for no reason. What is really going on?
Since the game is played from a first-person perspective, you can probably know what to expect about the controls. You’ll move around with the left analog stick as you use the right one to move the camera. The Square button will be for interacting. This can be used to collect items, push or pull something, or hide somewhere when you’re in danger. You can vault over objects with the X button. The Circle button will be for crouching so that you can move at a slower pace while not making as much noise or so that you can move through narrow spots. If you want to rush through an area, just press and hold down the R2 button to sprint.
With Sham Legacy being a survival horror experience, you’ll need to pay attention to what you do as you explore each area. The villagers can see you, and they can certainly hear you! When you are moving, there are three different levels for the sound you make: low, moderate, and high. These are affected by how fast you’re moving, so when you crouch, you will be making less sound than if you run and try to rush through an area.
If any of the villagers see you, they will not only run towards you to attack, it will also alert everyone else in the area by shouting. As you can probably guess by now, that’s bad news for you! If you want to survive, you’ll need to take things slowly as you find the best route to move through each area so that you don’t leave yourself wide open. The villagers look as if they have been possessed by something. Be sure to avoid traps, or else you’ll lure enemies toward you! Speaking of which, the villagers in Sham Legacy sorta reminded me a bit of the Ganados from the beloved Resident Evil 4.
At first, there’s no way for you to defend yourself against any of the villagers, so if they spot you, you better be ready to reload from your last checkpoint. The good news is that you’ll gain access to a peculiarly looking cane that William will be able to use during a struggle with a villager. To do this, you will have to move the icon toward the big circle and then tap the button that is shown. Do this a couple of times, and two buttons will show up on the screen. Hold these buttons together, and you’ll be able to use the cane to throw the villager to the side so that you can make your escape.
After successfully defending against a villager’s attack, William starts to get a panic attack. While in a state of panic, your vision will become blurry, and if you’re attacked by another village while panicked, you’ll be done for and will need to reload from the last checkpoint. The good news is that you can cure William from his panic attack by finding a tranquilizing potion. Drink it, and William will return to his former self, calming down before it’s too late. Do know that if you use one of these potions during your run, you’ll lock yourself out of a trophy.
The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. The list includes 2 Bronze trophies, 4 Silver trophies, and 9 Gold trophies. It won’t be an easy trophy run since you will have to complete the game at least twice since that’s one of the trophy requirements. You’ll have to complete the game without dying and complete the game without using a single tranquilizing potion. There’s also a trophy for finding all of the nine notes in the game and one trophy for successfully using the cane to defend against five villagers. And for one of your runs, you’ll have to beat the game in less than two hours.
Shame Legacy is a first-person stealth horror experience that plays it safe by paying homage to other games in the genre while offering a very linear journey. Main character with amnesia? Check. Weird monster chasing after you for no reason? Check. Villagers who have gone crazy/are possessed? Check. There are some gameplay hiccups here and there as well. While the tranquilizing potion is supposed to end William’s panic attack so that he can use the cane again to defend himself against a villager, there are several instances when a villager kills him even after he has just chugged a whole tranquilizing potion. Shame Legacy is out on PlayStation 5 with a $34.99 price tag. There’s also a PlayStation 4 version available as a separate purchase for $29.99.
Disclaimer
This Shame Legacy review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Destructive Creations.
