To get this out of the way, it still looks and sounds decent or even good. The story is generic Lovecraft shlock —there, I said it. You know what you're gettig right from the start as there is hardly anything original to it. To be fair, it might have been more interesting back when it was released. It also runs well on modern machines. So for those aspects, Shadow of the Comet receives two stars. But the actual game is terrible and I cannot excuse it with it being old. There's hardly ever any indication where to go or what to do. Or that something on the screen is interactable with the exception of items you can pick up; a lot of which are hidden behind not highlighted objects, though, so that kind of defeats the whole point. The puzzles themselves are either mindnumbingly simple or unfathomable and nothing in between. Most of those harder puzzles or "action" sequences – yes, they put those in the game despite its abysmal controls – are a frustrating exercise in trial and error, including frequent surprise deaths. On top of it, a lot of times things you need to progress only happen after you did something totally unrelated somewhere else without, again, any indication whatsoever why you cannot progress or what it is that you are trying to do to begin with. Overall, this feels more like a chore and the mediocre experience is not worth the effort at all.
One thing this game gets right is style and atmosphere. I was impressed the most with how well light and darkness work here given the graphics are made of pencil streaks in (mostly) black and white. Sound is great, too, and it is definitely a creepy game. The gameplay felt good, too, though not very deep. You pretty much just walk around hallways, rooms and a few other backgrounds, avoiding/hiding/running from humanoid monsters. You don't have much stamina, though, so you must be careful and pay attention, so in combination with the game's overall mood of peril, you're always tense. The let down comes with the game's length, it's really kind of short and it also doesn't really go anywhere with its story. First of all, you can guess very well what's going on rather early and not much is being done with it. Second, it's basically the same thing over and over, the story repeats itself too much, trying to get a point across that's both, painfully obvious and obscure. So do I recommend the game? Yes, when on sale, due to the short experience and because it simply leaves more to be desired. What's there's well done, but not enough. If you're okay with short, go for it.
Don't want to bore you with describing what it's about, you can read that in the desription or other reviews. Art and music for this one are good. Not great, but good. The story is interesting due to its setting, but to be honest, there isn't really anything remarkable otherwise, takes the exact route you'd expect with little to no surprises. Which isn't a bad thing per se as it's still interesting to follow and told rather well. I liked that it gives you the opportunity to make a few decisions that won't really change much about how the story progresses, but they still form the protagonist. The other half of the medal, the gameplay, is a mixed bag. The few minigames and persuasion quizzes are fine and fun, but you will spend the most time clicking through dialogues or solving puzzles. (Including dialogue puzzles.) Problem is, not only are they all extremely easy but you also wouldn't have much other options than what is required to solve them even if you wouldn't figure them out in an instant, because there are always only a few things to use or interact with, rarely requiring you to leave the screen for a puzzle. One might argue this, at least, prevents you from getting stuck too long and true, it's still worth it for enjoying the story and the game's atmosphere, but with just a bit more effort in the puzzles section, this game would've been a 5 stars game for me.
