Shadow Glyphs Review

A couple of summers ago, I found myself at Epikos Comics and Games in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Travis and I were passing through, and obviously knew we had to stop at any FLGSs we could find! So we came upon Epikos and spent time there perusing the wares. And that’s where I found Shadow Glyphs. A game where you have to create shadows to match a picture? I was definitely intrigued! I initially didn’t realize it is a single-player game until I got home with the game *facepalm*. Regardless, I was looking forward to trying my hand at this puzzle game. Now that I’ve made my way through it – how does it fare? Keep reading to find out!

Shadow Glyphs is a puzzle game in which you are attempting to recreate the patterns outlined on the Wall Cards of the 8 different temples. Sounds easy enough, right? Not so fast…… To recreate these patterns, you have at your disposal a number of oddly shaped Stone Blocks and the light of the Sun. You must stack/arrange/manipulate the Stone Blocks in such a way that when the Sun shines on them, the shadow they cast matches the pattern on the corresponding Wall Card. Success allows you to advance through the temple collecting clues and treasure along the way. Failure? That means a day wasted, as you must rearrange the Stone Blocks and wait for the next day when the Sun lines up perfectly to test your new arrangement. The goal of the game is to get through all of the temples in as few days (tries) as possible.

To setup for the game, place the Stone Blocks and the Tracker Card off to the side. Select a temple to start with, and place its 1st Wall Card into the vertical slot of the ‘board.’ Make sure you’ve got 2 AAA batteries, as this game does have a light source! You are now ready to begin the game.

Each temple is made up of 6 Wall Cards. You must solve the Wall Cards in numerical order when playing the game. Each of the 5 Wall Cards has iconography along the top which tells you which specific Stone Blocks will be used for the puzzle. Collect those blocks, and get to building! The game board is made up of 3 rows of Flagstones, which are the rows in which the Stone Blocks may be placed. Based on the outline on the Wall Card, you must decide which Stone Block goes where, and in which Flagstone row it belongs. Stone Blocks may be stacked, turned, flipped, etc., in whatever way necessary to complete the puzzle. Once you think you have gotten the placement of the Stone Blocks correct, you then turn on the attached Light (representative of the Sun) and see if your layout matches the Wall Card. If it does, then you may advance to the next Wall Card! If it does not, then you turn off the Light, remove the Stone Blocks, and try again. Each time you turn on the Light, one ‘day’ of game time passes, and is tracked on the Tracker Card.

Some Wall Cards will have hidden clues that could allow you to obtain special Treasure Items. These Treasure Items grant you a one-time-use power at any point throughout the rest of the game. For example, one item allows you to solve a puzzle with the light ON – quite a powerful object! When you have completed the puzzles of all 8 temples, total up the number of days it took for you to finish the adventure. Compare that number to the scores in the rulebook to see how you fared!

I have to say, even though this game is more puzzle-based than your standard board game, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. The premise is super simple, but actually solving these puzzles is way harder than it seems! It’s quite an abstract brain-burner, and I had a fun time with it. The biggest downside for me is just that it’s a solo game. But I could probably technically still play it with other people, just working together on the one puzzle. One of my concerns was replayability with this game, but I can firmly say that it will definitely be replayable for me. With a total of 40 puzzles included, each so different from the next, there is no possible way I will remember all of the solutions to each Wall Card. If I take enough time between plays of Shadow Glyphs, I know it’ll feel like my first time playing it every time.

The components are awesome. Super nice production quality, and that makes the game feel more immersive and exciting. It even folds up nicely into one unit for storage, and that’s always a huge plus for me. My only qualm is the rules sheet. It’s a little folded brochure-type sheet and it has all the solutions printed on it in plain sight. When reading the rules, I had to make sure I didn’t look at them accidentally. Or subconsciously. Or purposefully. Maybe if they were printed on their own little booklet, that would just make me feel more at ease.

All in all, am I happy that I picked up Shadow Glyphs? Yes. It’s a surprisingly complex little puzzle game that keeps my brain running in overdrive as I try to figure out the exact placement of each block. Will it stay in my collection? I think for the time being it will. But sometime soon I may just pass it on to the next gamer, to let them experience this interesting gameplay. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a bright 4 / 6. If you’re into more puzzle-y games, I would definitely recommend Shadow Glyphs!