There aren't a lot of games out there that can actually make me laugh as hard as Shadow Warrior did, that alone is something that the developers from Flying Wild Hog can be proud of, the writing for this game is incredible cheesy, smart and funny at the same time, the humor is very juvenile, but it's done so well that it ended up making me laugh more than once. The interactions between our anti-hero Lo Wang (yup, that's his name!) and his personal pet demon Hogi are probably the parts that add the most value to the game's humor.
The younger readers might not know this, but Shadow Warrior is a remake/re-imagining of a classic title that came out in the distant year of 1997 under the same name, this trend of repeating names for the many reboots and remakes that are being released lately is certainly prone to generate confusion among gamers, still in this case it's not that bad, the developers are clearly proud of their source material and that is shown in several instances throughout the campaign with interesting references to the game from 1997.
You play as Lo Wang, a smart-ass assassin for hire that is sent to track down and retrieve a powerful demonic sword called the Nobitsura Kage, after a very stylish intro and some failed negotiations, Lo Wang swiftly starts chopping heads and any other sort of body parts that might get in his way.
A few minutes after the initial fight you will collect your demonic companion that is quick to start teasing our protagonist, more than the actual story it's the interactions between these two that will keep you entertained throughout the campaign.
While at times there seems to be a somewhat deep storyline behind Shadow Warrior, it's never really fleshed out enough for the player to care, clearly what matters here is the silliness of the humor and our anti-hero distorted personality.
The gameplay in this re-imagined Shadow Warrior is amazing, quick and frenetic are some of the adjectives you can use to summarize it.
The developer Flying Wild Hog fortunately absorbed elements from several games and not just the original title from 1997, you will find colossal bosses much like you did in Painkiller, the constant stream of enemies running straight at you is an element that reminded me of Serious Sam, Lo Wang care-free personality is very reminiscent of the original title but takes a few hints from the Duke himself.
Actually this title is more or less what Duke Nukem Forever should have been, a great old-school shooter with just a few tweaks here and there to make it more accessible to newcomers.
Shadow Warrior introduces some very cool RPG elements, there are three leveling up systems in place, the first comes in the form of upgrading your many weapons using the money you find scattered throughout the expansive levels, it's probably the most straightforward of the three systems but it's well done nonetheless (Quad Barrel Shotgun? Yes, please!).
The second system is intertwined with Ki Crystals found in pre-determined locations, the crystals allow Lo Wang to gain some new powers and improve ones he already has like the healing spell.
These two first leveling up systems encourage the player to explore the levels in search of secret areas (yes, they're back!) and hopefully earn some extra cash and crystals.
The third and final system is the most complex one, Karma, it basically works as experience that you earn when taking down enemies, there is a catch though, when all the demons from an area are dispatched Wang is rated from 1 to 5, performing well grants our Katana wielding protagonist a lot more (bonus) karma, think of how the rating system works in Devil May Cry and you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Shadow Warrior.
This final system is very well implemented, encouraging and rewarding players that take the time to add a bit of variety to their kills.
Another major feature from Shadow Warrior that differs from most first person shooters is the Katana, it works and feels great, a lot of different powers and skills can be acquired for it while leveling up and they sure come in handy. It may sound strange, especially because we're talking about a FPS here, but the Katana was the weapon I probably used the most during the campaign, it just works so well and feels so powerful that I simply couldn't put it down, besides it doesn't run out of ammo which is always a plus.
Unfortunately the game suffers a bit from a technical point of view, while artistically Shadow Warrior is a great looking game with breath taking scenarios and a lot of variety to its levels, technically it's pretty poor, it's not ugly per se, it's just very poorly optimized.
While our "gaming rig" is not amazing, it plays most games on the market very well, yet with Shadow Warrior the loading times were pretty long, particularly when loading up a new level, there are also some (thankfully) quick loadings at random points throughout the levels, these are a minor concern as they are pretty quick, still it's very weird to see them there.
In a regards to the musical score and sound effects in general they're all pretty forgettable, nothing stands out, particularly the sound effects from the weapons I expected a lot more, still they're not bad, just not as good as the gameplay.
The intentional cheesy voice-acting is well done thankfully, Lo Wang in particularly sounds great, Hoji is also very well (over)acted.
Shadow Warrior is a nice return to the old days of the FPS genre, the developers did a great job in keeping some old school elements intact without making it feel obsolete, they also added some features from more recent games without losing the Shadow Warrior identity.
Unfortunately some technical issues and the lack of multiplayer keep this game from reaching its full potential, still, even with all the aforementioned flaws, this is a game we recommend as there aren't a lot of other modern first person shooters like this out there.
Platform(s): PC
Developer(s): Flying Wild Hog
Publisher(s): Devolver Digital
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