The original Shadow Warrior was developed by 3D Realms in 1997 the year after their latest release: Duke Nukem 3D, a game done in a similar style and one that I've mentioned before. Both games are tongue-in-cheek first person shooters with an emphasis on over-the-top gore and humour, with Shadow Warrior having a more Eastern style of level and weapon design and a more stereotypical humour base when compared to the western pop-culture mocking of DN3D. If you want an idea of what kind of humour is present in Shadow Warrior, the name of the main character is Lo Wang. Yeah. Wang, much like Duke Nukem, is also keen on many one-liners that I'm sure you can probably guess in nature. Shadow Warrior was, and perhaps still is, not as fondly remembered as it's older brother Duke Nukem 3D, despite being a solid game.
Now, however, development studio Flying Wild Hog has rebooted the game for a modern day, with new elements fit for the current age, as well as serving many nods to the original game while also keeping with it a throwback style that seeks to honour traditional FPS's of the day. In the wake of similar games that attempted this like the infamous Duke Nukem Forever, the result of Shadow Warrior is a rather stunning and remarkable achievement in how to best approach rebooting the feel of classic PC first person shooters, and stands as it's own as a fun and overall great game in it's own right.
The "story" of the original Shadow Warrior, for what it mattered, was fairly straightforward and simple. As Lo Wang, a former bodyguard to Master Zilla, your job is to fight through the hordes of demons summoned by Zilla as you try to locate and stop Zilla himself. For the rebooted Shadow Warrior, the story has been greatly expanded upon. You are still Lo Wang, the fast-talking comic book collector and overall badass who works for Orochi Zilla, and Wang is tasked with locating and retrieving an ancient and powerful sword known as the Nobitsura Kage. However, shit quickly hits the fan when in the process, hordes of demons from what's known as the Shadow Realm are released onto Earth. As Wang escapes, he encounters a demon by the name of Hoji, who was banished to Earth centuries prior for reasons he does not remember, and the duo team up to locate the famed sword, which is in fact three different swords of the same name that, when fused together, become the demon-killing Nobitsura Kage in it's fullest capacity.
For a game of this nature, the story ends up being surprisingly enjoyable and competent. The progression is paced well and logically, and the characters that make up it are notable, and at the very least somewhat interesting. Lo Wang himself has some great lines, and develops from being, in his own words, "once an asshole," into...well still an asshole, but a more heroic and selfless asshole. Hoji is full of sarcastic and humorous wisdom, and the best lines are when the two of them are talking together as you go through the levels. The rest of the cast largely only make appearances at certain events, key among these the demons known as the Ancients, a family of demons of whom much the story is centred around. There are three bosses that each impart a memory of one of several Ancients and these memories are told through stylized and impressive animated cutscenes. Other characters are present for much smaller periods of time, and largely serve to simply progress the story, or add an objective to a level (which Wang usually comments unfavourably on). The voice acting on the parts of the main characters is solid, and are able to establish both humour and drama at different parts of the story. The soundtrack is also great, with an Eastern-style sound mixed in with a hint of rock metal, and the sound effects are equally impressive with strong-sounding gun and sword sounds, as well as some really mushy and messy blood gushing sound effects.
The levels themselves are large and have a great amount of detail and appealing visuals. There are only a handful of sections where the game feels really linear, and it's usually meant as an advance to a boss area. The levels are full of crates and cabinets that house ammo and money, as well as plenty of secrets to find and collect if you put in the effort. Various statues can be found that aid in your end-of-level score (also known as a metascore) and these can be found in little areas off the beaten path or precariously under some otherwise unremarkable boxes. You can also find fortune cookies that not only heal you slightly, but provide a cheeky "fortune" for you (for example, one I encountered said: "You will find a fortune cookie"). In some levels, both can be found in special secret areas that appear identical to ones from the original game; pixels and all. The levels do an admirable job of showing off the style of graphics the game employs, ranging from cherry-blossom pagoda's, to suburbs, to high-tech facilities. Apart from some disappearing textures, I didn't encounter any noticeable graphical bugs. The one issue I did have with the level design though is that the length of the levels can be it's own undoing. A couple later levels in particular have certain areas that feel almost identical to a previous part of the level, and the confusion caused me some unwarranted backtracking. It is, however, not a truly glaring issue, although perhaps a mini-map might have been nice.
Gameplay is where Shadow Warrior really triumphs though, and it's execution is a lesson to developers of shooters both new and throwback-style. Combat is bloody, messy, and ultimately an over-the-top gong-show of visceral mayhem. It's a hell of a lot of fun, and I never found it to get repetitive; a truly astonishing feat in the genre by and large. There are numerous types of enemies that are introduced as you progress, and a few require some serious maneuvering and precision. You have at your disposal over the course of the game weapons including a magnum-style pistol, a crossbow, an SMG you can later dual-wield, and more. Each weapon is unique, and able to be upgraded in three different ways, with one upgrade guaranteed to add a secondary fire method. However, perhaps the most useful weapon will be the katana you carry the length of the game. The katana is capable of slicing demons up in any which way possible, and through the use of "Karma" you can learn new moves that make the katana an even more devastating and useful weapon, along with other passive upgrades like increased health or overall damage.
Karma is earned through finding fountains of blood hidden throughout the levels, or by achieving a high ranking after each bout of fighting. Each encounter ends when all enemies in the area are defeated, and you will receive a ranking out of five that will determine the boost to Karma you get along with the amount you got from the enemies. How your rank is determined is based on how much HP you lose, and the variety of weapons and powers you use, including your Ki powers. There are four Ki powers you can learn: Healing, Protection, Push and Shockwave. Depending on your playstyle and the difficulty you play on, some may be used more than others, particularly the Healing power. The Ki powers, much like the Katana special attacks, are hard to pull off by default (as they involve double-tapping the movement keys), but unlike the Katana moves, the Ki powers aren't as widely useful. The upgrades don't make as much difference as perhaps they should, and I found myself unsuccessfully trying to balance them into my combat style. Despite this, combat is still fast-paced and frantic. The level areas are usually large and offer multiple directions of attack and defence, and it really is just incredibly satisfying to bust out the katana and annihilate a legion of demonic entities with a few well-placed swipes.
Shadow Warrior is truly impressive in how it handles an old IP with finesse and quality. It's arguably one of the best throwback shooters around, and it would still be a competent and highly enjoyable game even without it's predecessors name. It's also surprisingly longer than you might at first believe, myself clocking in around 10-15 hours over the course of the games 17 Chapters, playing on the harder difficulty while also searching for secrets. Not to mention, there's also a survival mode of sorts, as well as an "EX Mode." Without a doubt, you're getting your money's worth for this game. If you are a fan of classic shooters like Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, (or of course the original Shadow Warrior), or also if you like modern over-the-top shooters like Serious Sam, I highly recommend giving this game a go. It can be found on Steam and GOG.com, and you can also try out a demo for it on Steam. Definitely don't miss this one.
YAY
- Exciting and visceral combat, with variety in the upgradeable weapons and powers.
- Smart and impressive level design that rewards exploration.
- Very pretty artistic style.
- Surprisingly competent and decent story, with a great sense of humour and wit.
- Longer than you might expect.
- The shining example of how to do classic throwback first person shooters!
NAY
- Length of some areas makes the locations, and their secrets, a bit repetitive.
- Frustrating falling and jumping mechanic that works against you.
- Notable difficulty spikes in the later half of the game.
- Ki Powers don't complement all playstyles, and are unintuitive to pull off.
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