Humble Bundle has been killing my free time for god knows how many years now. First, I bought a bundle for some game and ended up wasting more time on Nail’d that tagged along with the game I wanted. This has happened quite a few times now. One of these side games is Shadow Warrior.

When I first noticed Shadow Warrior in my Steam library, I was curious if it was the original. I had heard of Shadow Warrior being one of Duke Nukem’s brethren from 3D Realms. On further investigation I discovered that Shadow Warrior has a legacy dating back to 1997, the original was developed by 3D Realms to keep Duke Nukem company. This one, on the other hand, is developed by Flying Wild Hog and published by Devolver Digital because of course it is.

Flying Wild Hog had a job on their hands to not only match but beat the original, if you are still curious how they did, read on.

Story:

The story follows Lo Wang, an assassin hired by business tycoon Orochi Zilla to recover a mystical sword called the Nobitsura Kage. When the deal to buy the sword goes haywire wang discovers the existence of Shadow Beings from the Shadow Realm. A rogue demon named Hoji allies himself with Wang while explaining that the sword can be used to kill the demon kings.

The game follows Wang and Hoji as they try to recover the sword, first from the demons, then Zilla and finally using it to bring peace back to the Shadow Realm.

The story is complex but is delivered well through first-person cutscenes with really funny dialogue and chapter names. There are also funny fortune cookies that are either just dumb or give you some insight into the game world.

Sound:

Background music isn’t anything complex, it’s been kept simple and varied but it is rarely heard since there are tons of sound effects to cover it up like the unique sounds made for the different kinds of demons when they walk, attack or take damage like they do most of the time. The sound design team has done a number with the sounds. All the enemies and their attacks sound unique, even the little things like your bullets bouncing off shields sound right.

The weapons too sound about right though I feel the sound on the crossbow and sword is a little underwhelming. The sword specials too could have used angrier effects but the current ones aren’t too bad.

The dialogue while cheesy is well delivered. All the voice actors have done a good job with what they were given and while the writing might not be good enough for most players the delivery makes them fun.

Graphics:

Shadow Warrior’s graphics are a class above. The world looks great: The trees, the koi ponds and the full art design feels submerged in Japanese culture. The colour pallet is bright for most of the game which embroils you in the world. The effects on the world like water reflecting onto rocks or explosions on car screens is a sight to behold. The design of even the smallest things like doors, chests and cupboards feels full-on Japanese which just adds to the immersion.

The character design on the other hand needs something. While the enemies are well detailed, they don’t feel like they are from a different realm, they look too human to be accepted as something from a different plane of existence. Just about all of them have a human form, they also move like humans which ruins the feel since you expect the enemies to be some hellspawn. The human characters are nice. They look good while being well animated.

The effects too are great. Explosions are a dime a dozen while the electrical effect on enemies is fun to watch. There are small gas effects on poisoned enemies to show their ailment. The way enemies light up when they get angry is also nice. The only effects that look weak are the water ripple effect when walking on water and the highlights on interactable objects but they are hardly noticeable unless you are looking for them.

Gameplay:

From all the YouTube videos online, it seems that Shadow Warrior is your typical Doom clone. There is some truth to that: it’s fast, it’s furious, it’s linear with fixed combat areas where you take on tons of demons but at the same time it does something different; the weapons and powers. Shadow Warrior makes the sword, its melee weapons your best bet most of the time so let’s talk about weapons before going deeper

Shadow Warrior’s most powerful weapon is not some gun but rather a sword. Along with the sword are a ton of standard weapons like a revolver which fires slowly but at the same time does great damage, an SMG which fires fast but has low damage and a crossbow which is a little faster than the revolver and does some great damage at the same time along with a rocket launcher since this is an old school game’s reboot. I would like to say that every weapon serves a purpose, Serious Sam style but they don’t. All non-special weapons have one job: crowd control. You use the guns to keep enemies away from you during hectic frenzies while you get your shit together. The standard weapons don’t feel all that great, while they provide good damage, they aren’t all that fun to use and feel static. The SMG feels like it has no recoil at all but is useful at keeping enemies away while you prepare your powers for action.

The sword is amazing, it’s a sword that you can use to hack demons apart, a sword that can focus power through it to give blasts of energy and a sword who will become your best friend. The sword feels powerful with how quickly it kills demons along with the way it acts when you are using it. It shines when special moves are ready, it tries to fight Lo Wang when power is passing through it, it just feels powerful. The problem with the sword is the activation for its special moves: you need to double-tap a direction and then hold the left mouse button. This is cumbersome especially when you are running to a hiding area to recover. In a fit, it doesn’t even activate correctly so you could have the wrong move lined up. Thankfully once you get used to the mechanics bad triggers are few and far apart so after a few hours of playing you use the sword like it is a part of you.

Along with the weapons are powers that Mr Wang possess. The most basic of these is a dash that Doom Eternal has since copied. The dash lets you move out of the way or towards an enemy quickly. The other powers include shockwaves that throw enemies backwards, make them float in the air to give you easy shots and abilities to Lo Wang. The combination of these powers, the guns and the swordplay make for some excellent moments in gameplay where the best action is not always obvious but is just a thought away. A Shadow Warriors player’s best weapon is understanding what combination of guns, sword and powers to use and when.

To help with the weapons are the upgrade system. You can use money found in the world to upgrade your weapons, each weapon has unique upgrades but they usually end up being accuracy, speed and damage. There are Ki crystals that are hidden around each level that let you upgrade your power, finally, you gain karma points by winning fights in style to upgrade your abilities. Karma is easy to gain by varying your methods of taking out enemies in a fight. This makes you use different styles to maximise karma so that the next fight is easier.

The enemies are decently varied. Most of the demon spawn are melee attackers to maximise the use of the sword but to keep the melee attackers’ company are winged enemies that use fireballs to ruin your day. There are also human enemies with guns who are run of the mill generic attackers but there are also enemies with swords who can deflect your melee attacks so you need to get behind them to do damage. Finally, on the enemy front are the bosses who are typical old school bosses. Killing a boss means shooting at weak points or tricking them into using the environment.

The levels are a mixed bag. Some of them are too linear for my liking while some of them have open maps where you can use everything in your arsenal to cause havoc. It’s strange because the good and bad levels are mixed so it doesn’t seem like level design was learnt along the way but rather levels were designed and then positioned. None of the levels are horrible however, all of them have tons of secrets with explosives placed at thought out positions. The explosives are a godsend when you notice them, they can turn the fights from no chance in hell to something anyone can do. The item positioning in levels is well done as well, while not at obvious there are health packs and ammo placed around levels. They are so well placed that you get annoyed when you notice them after finishing a fight.

The combination of weapons, the sword and the levels themselves more often than not makes for some excellent gameplay. The game constantly keeps you on your toes while at the same time makes you consider sword specials. It’s fast, tactical and completely crazy, making me love it.

Conclusion:

Fun, fast and more tactical than expected gameplay keeps you tied to your seat. The gameplay is only improved with great graphics and the sound playing a support role to warn you about things to come. The combination makes for a fun game from start to finish while doing nothing new but does so much so well that you can’t complain about much except the occasional tediousness from having what feels like the same fight in open areas.

Pros	Cons
Story is well delivered	Story can be confusing
Sound as whole is well done	Some sound effects could be btter
Graphics look good	Some effects could be better
Great sword and mostly great weapons	Poor SMG
Fun chaotic combat	No COOP