[h1][i]Who wants some Wang?[/i]
~Lo Wang[/h1]
When talking about Shadow Warrior, I think it's important to start a year earlier. And not because of Duke Nukem 3D, a game for which Build Engine was made (a couple of Build Engine games actually came out before it, but the engine itself was developed for Duke specifically), but because of how a few months later id Software revolutionized the genre again. Yes, I'm talking about Quake.
Quake was a game changer. Unlike 2.5D engines like DOOM and Build, it allowed true 3D world geometry—a fully three-dimensional world defined by polygons. Enemies and weapons? Those weren't sprites anymore either. Those were fully 3D models. And there were lights. Instead of simple sector brightness values, the Quake Engine used lightmaps for its static world, while moving 3D models used Gouraud shading. Quake was also the first mainstream FPS engine designed from the beginning to leverage specialized 3D graphics hardware. Like I said, it was a game changer.
Yet 2.5D didn't die yet. And Nick Newhard's BLOOD that came out in March of 1997 was a great proof of that. While keeping everything Duke 3D was famous for, it was a great tribute to the horror movies fan. It wasn't by no means technologically advanced, and it didn't even try to be, but it was a lot of fun. What's interesting, though, is that BLOOD actually started under the Apogee and was sold to Monolith in order for them to be able to focus on their own project—Shadow Warrior.
Now, it's time for us to finally start talking about the game itself. And it's that part of the review when you're supposed to understand that such a long introduction wasn't for nothing. See, Apogee was aware of Quake. They even made Duke say “I ain't afraid of no Quake” in his game in order to emphasize that they're not afraid of the competition. So, while BLOOD wasn't really that different from Duke 3D technologically (it had highly advanced gore, more pronounced physics, and some objects used voxels, but still, it was pretty much the same thing), Shadow Warrior was made with Quake in mind. It wasn't always like that, and exactly like BLOOD, the game started with its own engine and a much darker tone (we'll come back to it later), but things changed when Apogee understood just how different the demand became. At the end of 1996 they even changed their name to 3D Realms in order to address that. What we have here was “the next big thing” from them.
And in a way it was pretty cool. We finally got climbable ladders, we've got controllable vehicles, the Room-Over-Room effect was heavily improved, there was 3dfx support, we've got transparent water, the engine allowed the environment to be more destructible, etcetera. On paper? It sounded totally rad. In reality, though... Let's just admit it, it was obvious they tried to achieve modern things with an old technology. And it just... Didn't feel right. Controllable vehicles felt clunky as heck, Room-Over-Room, while being improved, was still fake, 3dfx actually made things to look worse (since the game was all about pixels, it only made things blurry), etc. BLOOD felt natural. It took proud with it being old-school. SW? It tried too hard.
Moreover, it looks like they aimed for hardcore Duke 3D fans here. They wanted to please those who wanted more challenge. And in a process? They made things worse for the casual players. Even on low difficulties this game can be an ass. And I'm not talking about the enemies, it's not only about them. Level design, for example, feels strange. Lots of things you'll need to do in order to progress are hidden better than some of Duke 3D / BLOOD secrets. Why? I mean, I can see why hardcore fans would want that, but why should those who just want to play through the game look for secrets in order to just progress? It's like with FINAL FANTASY II, which wanted us to go through a wall in order to progress. It doesn't feel right.
Finally, there was the setting. Don't get me wrong, it was good, just... Very specific. So specific that it can be seen as racist. Let me explain. Duke 3D was a satire that made fun of those muscular action movie heroes: Rambo, Commando... Shadow Warrior was a satire too, but it aimed for that certain disaster that was happening in America with Asian stuff. Chinese food, Bruce Lee movies, ninjas... We had a white rapper doing “ninja rap” in a movie called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze for feck's sake! That's what Shadow Warrior tried to address. In a very Duke Nukem way. Our hero here is Lo Wang. Obviously, it's a Chinese name and there are nods to kung fu, but at the same time Lo will act as a ninja, use shurikens, and even do Mr. Miyagi's famous chopstick thing from Karate Kid. There's more (Shadow Warrior is a game that lets you kill Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon, for example), but I think you've got the idea. Like I said, it can be seen as racist. Especially nowadays, just because of it being a very specific satire from a very specific time period. It didn't age well. Some things are only possible in a certain time frame.
But OK, I'm making it sound like Shadow Warrior is a bad game. It is not. If something, it's very good and is considered as one of the Build Engine's “Holy Trinity”: Duke Nukem 3D, BLOOD, and Shadow Warrior (there are other really good games, but those were based on Duke 3D code and therefore didn't make the list). It's one of the essentials. You want to check all the important games from the 2.5 era? Don't you even dare to skip this one. It was a swan song of the classic 2.5D approach. It tried too hard to compete with 3D, but it was still a lot of fun. Make sure to keep in mind that it feels a lot like “extreme levels for Duke 3D” (something that was sold on both authorized and unauthorized CDs back in the day) and aims for the challenge instead of fairness and polish, and you'll have your fun with it. And it's not like you're supposed to pay anything. Thanks to Devolver Digital (who wanted to promote their reboot), this game is completely free now. But.
What's really uncool about this release is that it's a base game only, no expansions. Not even the free one. Both shareware episode (Enter the Wang) and Code of Honor (the main game) are included, but neither Twin Dragon (which was released for free in 1998) nor Wanton Destruction are here. Devolver is generous, but not stupid. To access the expansions, you'll need to pay for the Redux version, which, aside from a very arguable source port, also includes the original DOS version that runs in a DOSBox environment. Talking about DOSBox, by the way: This version runs in DOSBox too, DOSBox SVN-lfn to be precise. Which is better than the ancient old default version, but still, they could have done better. Still, you can use the game's files from here to run any source port you want (JFSW, Raze, VoidSW...) and it is possible to change the emulator manually too, so... Let's not complain. Especially since again, this here is free.
And it's not like there's nothing cool about it. Exactly the opposite. Count me surprised, but this version comes with ten prototype builds included, from September 9, 1993, to April 9, 1997. And it's an extremely interesting thing to have because you'll be able to see the whole process, the way the game changed to be what it is now. Like I said, it wasn't even a Build game originally. The Pre-Build prototype feels a lot like Wolfenstein 3D, and heck, there's even that juicy cutscene, in which our hero transforms into a ninja. Looks very DOS, if you know what I mean. It's also very interesting to see how dark most of the early versions were, almost like Hexen. Serious too. Only in 1996 did the game begin being shaped into what we know as Shadow Warrior today, for the reasons I've already mentioned. Like I said, a very interesting thing to see. So yeah. Not only have we got ourselves a free game, we've got all of its history with it. Totally deserves a thumb up.
