Shadow Warrior

My wife said if this review gets 50 likes and 5 awards, she will buy a case of beer, guys help me out.

[h1] «私たちにできるのは、すべてがうまくいくことを願うだけです。» [/h1] [h1] Минусы: [/h1] - Кошмарная контрастность и цветокоррекция в целом. На стандартной гамме ни черта не видно, прям тьма, и при этом глаза устают. Я тот еще любитель красивых насыщенных цветов по типу заката, рассвета, всяких пейзажей и так далее, но в этой игре явный перебор. Красивые виды в этой игре, безусловно, есть, но такое ужасное сочетание темной гаммы и контрастности дают только негативные впечатления от визуальной составляющей. Поэтому насладиться геймплеем и графикой абсолютно не получится. - Неуклюжий медленный арбалет с никчёмным дизайном. И такой же собрат по дизайну дробовик из хлама, даже сам главный высказал: «Вот это уродливый дробовик». Дошел только до 8 главы, поэтому всё оружие не получил, но, глянув прохождение, понял, что их дизайн такой же мусорный. Катана сама себе неплохая, но от обычных ударов на лкм и пкм толку мало, да и расчлененкой особо не насладишься, т.к. врагов довольно редко можно располовинить, хотя не исключено, что это из-за высокой сложности. Ну и раз уж дело зашло об расчлененке, то эффекты крови — мыльный фонтан. Да даже в симуляторе уборщика VCD кровь сделана намного лучше. - Навыки — бессмыслица, прокачиваешь, прокачиваешь — и никакого ощущения, что ты стал сильнее и можешь больше выкашивать врагов. [h1] Плюсы: [/h1] + Дизайн пистолета достойный, также пистолеты-пулемёты неплохие, радует, что у оружия есть прокачка, в особенности порадовал апгрейд на ПП, а именно стрельба с двух рук, ибо мало где можно увидеть эту клёвую фичу. Хоть и в данной игре она имеется только на пистолете-пулемёте. + Фишка с анимациями: если оружие полностью заряжено и мы нажмем на кнопку перезарядки, то увидим весьма милые анимации, как ГГ играется с оружием, например, крутит барабан пистолета или протирает лезвие катаны и так далее. + Наличие хоть какой-либо расчлененки тоже радует. + Дизайн некоторых мобов замечательный. [h1] Итог: [/h1] Ничем не примечательный шутер с упущенным потенциалом, да и моментами похожий на The Darkness II Итоговая оценка — 4/10

this was fun. A good, stupid fps about playing Lo Wang. Nowadays there's way better games, but I had fun. I pirated this game when it first came out. Forgive me.

Eh, this is the "worth it in a bargain bin" kinda deal. As far as I can tell after playing this one and Evil West, Flying Wild Hog games tend to start really strong and then they just drown themselves in tedium. Shadow Warrior starts with a great art style, fun katana slicing and dicing, and surprisingly enjoyable buddy-movie banter between Lo Wang and his demon friend. Gorgeous vistas and Hoji are basically the only two reasons I even made it to the end, because the combat got very stale very fast. Past the first third, it's basically a lot of "some fodder --> some shield guys --> 2 to 3 dumb uninteresting bullet sponges --> some flying guys for good measure, rinse and repeat" formula over and over and over again, with laughable enemy/arena variety, and weak-аss weapons. This combat loop is not strong enough to sustain a game half this size. Here is the tip: if and when you feel like you are fed up with this, but you're kinda still want to know how all of it is going to end - just switch to the baby difficulty. There is no shame in it, and you are not going to lose much, I promise.

Shadow Warrior 2013 walked so DOOM 2016 could run. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hilarious game, worth full price tbh. Made when devs actually put soul into their games.

I came for the swords and stayed for the Wang jokes. Shadow Warrior doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it slices it clean in half with a katana. The combat feels incredibly satisfying once it clicks. You're dicing demons while cracking jokes that would make your dad groan and your mom concerned. Story exists if you squint hard enough. The gunplay is solid, the swordplay is even better and Lo Wang is genuinely charming in a very stupid way. It won't blow your mind, but it will absolutely cut through your free time. [b][7.5/10][/b]

Compared to today's gaming standards, Shadow Warrior may feel a little lackluster. But if you can see past that you'll be in for one of the most badass experiences in gaming. You're a sarcastic and immature samurai (Lo Wang) with a cool sword, magic powers, and powerful guns who befriends a mischievous demon (Hoji) as they try to find the fragments of a powerful sword. The hilarious relationship between those two -as well as the humorous tone of the game overall- are definitely the highlights for me. I think the controls need a little work, especially when using special abilities (I recommend playing with a controller). I also think the boss fights are a bit lame, they're all pretty much the same fight. However most of the game is just hacking and slashing away at demons, and the gameplay in those areas flow really well with a good mix of upgradeable weapons, powers, and environmental elements. Oh, and for some reason the fall damage is REALLY bad. Do not dash down a staircase. Fortunately they remove fall damage in future games.

[h1][i]I like sword – that's a personal weapon![/i] ~Lo Wang, Shadow Warrior (1997)[/h1] Shadow Warrior never had sequels. It was a game beloved by many, sure, but it was also obvious that it was the end of the era. The Shareware model started to feel ancient, and so did its engine—the so-called [b]Build Engine[/b]. In a moment, [b]Build[/b] managed to compete with the most advanced thing for the time—[b]Quake[/b] engine. But while [b]Quake[/b] kept evolving (and even gave us [b]Half-Life[/b] in its modified version), [b]Build[/b] was a dead end. In a way, [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] was [i]the[/i] game that made it obvious. Its attempts to implement things like ladders and controllable vehicles felt clunky and unpleasant. The age of [b]2.5D[/b] came to its end, and it was time for a whole different kind of gaming. In glorious [b]3D[/b]. [b]Apogee[/b] were aware of that. They've changed their name to [b]3D Realms[/b] (the name they previously used for their publishing label) and focused on two major projects—[b]Duke Nukem Forever[/b] and [b]Prey[/b]. *SIGH*. Like I said, [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] never had sequels. Instead, in 2013 it got a reboot. And it all started with [b]Devolver Digital[/b]. What's cool about [b]Devolver[/b] is that they're crazy and know how to think outside the box. I mean, approaching [b]3D Realms[/b] (who lost their glory and pretty much closed in 2009 after failing to change and develop the major AAA games I've mentioned above) about the [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] IP and then giving the project to a young Polish developer who just released their first game—[b]Hard Reset[/b]? It was crazy. There was a huge chance for this game to fail. And in a way? In a way it did. See, the original [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] was a very specific kind of a satire—the one that is only possible in a very specific place and a very specific time. American 90s, when kids were eating Chinese food, learning kung fu basics, watching anime, and dreaming of being a ninja? That's what the original [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] was all about. It acted as a mirror that wanted us to see exactly how ridiculous people looked while trying to imitate Asian cultures without knowing a thing about those, exactly how [b]Duke Nukem 3D[/b] made fun of those muscular action movie heroes. Naturally, the times changed, the community evolved, and there was no need (place) for something like that. What did [b]Flying Wild Hog[/b] do? Well, they just tried to create something on their own, with [b]Hard Reset[/b]-like cutscenes and tone. The problem was—people remembered [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] as a funny thing. Giving them a dark and serious reboot would feel... wrong. So, [b]Flying Wild Hog[/b] tried to add humor and... It didn't work. Sure, sure, humor is a subjective thing. Can't argue with that. But “your mom” jokes? [i]Seriously?[/i] It feels like all the humor-related parts were written by a school kid. Those give the game a pretty cheap and unpleasant aftertaste. Which is a sad thing to see, since the main story is not really that bad. It involves a katana with powers and some sort of a spirit partner. It's not the best thing in the world, of course, but it works. It does. I can totally see it being seriously good with a darker tone and more polish. But like I said, the game desperately tries to be funny and fails pretty hard with that. Thankfully, the story in video games isn't everything (despite some of us disagreeing), and when it's about the gameplay? [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] reboot begins to shine. Remember [b]Lo Wang[/b]'s katana from the original 1997 game? [b]Lo[/b] said it himself—it was a [i]personal weapon[/i]. Melee weapons in FPS games are often like that, but come on. The katana. [i]The[/i] definition of a perfect sword. Also, it was one of those rare cases when a [b]Build Engine[/b] game altered the sprites to depict blood. [b]Flying Wild Hog[/b] understood all that and, well, they've built their whole game around the katana. And the result was... OK, you ever had a [b]Wii[/b]? That unique home console from [b]Nintendo[/b]? If you did, you sure remember the game called [b]Red Steel[/b], which was exactly what we have here, in the new [b]Shadow Warrior[/b]. It was a game for a motion controller, in which we used a katana and, eventually, some guns. You may say “Hey! We don't have motion controllers for [b]Steam![/b]” and you'll be right, we don't. At least, not properly. Yet somehow [b]Flying Wild Hog[/b] managed to deliver the feeling. How exactly? Well, by giving us advanced katana controls. No, seriously, there are even settings for it. We're free to choose between a basic experience that is pretty much random cuts, a normal one that allows us to take things in our hands, and the advanced one for pro players. You know what that means: [i]Dismemberment, baby![/i] That's right. We'll cut limbs, we'll cut heads, etc. And not just that—we'll learn the experience according to our performance after every battle. And yes, I said the experience. And if you played [b]BLOOD II[/b] and therefore afraid of such promises, don't be. Unlike [b]Monolith[/b] who failed to deliver the RPG element due to [b]GT Interactive[/b]'s strict framework, [b]Flying Wild Hog[/b] actually managed to implement lots of things that were promised to us in [b]BLOOD II[/b]. Aside from experience (called karma) that lets us learn new abilities and moves (yes, we've got the advanced katana moves that require certain manipulations with a gamepad's sticks), we've got... Well, magic. It's not much, but it's a thing, and again, we'll use the stick, which contributes a lot to the “[b]Wii[/b] feeling.” I just love that. I mean, I'm a huge fan of [b]Wii[/b], so... Yeah. Does that mean we've got ourselves a masterpiece? Nope~ What's funny here is that [b]Flying Wild Hog[/b] didn't just take all the good things from [b]Red Steel[/b], they somehow managed to also include all the bad ones. Remember how [b]Wii[/b] used to fail to recognize your moves properly? So you were forced to dance around your TV screaming “Come on! Come on, you piece of trash, do the right thing!”? The new [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] can be like that too. You're in the middle of a battle, enemies are all around you, you desperately need to heal, you double tap the left stick to the right and then press the left trigger to activate the healing “spell,” but... Yeah. Nothing happens. You're dead. Just because the game failed to recognize your manipulations, even despite the fact you totally did things right. That's [b]Flying Wild Hog[/b]'s [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] for you. Also, the level design is poor (the "secret" can sit right next to the main objective), while the graphics, while being solid and even aging surprisingly nicely (it's the colors, I guess), are terribly, [i]terribly[/i] optimized. No, seriously, I returned to this game years later, yet even on an [b]RTX 5080[/b] wasn't satisfied with the result. At least, not completely. In its heart, [b]Shadow Warrior[/b] reboot is still one of those Polish shooters: Clunky, unpolished, and criminally unoptimized. And it does a terrible, [i]terrible[/i] job addressing the original 1997 game. It's like one of those dads who think they're really funny. Again and again I felt like one of those “Dad, please, stop!” kids while playing it. But at the exact same time? Katana. It works. It may be just me loving this kind of stuff, so take my word with a pinch of salt here, but honestly, I did enjoy this game, a lot. If, like yours truly, you did enjoy your time with [b]Wii[/b] and look for something like [b]Red Steel[/b]? Give this game a chance. Just don't expect it to be the most polished experience ever and try to ignore all the cringey moments. Dixi.

Highly recommend! One of the best single player shooters I've played. Has a nice story, nice progression in skills and weapons, fun enemies and maps. Slicing up enemies with sword is a blast... and blasting the enemies with guns is a blast. It's always fun to get skill points, because they actually make you more bad ass. Maps have beautiful sceneries, that I think still hold up in 2025. It's just fun!

Shadow Warrior is not a bad game, but it really tries to be annoying and not take advantage of its strengths. The sword mechanics and skills are fun, enjoyable, and rewarding, especially when you combo them and are able to move and dodge pretty well. So, you would think the game would encourage you to do just that. But no, it gives you 6 more weapons of choice (ok by itself) but selects the most annoying enemies and bosses to fight with just the sword. Most fodder enemies can be dealt with with the sword, contrary to the most common medium and hard enemies that feel like the game tries to force you to use weapons. They have very high HP, and their abilities are really annoying and not fun, making them a priority for you to deal with. Also, this game lacks variety of enemies, making its catalog known very early in the game. Boss fights are tedious and did not give any joy to defeat. The script is always the same: run around, can't die, shoot the weak spot, and when the weak spot is cracked, shoot an even weaker spot to really do damage to the enemy. Repeat for 30 min until you kill him. It really fails to convey a boss fight where you are supposed to be scrambling for solutions and feeling some kind of hopelessness. I don't know if it was intended, but it also guides the player really badly around the levels and turns an easy and fast section into you running around looking for a way to progress further. Putting that aside, the visuals are cool even for a decade-old game. The story, although cliché, kept me looking forward to the developments, and I think part of it was because of the way it was told. The ending credits are also really cool. But man, does this game have the most annoying catalog of enemies that I have ever come across.