Shadow Warrior

로 왕의 입담과 B급 감성의 분위기를 살짝 들춰보면 그 안에 담긴 세계관과 서사는 의외로 탄탄하다. 뒤로 갈수록 궁금증을 자아내는 스토리를 호쾌한 카타나 액션이 묵직하게 받쳐준다.

(NO SPOILERS) Summary: Shadow Warrior is a bold reimagining of the classic 3D Realms’ shooter from independent developer Flying Wild Hog (Hard Reset) starring the legendary and quick-witted warrior Lo Wang. ------------------------------- What is in the game: A modernized take on a classic-style FPS. This game has a single-player story consisting of levels where you fight a ton of demons that have secrets hidden through them. There's a good variety of enemies and bosses you fight, with a good variety of weapons and tools to fight them that you can upgrade by exploring the levels and killing demons. There are 4 difficulty options and a 5th hardcore mode after completing the game once. There is also a new game+ mode you can unlock when beating the game that lets you go back through the levels with all the abilities you have gained. ------------------------------- Thoughts: I really enjoyed this game. I had started it once 2 years ago and never finished it; I'm not even sure why. I might have just gotten busy. The game, however, is really fun; it's a perfect mix of "modern" (by 2013 standards) and retro. The game has great visuals and music. The story in the game isn't too complicated but is good. I really liked Lo Wang and Hoji; they had good chemistry. A lot of the jokes I normally wouldn't find that funny, but Wang just had a really funny delivery. It was really cool getting to see the differences between the real and shadow realms. If you like retro FPS games and even more modern ones, I think you will enjoy this; the combat flows really well. ------------------------------- Mid PC Optimization: This ran great on max settings, 160-200+ the whole game. ------------------------------- Time to Beat: ~12 Hours for a single playthrough. ------------------------------- Price: ☐ Buy it full ☑ Wait for sale ☐ Don't buy it ☐ Free Even though it is a good game, 30 bucks for a 12-year-old single-player FPS is a little crazy. I think this game goes on sale a bit anyway. ------------------------------- Graphics: ☐ Amazing ☑ Good ☐ Average ☐ Bad ☐ Awful This game's visuals have aged amazingly; great art direction and nice lighting and materials have made this game hold up great. If I had any big complaint, the screen dust effect on lens flares was a bit much at times. This game looks amazing, though; each level felt unique and cinematic. ------------------------------- Gameplay: ☐ Very Fun ☑ Fun ☐ Meh ☐ Bad ☐ Awful I feel like this game could easily be very fun if it was just a bit more polished. The gameplay loop is fun and what you would expect: killing enemies and exploring the level. Exploration is fun, and the secrets do feel rewarding, as they give you important stuff to upgrade. The enemies almost all feel fun and fair to fight; they have a decent variety of moves to use, and it is fun to learn how they act. The only enemy I did not enjoy was one that appears in the last quarter of the game that is one of those "only takes damage from the back" types who, with their slow waiting to charge you and janky hitbox for the back, can really slow down the fights to a crawl. But yeah, overall every other enemy was fun, but it did feel like it also later on used the same groups of enemies too much without changing it up enough. I like how it gives you stars after each fight; it's satisfying to get high star counts. The weapons almost all feel like they have a use, especially upgraded. The sword combat felt amazing; the pistol and SMG were awesome weapons that got a lot of use; the shotgun is alright, but the feedback on it didn't feel that great, and the spread was insane and would lead me to missing at point-blank a lot; the crossbow is an amazing weapon; and the flamethrower wasn't bad, but it just felt like for the amount of ammo it took and damage some enemies needed to die, and it would be better to use anything else. The rocket launcher was needed later on for the large demons it sent at you. The demon heart and demon head were fun tools you could get. The movement also feels pretty nice; dashing is fun. I think it could have benefitted from more elevation in the arenas, though. Overall a very fun FPS game that feels like a nice mix of retro stuff and modern stuff. ------------------------------- Music: ☐ Amazing ☑ Good ☐ Average ☐ Bad ☐ Terrible ☐ None Honestly not bad at all; music for combat is great, and all of it really fits the vibe. The more somber and calm tracks are also really good. ------------------------------- Bugs: ☐ None that ive seen ☑ Not impactful ☐ Negatively affects gameplay There are a lot of funny physics bugs, and occasionally the fall damage can be buggy if you dash off a slight elevation. ------------------------------- Side-Notes: Includes another game, Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior, a funny cleaning game where you clean up a temple after Lo Wang showed up.