Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms

The game is nice until you find out that there's remake instead of sequel which combines this game plus sequel. So there's no point of playing this and then playing this again if you want to play part two (Awakening).

Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms is the second entry in the ARPG series, that that switched its focus from experimentation to combat. While it removes one of the most unique systems the previous game had (earning skills by using different weapons and armour) which rewarded you for trying different things it has double downed on the action and gives you a wide variety of playable characters which all function and play differently. The game is fun but I can’t recommend purchasing it or giving it a positive review as it has been superseded by Shadows: Awakening, and for the same price you get the complete game (not just the first 3 chapters) with a newer game engine, more quests, reworked music and a more polished experience. It does provide a window into how time and feedback can improve a game when acted upon (Shadows: Awakening has substantial differences to gameplay that make it more tactical). S:HK puts the story is a weird place. Kult: Heretic Kingdoms had an expansive lore which built the world up, spent a lot of time explaining the last 700yr history of the Heretic Kingdoms, the different races and really drove home how important the key players were to the in game universe. By the end of Kult, you had 3 earth shattering choices to pick from, with none of them relying on the usual moral compass (good, bad or neutral) and more do what you thought was best (as 2 of the 3 options had been tried before and led to dark ages). S:HK sort of continues the story while not explaining any of it. Some of the main characters were NPCs and have been changed or some events have been completely redesigned. The main antagonists were heavily involved with the previous PC, and have had a lot of their backstory removed (why they were infighting). Quests have been replicated (these can be explained as the first game’s character didn’t fulfil them), though she is only mentioned once (for the earth shattering events she triggered I expected a little more). [spoiler] Story wise it seems the first PC died before completing her quest, but was able to get the Godslayer sword to her mentor so he could destroy it, which had unforeseen consequences that has set the world on its path. [/spoiler] Usually I would advise against playing a newer entry in a series before playing previous games (so you aren’t jumping into a story 1/2 way), but in this instance and it might be easier to start fresh (unless you are a major fan of the story from the first game). This game functions slightly differently from others as you have a choice of 4 characters (who all have their own health pools) you can switch between at any time (even mid combat), with one being a demon and tied to the shadow world (which is now a nightmare realm and full of hostiles compared to the previous game). This does allow you to switch to more advantageous characters and abilities when needed, and is pretty good. There are parts in the game where only one of the characters can open the area to proceed, though these are all optional). The roster of playable characters expands as the game goes on, and not all of them can collected one play through. The loot system doesn’t differentiate for this, as chests have the same equipment in them no matter if you have the characters in your team (or if they are available at all). Most of the enemy drops are either money, or crafting items (there are a lot less items to pick up from enemies). The range in which you pickup items is really small (you have to be on top of the object, and even turning on auto pickup doesn’t really stop you from missing things). The storage system has been massively overhauled, and now you have decent storage, but it’s shared amongst every type of object you pick up (quest objects take away space from regular inventory, as do crafting items). This can have the unfortunate effect that important objects are left on the ground until you start dropping other older items. The characters that you start with are all quite different and function in their set roles (melee fighter, ranged combat, mage) and it’s good that magic seems to have been toned down from how it was in the previous game. The shared characters that you find during gameplay have much more explicit roles and seem to be wildly unbalanced. The ironclad golem is a tank with stupidly high resistances and a large health pool, while some weapons for the Trent increase attack speed by crazy amounts (700%) and the added benefit of life steal which leaves you with a combination that is unbeatable. Some characters have a quest tied to them, while others are just a body you can control and seem to have no unique purpose in the grand scheme of things (no plot driven story, quests or stand out features). Combat has moved more in line to the Diablo series, its much faster paced than in the previous game and is much more frequent in both the real world and shadow world (there’s no more hiding in it to recover or use it to bypass enemies). Each character has a selection of active abilities that have fixed cool down rates that deal larger damage and might apply debuffs to the enemies, but aren’t auto cast now. Enemies do respawn after returning to a map, which pads the game a fair amount. I did enjoy the fact that many enemies have alternate forms in the shadow world (only the Penta Nera had these in the first game), and the abilities of the enemies are locked for a set time if you defeat the shadow world version before fighting in real space (which is often a key mechanic for winning tougher fights). Some enemies continue spawning stupid amount of summons so when you drop back to real space there are 30 enemies on screen to kill. Crafting and upgrading weapons has also been overhauled, but it’s very clunky – you need to get the instructions on how to make what you want, and then collect the parts. Many weapons follow a very large chain of sidesteps (only elements are changed on the weapon), before actual upgrading to the next tier of weapon, in which case it’s cheaper to just purchase the upgrade. The maps and environments are very well done, and each is fairly unique. Puzzles now span multiple maps (some go across chapters) and they take a bit of thinking to work out. You are left with having to search and break everything as some quest objects are stuck in pots that you would normally bypass. Each chapter seems to focus on a terrain type (desert, woodland, forest) but they each look very nice and do a good job of expanding the world of the previous game. Being a game that didn’t have the second half released some quests can’t be completed. The shadow world looks good - I liked the green ghostly archways and light seeping up through the floors, however there aren’t very many rewards for exploring it other than more optional enemies to kill. Other than a few sections of the game where you are forced to go into it (to cross non-existent bridges or to kill enemies that are controlling other puppets like you are) you could completely ignore it. I thought the voice acting was hit and miss. The mage you can start with sounds good throughout the entire game, as did most of the merchants. When you get to the werewolves you would expect them to roll sounds (as they aren’t human and that’s what their text did in the previous game) and instead they are all speaking perfect English. The romance quest you can undertake with Zaar has some humorous dialogue if you fulfil the conditions. The music however is very well done (performed by Budapest Scoring Symphonic Orchestra) and I would highly recommend picking up the DLC because of this. If you are chasing 100% achievements, then it’s a tall order. While doable I had to abuse a quest (purposely stalled or failed) that has unlimited waves of enemies for you to kill which is the only way to really boost XP. For more reviews please visit https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31327216/

[b] Симулятор игры за Эвию [/b] [spoiler] и не только [/spoiler] Уныло, очень уныло.. к сожалению я только это могу сказать. Очень слабый диабло клон для 2014 года выпуска, на который до ужаса задрали цену (1400р камон!). Эта игра не ровня второму Сакреду 2012 года, дивинити или даже титан квесту и хеллгейту 2007 годов. Shadows конечно не совсем линейная RPG, но максимально приближена к этому. Здесь есть выбор НЕКОТОРЫХ окончаний квестов в стиле "влево вправо", но по сути интереснее от этого не становится."Тени" скорее больше похожи на "допиленный Sacred 3", где только есть дроп, итемы и возможность погулять по прошлым локациям. Также ещё в игре есть "бесполезная система крафта", которая крайне редко может позволить создать что-то стоящее (только хилки разве что). Не могу не отметить, что 70% всей фауны игры, это одни паукообразные: пауки, тарантулы и прочие арахниды - один из разработчиков точно является лютым арахнофобом, я столько пауков ни в одной игре не видел, даже если в Титан квесте поставить мод х5 на врагов - такого не будет! Игровая механика в стиле игры за кучу персонажей сразу, это своеобразный и плюс и минус. С одной стороны это что-то необычное и новое, с другой стороны, все остальные персы кроме главного ГГ - вовсе неинтересны (но к сожалению намного полезнее в бою). В итоге заместо того, чтобы просто насладиться игрой за Эвию, мне приходится постоянно переключаться на карлика, потому что он носится на 25% быстрее по карте (а игра нуу оч медленная), а в боях брать железного голема (зомби), потому что только он нормально и быстро всех разносит. В итоге эта система разных персов превращает основу в красивого рудимента. Диабловская составляющая в порядке, всякий мусор постоянно падает, подбирается, продаётся, много чего можно надеть на персонажей, но прорисовка у всего этого (и у персонажей) ужасная! Если честно, я бы давно забросил прохождение этой игры, но меня держит стимул добрать все ачивки, а их немного осталось, только качаться в этой игре до 30 уровня чувствую будет крайне муторно, ибо до 10-ого уровеня я потратил 10 часов реально времени, опыт вообще практически не идёт. Скиллы и обычные клики часто не прожимаются, слишком долгий отклик, если жмёшь слишком быстро то прошлые атаки отменяются. Расположение скиллов и зелий крайне неудобное, скилы на QWER, зелья на 1234, в итоге хочешь сделать скилл - выпил зелье. Болтаешь с НПС или телепортом, нажал на цифру (как вариант ответа) - выпил зелье. Да и стоит ли мне говорить, что активных скиллов у каждого персонажа 5-6, а слотов под них 4, про расходники я вообще молчу, потому что их и до 8 разных порой доходит, но слотов по-прежнему 4. В общем, интерфейс крайне неудобен, управление топорное и неотзывчивое к игроку, да и SWAD недоступен для ходьбы (не все любят управлять персонажами кликами мыши). Ладно, я дизлайк ставить не стану (если бы мог, то поставил палец в сторону), но я и не сильно в восторге от этой игры, хочется просто уже пройти её для галочки и доделать крайние ачивки. В общем моя оценка с натягом 6 глупых самок из 10, советую пропустить данный проект мимо своего внимания, он не стоит ни вашего времени ни ваших денег.

Just a big demo of Shadows: Awakening, so expect crashes and other problems. I give it a begrudging thumbs up because I really liked the music and artwork.

Gra nie jest pełna nagle ci mówi że kontynuacja będzie w kolejnej części. Taki koszt za coś takiego to porażka.

This game is stuffed with game breaking bugges: - wasp hero the 'swarm' skill instant exits the game -no error- - wolf hero wearwolf form freezes you on the spot. - weapon skins are missing - and so on. rly liked the game but this is not playable

Хотел пройти, но понял, что это просто невозможно. Вроде уже "древняя" игра, но все в одних багах, за столько лет нельзя пофиксить было что ли. Квест Когок'Аак вообще не возможно пройти, т.к. камни сперва нажимались, потом перестали и за дверь не пускает. Некоторые скилы это просто какой то ужас, сперва "очень понравился" последний скилл Заара (который волк), должен превращаться в кого-то, но вместо этого чар просто зависает на время превращения и ничего не делает. Дальше дошел до осы и понял, что просто нет сил играть в такое, от ее последнего скила игра просто вылетает... 1 оса из 100, зовите фиксиков.

Games Farm, formerly known as 3D People a Slovakian studio producing by-the-numbers cut-n-paste ARPGs... Kult: Heretic Kingdoms -> Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms -> Shadows: Awakening -> Vikings: Wolves of Midgard

This pathetic semblance of a game cannot even be called a finished game. This is pure and simple the early unfinished version of Shadows: Awakening. You can't pass achievements and some tasks, not everything is given to you by the dlc and full of bugs and unfinished things. And they have the audacity to sell it at this price and they sell it anyway. Given that they sell the whole game separately from this one at the same price. Shame on you creators and also Steam for allowing these things.

Wie viele hier schon geschrieben haben: Shadows - Heretic Kingdoms ist ein unfertiges Spiel, mehr eine lange Demo, und deshalb rate ich von einem Kauf ab. Ich hab es irgendwann mal (fast) kostenlos über eine Rabatt-Aktion in nem Bundle bekommen, und jetzt in knapp 12h durchgezockt, um zu schauen, ob es sich lohnt, das tatsächliche Spiel (Shadows - Awakening) zu kaufen. Fazit: 6/10 Ausführlich: Gameplay: Interessant, dass man zwischen den 4 Charakteren der Party hin- und her wechseln kann/muss, besonders für die Rätsel, oder um einige Abschnitte erkunden zu können. Im Kampf allerdings wenig komplex für ein (Hack'n'Slash-)RPG. Manche Abschnitte sind relativ schwer, allerdings bekommt man im späteren Verlauf einen Baum als Tank, und der hat eine verbuggte Waffe-Klasse, die komplett broken ist (700% statt vmtl 7% ATK-Speed on top of Lebensraub, ist so praktisch unsterblich). 7/10 Technik & Grafik: Etliche Bugs, wie schon erwähnt mit falschen Parametern für Waffen, man kann durch den Boden glitchen und steckt dann fest, und ab und an stürzt das Spiel ab, wenn man einen neuen Bereich betritt. Ziemlich lange und viele Ladezeiten. Ansonsten sieht das Spiel für seine 10 Jahre noch ganz solide aus. Charaktere ändern ihr Aussehen mit neu angelegten Gegenständen und Waffen. 5/10 Sound: Voice-Acting war größtenteils passabel, Hintergrundmusik war gut. 8/10