Shadow Warrior is one of those
games where each level will leave you wondering, “Ugh, is it over yet?” You
play as the two-dimensional (boring) hitman, Lo Wang; ha ha ha. “Shadow
Warrior” is filled with gruesome violence, 12 year old, immature quips and
demons; lots of demons. Lo Wang is tasked with retrieving swords to rebuild the
Nobitsura Kage, a very powerful sword. Along the way he meets a banished
spirit, Hoji. Hoji provides less immature additional humor to the game. There
are many different types of demons it seems, but none have any context to them
whatsoever. While “Shadow Warrior’s” blood-soaked combat is beautiful to watch,
it feels all for not. The story is weak and forgettable. Less than midway
through I forgot what I was slicing up all these demons for.
You are given a small arsenal of weapons
including an smg, shotgun, pistol, crossbow, grenade launcher, flamethrower and
of course, your sword. Additional things can be used as weapons including demon
heads and demon hearts. Almost all of the weapons have upgrades to make them
even more powerful. Lo Wang has upgradeable skills which can be purchased using
ki and karma points. Money and ammo are fairly easy to find if you just look
around. With all the weapons available to you, the sword is still the most fun
to use by far. Heads can be severed and limbs as well from the demon spawn.
Additional attacks can be accessed by using
the touch pad or the buttons on the controller. Trust me though, you don’t
want to make things difficult for yourself in the midst of combat by using the buttons. Depending on
what direction you swipe in, followed by holding L2 or the back trigger on the
Xbox One controller Lo Wang will lift up his now glowing left hand at the ready
for an attack. Some attacks consist of unleashing a shockwave that will either
knock enemies down or float them in mid-air for more accessible slicing or
defensive maneuvers that block damage. This is one of the game’s best
implicated features. You can use your sword and unleash devastating ki attacks
with your other arm at the same time allowing for some brutal multitasking. “Shadow
Warrior” assumes that because of your powerful skills, the practically
unlimited amount of demon spawn the game throws at you will be easy to wipe
out. The game’s difficulty scale is off the chart at times and it can be quite
frustrating. Right after you’ve defeated two giant demons, three more will be
waiting for you around the corner. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to slice and
dice all these demon spawn, but a little better pacing would be nice.
While the game’s humor got a chuckle out
of me at times, it was largely unfunny. The writing could’ve used a lot more
work. Cut scenes are told through creative drawings with narrations. In my time
spent with “Shadow Warrior”, I enjoyed the mindless combat, but it got old
fast. Each level was spent with a dull expression on my face as I wondered if
this game was going to get any better. It didn’t. Shadow Warrior is fun in VERY
bite-sized pieces, but as a 12 hour game, mmm, no.
Final Score:
5/10
PROS:
-
Blood-soaked
combat
-
Combat
multitasking
CONS:
-
Largely
unfunny humor
-
Boring
protagonist
-
Forgettable
story
-
Weapons
feel inadequate compared to sword
-
Terrible
pacing
-
Story
overstayed it’s welcome
