"Shadow Warrior" Review

     

          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