Game #1235: Shadow Warrior

  Have a dose of some Lo-brow humor.

 Back when I was younger there was this Duke Nukem clone I used to play a lot, the original Shadow Warrior. Y'see, back in the day I wasn't very fond of the Duke, but I loved Shadow Warriors due to the Ninjas, Katanas and Shuriken. It was a game after my very own heart. I don't remember if I was excited about this remake or not, but I think I wasn't as this Lo Wang looked nothing like my Lo Wang, but I still decided to give it a try.

 This new entry is a First Person Shooter that feels very retro in all the right ways. There's no regenerating health(Kinda...) and you carry your entire weapon inventory with you, instead of being limited to a paltry 2 guns. Stages have all sorts of hidden secrets that reward player with XP or Gold, valuable currencies you can spend on upgrades. It's also pretty lengthy, the game is 17 chapters long, and chapter should take someone anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour. At least in my case, as I tried being very thorough as I went off the way to search for goodies.

 You get a very tried and true assortment of weapons: A gun, a UZI, a Shotgun, a Flamethrower and a Rocket Launcher... but you also get a few more unique things you might remember from the original Shadow Warrior, your trusty Katana, a decapitated enemy head and even a demon's heart, which you can squeeze to instantly kill lesser demons close to you. The game is incredibly gory, and you can dismember enemies, which feels very satisfying. Using the Katana was a blast, as slicing demons felt very satisfying.

 Money you find can be used to upgrade your weaponry, which includes an alternate function for every weapon. The Crossbow can shoot grenades, the Uzi can be dual wielded, the Shotgun can shoot all four bullets at once, etc. Even better, the weapon models change as you upgrade them. Defeating enemies using different guns and what not adds Karma modifiers, which can then be used to get passive benefits, such as more stamina, more health, more Katana abilities, finding more money, etc.

 Oh, yeah, Katana abilities. There are three of them, which can be used by double tapping left/right, up, or back and then holding down the attack button or by moving your finger through the touchpad and holding down R2. Honestly... It's not very useful. Either input method feels finicky, the double-tapping method might make you trigger unwanted animations when you move and slice through enemy waves, while the touchpad sometimes doesn't register the input you were going for. This holds true for the powers you can acquire.

 On most levels you'll find crystals that can be spent to learn and upgrade four different abilities, they work just like Katana abilities, but there's a different one for the Right and Left inputs, and you hold down L2 instead of R2. Much like Katana abilities, these don't run on any gauge so you can use them indefinitely. You can Heal(Up to 60% of your health), create a Shield, trap enemies on a water trap or use a shockwave to knock'em backwards. And JUST like the Katana abilities, they are a fun idea, but the controls are less than ideal.

 To cap things off, there's a very cool Survival mode, in which you attempt to survive enemy waves. As you kill enemies you earn XP and money so that you can upgrade your guns and abilities for the run. It was pretty fun.

 The game's plot is... curious. It has some serious moments sprinkled here and there, but there's also a ton of very immature, vulgar and cringy humor, true to the original! The game's humor is definitely not for everyone. Although I'll admit I chuckled a few times, but overall, I didn't enjoy it too much.

 One thing I didn't like was fall damage, as sometimes it's rather finicky. I sprinted two or three times over stairs or steps, and for whatever reason, the fall killed me. Even though I was at full health. It felt like a bug, as I'm sure that if I had jump those very same steps I would've only lost some health. In any case, I'm not a fan of fall damage, and in this game it felt a bit buggy.

 Shadow Warrior was a fantastic throwback to older FPS under a modern coat of skin. I think the game might be a bit too long for its own good, since as fun as the game is eventually it starts running out of steam by the time you reach chapter 14 or so. That said, it's a fun time, now I'm interested in playing the sequels!

 7.5