Shadow Warrior Review - Wang On Consoles
Shadow Warrior arrives on consoles (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, specifically), but can it overcome its controversial heritage to deliver the promised arcade action of times long gone by? In an age of cover based shooting and regenerating health, few stand as the Old Guard, reminding us what was once was, jumping, strafing and giving no regard to your ammo counter. Shadow Warrior is one of these now rare games, but with a history of racial stereotypes and poor taste jokes, is this the game we want on consoles to remind us of the old times?
Shadow Warrior first came to back to PC before more recently moving over to console, so we already knew that its racism has been toned down and removed, replaced by the more light hearted and cheeky teasing of gamers and geeks, a somewhat risky move in the current climate. The jokes aren’t exactly intelligent, but the boisterous one-liners of Lo Wang and his demonic side kick, as well as the numerous jokes on his name, make for the occasional giggle.
It’s good that Shadow Warrior kept its attempts at humour, rather than attempting a gritty reboot, as the gameplay alone wouldn’t be able to compete with the big boys in 2014, such as the war mongering Kevin Spacey in the latest outing of Call of Duty. But Shadow Warrior isn’t trying to be in the same league as them at all. While futuristic antics are the call of the day for AAA games, Shadow Warrior takes a magical and more colourful route. Games are finally moving away from the grey and brown monotone, and Shadow Warrior isn’t holding back. The first level alone captures a surprisingly pretty sunset in a feudal Japanese themed setting.
The story revolves around Lo Wang, a mercenary hired with procuring an ancient and powerful katana being betrayed before the evitable demonic onslaught. It’s not exactly the next The Last of Us, but it does a good job of moving the player through each location in both Earth and the Shadow Realm.
While on this adventure you’ll be cutting down hundreds of demons with a collection of guns and a rather entertaining sword. The gameplay is in no way tactical, and requires you to do little but slash and shoot as you wade over the bodies of your enemies. But this isn’t a bad thing. Like Serious Sam and Doom before it, Shadow Warrior’s fun comes from the sheer scale of battles, with dozens of enemies on screen at any given time. With this fast paced gameplay in mind, Lo Wang moves like his rollerblades are possessed by Red Bull.
It’s a shame that the gameplay doesn’t seem any more refined then when it came out on PC, with the awkward special attacks still deviously hard to pull off under pressure. With your sword you can unlock numerous powerful magical attacks that require either double tapping the left stick or using the touch screen, but both have issues. Timing and direction are difficult, while flustering with the touchpad leaves Lo Wang stationary and defenceless. It’s a relatively small issue, but unfortunately it does infect the fun somehow.
While the later levels are merry fun with an arsenal of weapons and powers to use, the early levels, mixed with this annoying issue become more and more tedious. With only a limited selection of weapons and samey bamboo forests and city streets you’ll have to push yourself through to get to the more enjoyable, more nostalgic levels.
One of the best features of Shadow Warrior, and one not seen in many video games any more is the inclusion of secrets hidden through the level. Rather than the mere addition of hidden collectibles, Shadow Warrior flexes some creative and comedic muscles by hiding whole levels in tricky to reach locations. These include maps seemingly coming from different games, or throwbacks to the earlier days of Shadow Warrior (still without the racism).
Ultimately Shadow Warrior is far from memorable in my opinion, but you should know that our own JD Brewer had a very different take on the PC version. There are few games where your mileage may vary as much as in Shadow Warrior.