Nobitsura kage shadow warrior 36/12/2023 ![]() All had alternative fire modes, but otherwise Shadow Warrior is really aiming for that nostalgic shooter feel. You can hold all of them at once like classic FPSs, and I don’t believe there’s any weapon upgrading like in Hard Reset (I could be utterly wrong though for reasons I’ll get into later). While they may seem now like the weapons in Jedi Knight (great but utterly superfluous once you get the lightsaber and Force Powers) there were also a lot of cool guns in the demo. Furthermore if you sprint forward and press fire you’ll do a flying kick, and the “melee” button throws shurikens, so all things considered the katana is ace. Using WASD directional keyboard controls, DD+RMB is Healing, AA is shield, SS is Shockwave (that sends enemies into the air similar to the Buckin’ Bronco vigor in Bioshock Infinite) and WW is Flux (which I admit I forgot to test to find out what it did, whoops – I believe it’s an offensive power though). ![]() Rather unusually these are activated by pressing a direction twice while holding the Right Mouse Button. Apart from dismemberment though the katana was particularly useful since Wang now has magic powers to use with it. You can even cut bits off the scenery, although I was sad to find you couldn’t cut the large pretty flowers that were all over the place. It chops demons to messy pieces, and the bigger guys will continue to fight even if you’ve sliced their arm off. Indeed, most people I saw playing the demo, including myself, for a long period of time didn’t even realise that Wang was carrying any guns because the katana was so much fun to use. Wang’s samurai sword is the main weapon in the game, and Flying Wild Hog want you to be able to complete the entire game with it. ![]() Shadow Warrior doesn’t have a gun that shoots lightning and shurikens, but it does have a katana. As Painkiller remains sadly rather unique among shooters this is definitely a good thing, with Serious Sam/Doom-like waves of enemies, tight level design, outrageous weapons and messy OTT gore. In terms of gameplay it plays like People Can Fly’s classic PC all-action shooter Painkiller, which isn’t surprising since Flying Wild Hog has a lot of developers who worked on that game, although with the demons and fantasy stuff this feels a lot more like it than their previous title Hard Reset (with all the robots) did. Incidentally, speaking of voice acting, there’s a spirit called Hoji guiding Wang in his mission… is that Brad Dourif? If not it sounds very like him. Thankfully while the ridiculous accent has been toned down his way of speaking hasn’t, as I heard such taunts as “don’t mess with the Wang” and “Ban-f***ing-zai!” I was glad to see this since the humour of the original is one of the most endearing things about Shadow Warrior - it’d be pointless remaking it as a po-faced ultra-serious shooter. ![]() While intended as a parody of badly dubbed martial arts movies Lo Wang’s voice came off as more, well, racist. cultural way Lo Wang spoke in the original has been toned down. The first thing I have to mention is that the rather, um, what’s the polite way of saying this. As long as there are plenty of demons to chop messily in half with a samurai sword then that’s okay by me. Funnily enough at the end of the demo I played he finds it, and I’m prepared to bet things get worse for him from there. Set years before the original, this reimagining sees the young Lo Wang (yes, that’s his name, and yes, that was humorous in the ‘90s) working for Zilla Enterprises (the evil demon-run corporation he fought against in the first game) and searching down a legendary blade called the Nobitsura Kage. We got a first hands-on with the game, and I’m pleased to report it’s no gritty ultra-serious reboot. Now Hard Reset developer Flying Wild Hog and Serious Sam publisher Devolver Digital are bringing back the series. Insane action, cunning secrets, exploration-based level design and tongue-in-cheek humour – all the hallmarks of a Build engine FPS were there. Don’t take my word for it, thanks to some marketing errors it’s currently free on Steam so play it yourself. While accurate, and indeed it’s undeniable that Shadow Warrior simply wasn’t as good as Duke Nukem, it was still an excellent shooter. The original Shadow Warrior is best known as “that 3D Realms Build Engine FPS that wasn’t Duke Nukem 3D”.
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