Shadow Warrior (2013)

Decent graphics despite age, good sound and music, beautiful level design and variety of weapons from ranged to melee using katana. Game also has bunch of fun and hilarious references to various things, humor is often pretty dark and I really like the upgrading which gives game somewhat RPG-ish feel, but what really absolutely killed the fun for me was the grind. Like 1/3 into the game when big enemies roll in, combat just becomes such absolute dreadful and annoying grind just because enemies become such horrible bullet and sword cut sponges the game doesn't even become hard as it becomes annoying as hell as you're just running in circles, charging most powerful katana charge and jabbing them in the face for half an hour, every combat encounter. Or plant nukes at their face. And it doesn't change later when you upgrade yourself all out on damage. Which means every fighting segment you get into is a dragging like a crippled snail and just becomes so annoying I'm basically playing the game just to finish it and be over with it. It's a shame because the game looked promising and exciting in the beginning and then just lost all the appeal because of annoying design and gameplay decisions, primarily around combat. And while they at least tried to make melee combat fresh and something different, double tapping directional keys like a lunatic gets really super annoying. Especially when Sprint key is getting stuck and you want to charge up a KI power just to prepare a regular katana attack instead. Or not heal because game thinks you're still holding Sprint key. This wasn't happening in the beginning of the game and it's making everything double annoying. It's a shame they ruined what looked like an excellent game on silly technicalities.

Solid fps experience, enriched by collectibles, fun characters and gameplay. Story oddly clicked and has a major twist in the ending in terms of feelings. Absolutely worth the price.

This is a solid FPS with very fun swordplay. I found the storyline very interesting, but the narration is a little bit disconnected to my taste. By the time I finally put all the pieces together I was really hooked and the ending did not disappoint me, in fact is kinda poetic. The main character Lo Wang steals the show with his funny one-liners that made me giggle more than once (whitout taking the player by the hand) and Hoji's jokes just hit the spot. Graphics are just serviceable, said that, I rember a couple very beautiful landscapes that made me stay still for a while. In the VERY positive side, it offers ultra-wide screen support, no drawbacks. Played on RTX2080 OC Super @ 3440x1440 120fps stable, all options maxed. Other good point is that I found no bugs, but be aware of killing all the enemies on each room because sometimes you'll get stuck if you fail to find and defeat them all.

To the point: 1. The swordplay is great with several skills that make the sword useful in different situations, including at range, but the gunplay is more situational, almost puzzle-like in their applications. 2. Multiple skills give Lo Wang more control over the battle, like CC and healing (the healing skill is especially good at keeping LW in prolonged fights), but skills are activated by double tapping the direction keys then pressing alternate fire. In a hectic firefight with guns upgraded with alternate fire, misfires are common. 3. The environment, especially the outdoor ones, can be gorgeous and even majestic, but there is very limited environmental story telling. 4. The story of the Ancients, told through stylish hand-drawn cutscenes, is surprisingly emotional and very Asian, but that story has very little to do with Lo Wang's rampage through the game. 5. The voice acting, especially Hoji's, and the music fit the setting well, but the dialogue/writing feels cringy, even more than the old Lo Wang, whose lecherous old man archetype is a long-running inside joke in Japanese culture. 6. There are in-game achievements with several that motivate the player to practice game mechanics, but some are only grindy with no apparent purpose to those achievement "points." Having played through Shadow Warrior Redux including both expansions, I found SW to sit at a unique place between old school shooters and tactical shooters. SW 2013 carries on this tradition admirably. The Ki skills let me safely draw out multi-wave fights even in relatively confined spaces. The different weapons and environmental designs almost always let me fight tactically even when all hell broke loose. The last mob fight of the game was especially rewarding, albeit tiring. If you are not used to this middle ground, however, you may find the pacing of the game off. To me, this game is an excellent reboot/prequel to Shadow Warrior Classic, but it could use some more work.

Ok, it's not perfect. The boss fights especially can get frustrating when playing on harder difficulties. It's the same thing every time. You just kite the projectiles and boss attacks, in order to break their armor, and then you can deal damage to them. Rinse and repeat. What I like about this game is the story, voice acting, and the art style. Everything else is really repetitive or gets boring quickly. Katana is only a good weapon you are playing on easier difficulties, where you can use its special skills without being afraid of getting nuked by ranged attacks. The weapons have upgrades, sure, but other than that the skill progression is rather bland. Even looking for the secrets gets boring after a while, mainly because there are some places where you can out of map boundaries, but most of the cases it's just a bug / glitch. You are then either stuck and forced to die / load game, or the game just instantly kills you for leaving the boundaries, even if it is as easy as crouching and walking through a fence. When fighting, most of the time you are kiting monsters, in order to nuke one or two stronger ones, and only then can you start dealing with the less dangerous demons. And finally, the game's native version doesn't even run on modern systems,due to it being a 32-bit executable. Just use Proton Experimental from the first launch. There also something weird about aiming and shooting because if you just damage a few enemies on one side, and then use a powertful shot on the enemies on the other side, then you will get kills for those enemies that were already damaged. It's very strange, as if rewarding careless gameplay more than actual, precise shooting. Really, the only redeeming quality about this game is its story.