Shadow Warrior (2013)

Putting it simply FWH have taken an old classic and bought it back to life in spectacular style. Although not identical to the original this version allows you to build up Wangs powers and skills, not to mention upgrading weapons. There is an awful lot of rethinking gone into this game and the makers have nailed it spot on. There really is no bad news. The levels are large, highly detailed and polished. Stunning scenery and character animation, even the large creatures you come up against are beautifully rendered and it's a shame to have to kill them. Also, this game really puts up a decent scrap. As you progress the attacks become more intense, going from a skirmish to all out battles consisting of several attack waves by ever growing creatures. Many situations will see you completely outnumbered but not to worry, you can save your game position at any time. Clever use of weapons and powers will see you through seemingly impossible situations so taking the time to learn them is essential. All in all this is truly a superb game. Buy it NOW.

I´m disappointed. I love the original, it had nice weapons, good jokes (Wash Whang, no ordinary rabbit etc.) and Lo Whang is a great one :) But in the 2013-version I miss all that things. The jokes sounds awful, even if it´s from the original, the voice sounds like the guy who speak it had actually no fun and read it from a sheet of paper. Weapons like sticky bombs and nuclear warhead, where is it? Some levels in the wood looking very similar to each other, really boring The cutscenes are to long and complicated for Non-Native-English-speaker. In many action scenes I don´t remember the original, it it´s more like Painkiller: Walk backwards and shoot, shoot, shoot. The skill-system is maybe nice for some players, but in an oldschool-shooter I don´t need em Conclusion: A game I will never touch again, but I still like the original.

This is a re-imagination of the original game, and I enjoyed the original a lot back in 1998, so I had a slight knot in my stomach as I saw this release - knowing that the other 3D Realms icon Dule Nukem - was a kind of a flop. A disappointment, at least to me, since it was very consolified, relied only on checkpoints, did only allow 2 weapons at a time (later expanded to 4 weapons, but still) and was somewhat uneven in gameplay and storytelling. Shadow Warrior of 2013 is something else entirely - Lo Wang is back baby and he is here with the gameplay, the flare and the hardcore violence and humor found in the 90s 3D Realms games. It is delight to play and if you've played Shadow Warrior of 1998 or Duke Nukem 3D of 1996, then you know what you can expect of this incarnation. It is a sibling - a familiar face - but graphically updated and with gameplay enhancements like advanced swordplay and weapon upgrades. This is worth your money. Stop reading already! Buy, download and play. This is what Duke Nukem Forever should have been.

Lacking all of the the charm and character of the original Lo Wang this reboot takes little more than the character and re creates a modern day linear shooter (Or slasher as the Katana is super powerful), The addition of skills and weapon upgrades doesn't make up for the lack of fun game play which gets extremely repetitive very quickly, And the tap tap click combo system doesn't add to the game play mechanics in any real sense. The level design lacks of the fun found in the quirky original build titles like Duke3D Shadow Warrior and Blood. The new Lo Wang jokes are deliberately too cringe worthy and I found them to be quite distracting and yearning for the silly comments the old Lo Wang would make with the cheeky humor of the late 90's. Redeeming features include plenty of gore and violence and pleasing graphics, The keen eyed player will find many sprite based objects from the original game hidden around the new Shadow Warrior which give you a nice pang of nostalgia, Although after seeing enough of these I wanted to go back and play the somewhat more charming original title.

I reluctantly picked this up for 4 or 5 dollars during GOG's summer sale, thinking there was a good chance I'd never beat it. I installed it later that day just to give it a try, and it ended up consuming most of my gaming time. Money well spent. Quick rundown: Gameplay: Very much a "classic" shooter, which I like, but it also has some more modern features which are used pretty well. The limited manual health-regen was a pretty good take on that system, in my opinion. It means fights are never impossible, but still makes you manage your health. Gameplay is fast and swarming with enemies. Most guns aren't all that satisfying to fire and bosses in particular can get repetitive, but the powers and sword combat are unique and fun enough to make up for that. 4/5 Graphics: Not the most advanced game out there, but the artstyle is phenomenal. This is a game with a big colour palette and it knows how to use it. 4.5/5 Sound: Admittedly, I felt the sound desgin was pretty weak. Gunshots lack any kind of punch which makes them even less satisfying. Sword sounds are better. The music and voice acting are fine but don't really stand out. 2/5 Story/Writing: This is a bit of a mixed bag. Some jokes are pretty funny, others are complete headscratchers. The main plot turned out pretty decent and the characters grow to have some charm after a while. 3/5 Overall: 3.5/5