Shadwen

In many ways, Shadwen is a traditional stealth game quite similar to the Thief series. You will methodically traverse through expansive maps, ranging from torchlight-soaked streets to labyrinthine castle walls, disposing of guards as you see fit and looting chests for items with which to craft a variety of traps and distractions. If this were all to the game, I would absolutely recommend it to any fans of the genre. However, there are several very unique but also volatile elements that you should consider before purchasing. Completing a level doesn't just mean sneaking by as the master assassin Shadwen; you must also clear a safe path for the innocent and powerless Lily. There's no risk in getting caught as Lily; she'll only run to the next safe point (plants and haystacks) if there's a clear path--if a guard happens to interrupt that path, she'll simply run back to the previous safe point. This makes the game much more of a puzzler than a traditional stealth game, although the degree of this depends on whether you decide to play the game lethally or non-lethally (leaving the guards alone). If you choose the former, it's fairly easy to clear out a whole area with a myriad of traps and good old fashioned backstabs. If you choose the latter, however, expect a lot of experimentation as you try to misdirect enemies from their paths. I opted for the non-lethal approach and had a lot of fun exploiting the game's physics and AI to get through, but you might not feel the same way if you're looking for a more polished experience. It becomes very obvious, especially in the later levels, just how far you can break the game engine to get past certain sections. Most of this involves the game's time mechanic, wherein action pauses whenever you stop moving and you can rewind time as far back as needed if you mess up or want to try another approach. As someone who frequently quick saves and loads in stealth games, this was quite a welcome feature.

That 4th star in the rating? As wonky as it gets, just as Shadwen itself. It is a very flawed game, as many other reviewers have already pointed out: the simplistic AI, the way it handles narrative and its "choices", somewhat repetitive design and proneness to glitches — all true, and then some. However, I feel it rectifies most of them with its core mechanics, fixing some of the fundamentally alienating aspects of stealth genre. Time manipulation significantly cuts down downtime and repetition after player screws up. Acrobatic abilities paired with serviceable level design always give an escape route out of the tightest corners. And "time moves when you move (unless you want otherwise)" shtick ensures you're always in control of the situation, always can literally stop, take a look around and calmly get these couple of pixels of around-a-corner ledge into a crosshair for your hook shot. However, I do feel that gadgets' design is passable at best, and shifted very much into violent category. This, along with the lack of unique gameplay scenarios (every level is just a "sandbox corridor", more or less), can make a pacifist run pretty dull. But considering main campaign's moderate length, I'd say there is some great fun in here, providing you're not sniffy about occasional glitch-comedy and some (lots of?) blood in your stealth.

Shadwen is a game about a woman named Shadwen who is out to infiltrate the castle of a king and dispose of him. On the way she makes the unintended aquantance with a girl named Lily who starts to follow her on her adventure. Gameplaywise the game is straight forward: You and Lily both have to move through levels without being spotted. Shadwen can climb, jump and swing around using a rope, while Lily has to scoot from cover to cover. Usually the way to get through a level is to distract guards by sounds so their attention shifts and Lily can move to the next savespot. Luckily Lily can never cause guars to detect her. If the alarm gets raised or a guard realises you are around, its game over. But instead of a save system, the game relies on a rewind mechanic. At any point in time you can press "R" and rewind any previous actions. I think this was the correct choice to use, since guards kill you in a single hit on sight and they never miss. In addition to that the time within the gameworld only moves forward when Shadwen moves or by pressing and holding the "Q" button. It allows for well planned out parkour and rope swinging and once again, is a very good choice. I do think an additonal toggle option would have been nice as well, so you dont have to hold down "Q" for 5 minutes while that one guard you are waiting for slowly gets into position. Graphically the game looks nice, with some believable locations to visit in a medieval inspired town. I do, however, think that the game is too long overall since most of the levels are very similar to each other and can look literally identical at times. A few chapters less would have been a good choice in my eyes. Verdict: Overall I would recommend this to a friend, but only if on sale and if they like this kind of gameplay.

Shadwen is a third-person stealth/action game with time manipulation mechanics. You play as an initially nameless protagonist as they guide a young orphan girl, Lily, through a series of levels undetected. To do this you use various movable objects like crates, jars, and bales of hay to create distractions. Wooden objects can be grappeld at a distance using a grappling hook, and pulled to distract (or sometimes kill) a distant guard. The grappling hook also allows you to climb to overhead joists and rafters, and swing from them to reach elevated platforms. The protagonist can perform stealth kills by sneaking up behind guards, or dropping on them from above. Hidden throughout the levels are chests containing schematics and materials for crafting tools, which can be used to distract but mostly kill enemy guards. There are consequences to allowing Lily to see you kill someone, or discover a dead body. Finally, both the protagonist and Lily can hide in haystacks, and will not be detected as long as they remain there. Bodies can also be hidden in haystacks. Time in Shadwen only passes when the protagonist is taking action, such as moving or grappling objects. You can rewind time should you make a mistake, and will be forced to rewind if you are discovered, as this immediately ends the game. You can also force time to proceed, such as when you need a patrolling or suspicious guard to move away from you. The enemy AI is not very good. There have been points in the game where Lily has run directly in front of guards, once loudly pushing a crate in front of her, and the guards ignored her. At one point Lily passed through a guard undetected. Sometimes Lily refuses to move forward and it isn't clear why, and sometimes Lily will run to the end of the level with nearly no effort on your part. Success mostly involves taking advantage of poor AI. Shadwen has interesting ideas, and is pretty to look at, but is repetitive and not very good as stealth games go.

Shadwen is a weird stealth escort mission, which has you play as the titular protagonist as she tries to distract the guards ahead to allow her young sidekick to move along without being seen. The plot is badly put together (the premise is simple, once you uncover the whole plot, but the reason for you and the young girl to team on such a dangerous journey is a nonsensical "I am all alone and I'll stick to the one person who showed me some kindness no matter what"). I think the developers originally intended for her to be more useful or to play as both, but sadly that isn't the case (you only play the little Lily in the first level), and her help is little more than an excuse to gate sections of the level off until you manage to get her to move to the last hiding spot of the area (where usually you'll find a door which needs two levers to be pulled at the same time). The game seems to want you to play stealth without killing anyone, but that means you won't be able to play with most of the cool (and deadly) gadgets you can craft (the crafting is clunky, providing unnecessary hoops to jump through), making my playthrough a little dull. You have some nifty moves, but are often underused (the grappling hook is used in every level, but rarely you get to pull off nice tricks with it, having instead to use it for mundane tasks like pulling crates and barrels, or climb an isolated high point, instead of jumping from structure to structure like a medieval spiderwoman). The AI of your enemies and your companion is bad (you can trick a guard with the same barrel forever, the pathfinding for your companion is atrocious, guards are often blind but sometimes can see you through cover, etc.), but overall a time rewind mechanic alleviates much of the issues. The physics engine is a little too wonky, and this can waste your time often (unintentionally killing guards is common when crates fly around). It's still fun, but too clunky and repetitive to really be great.