This game has a lot of wasted potential. Fun elements combined with obtuse and even entirely useless systems that get in the way of fun. Shadow Warrior 2 returns the Wang to us with solid and smooth combat. There are a good amount of awesome looking weapons ranging from all bows, swords, shotguns and a lot more. Besides a unique look they also have their own feel and animation set. You'll find most of them as rewards for completing missions, a rare few as actually loot from opponents and the rest you buy from Larry, a demonic shopkeeper. You can find him in a central small hub mountain village. This functions as your home base for some shopping, getting missions and such. In SW2 you start a mission and go to a semi-open world area to slaughter all sorts of demons. Just like the original there will be doors/obstructions that require you to go elsewhere on the map to find a key of sorts before proceeding. On the map there are tons of chests and secrets to be found. You'll go around the map sooner or later so actually going off track from the quest line isn't really needed. However there is being said the maps are semi-randomized. This should promote the usage of free roam and revisiting areas after completing the objective. But there is no incentive to do this other then trying to find the secrets in the area. Yet there is nothing that says how many secrets are still available in the region. And upon returning opponents barely respawned making it feel very empty and dull. Crafting is useless. Gems let you customize weapon effects. But are too dull and don't get all that powerful. Enemy resistances destroy the battle flow on higher difficulties. I just ran through the second half of the game just to get it over with. Even boss battles are not all that interesting and very repetitive and predictable. Game looks amazing and runs really smooth, but there is so much wasted potential...
