Shadow Warrior Review (Choc goblin)
Shadow Warrior is a game that's been on the periphery of my radar since... well, since it came out really. I couldn't tell you why it took me over ten years to check it out, but I finally did. And was it worth the wait? Eeehh... not really.
To be honest, I'm struggling to grapple with not only the great reception it had at launch, but the glowing reviews it continues to receive. Nothing about this game honestly feels particularly exceptional. It's not completely awful, but not exactly great to play either, and it also looks pretty ugly (even considering its age). The voice acting is terrible and the plot does little to inspire me to continue. And the humour... oh boy. I feel like it was probably a little schlocky/throwback at the time, but that means that in this day and age it's aged like milk rather than wine.
The gunplay in this game is honestly the biggest letdown. For a game that presents as a retro shooter revival, the guns are just completely unsatisfying to use. I reached the stage where you unlock the double-barrel shotgun and honestly, I think that may have been one of the final straws... it sounds and feels like slapping enemies around with a pool noodle. At least the katana melee combat has some enjoyment to be derived from it, but it really can't carry the repetitiveness and monotony of the rest of the gameplay.
The thing that was the biggest hurdle (and one I honestly never cleared) was the janky camera. It has this bizarre sway, that tilts whenever you strafe. And being a shooter, you strafe a LOT. It's not something that can be disabled - as far as I've been able to tell from reading into it online, it may be tied into how the melee combat was programmed and animated. And it's honestly nauseating, and impossibly unpleasant to get past. And to be honest, a lot of the ideas in this game falls in line with this - a bit janky and puzzling, and ultimately worse off for it. The UI in particular is discombobulating, clunky, and generally awful to use.
I was entertained enough to try and persist with it, and got almost halfway through the game... but ultimately couldn't hack it anymore (pun intended) and just wanted to move on. Especially when it starts throwing nonsense glitchy deaths at you, sending you back to a checkpoint way earlier. I just didn't have the patience to continue. I might check out the sequels to see if they've cleaned up their act, but unless you're nostalgic for THIS particular brand of retro shooter I really don't see many selling points.
★★★✰✰