The Shadow Warrior reboot was one of the most pleasant surprises I’ve had since I started writing about games. It’s a superb action game that does first-person melee combat well, has gorgeous environments, and managed not to feel like a throwback to the skeevier parts of the Build Engine days while capturing so much that I loved about the era. I can’t wait for the sequel [official site], and these twelve minutes of blood, bickering and burning demons make it all the more attractive.
One thing that developers Flying Wild Hog showed a clear understanding of was the importance of movement – their first stab at Shadow Warrior had a conventional level-based structure with occasional corridors and gardens, but it was at its best when it used the environment as an arena, pumping in more and more demons and beasties, and having the player dart about the place, slicing and shooting. The sequel adds new ways to navigate, allowing Lo Wang to ping-pong around the arenas and explore levels more thoroughly.
It’s also incredibly bloody. Limbs will fly.
There’s no release date yet but it should be out this year. If you’d told me a new Shadow Warrior game would be one of my most anticipated in the year 2016 – ahead of a new Doom game by quite some distance – I’d have scoffed. Scoffed. That’s the world we live in though and I think I like it.
26/04/2016 at 16:49 zooltar says:
This is Tadek from Flying Wild Hog. Just a word of clarification - our levels are randomized rather than procedurally generated. The one we showed in the newest demo consists of two blocks (roughly 250x250 yards each) which are randomly selected from a pool. Also there are some elements of the decoration on the maps which are also picked from a pool of different assets. We wanted to maintain creative control on how the levels look, so we won't plunge into chaos :>
26/04/2016 at 10:11 int says:
Wait, sir! The sword, sir! It appears to be… jammed!
26/04/2016 at 11:47 Kollega says:
Raspberry… there is only ONE MAN who would DARE give me the raspberry! *lowers faceplate* LO WANG!
26/04/2016 at 10:25 Capt. Bumchum McMerryweather says:
Gosh, I even missed the first one of these – I’m going to have to check it out, it looks bloody awesome!!
26/04/2016 at 10:39 Luke Nukem says:
You can currently get it for $4.84 in the beat the average level of the Devolver Digital Humble Bundle
26/04/2016 at 14:42 thelastpointer says:
Thank man, that was an instabuy for me :)
26/04/2016 at 14:43 thelastpointer says:
Thanksssssssss
26/04/2016 at 10:33 Spacewalk says:
I got some wang.
26/04/2016 at 11:09 AskForBarry says:
Holy crap! A Diablo FPS!
26/04/2016 at 22:25 ZIGS says:
Hellgate: London?
26/04/2016 at 11:20 Hunchback says:
Well, the reboot of SW was one of the best FPS made in the last couple of years. Maybe THE best action (as in, not a “realistic”, etc game) FPS since… forever.
This can only be good!
On a side note, wonder how many wang jokes they’ll manage to fit in this time…? :D
26/04/2016 at 11:23 Utsunomiya says:
Damn, I really hope they won’t go overboard with those prograssion elements. It’d be sad to end up with another garbage shooter like borderlands or divisions or multiplications or whatever. And woah, that exposition dump was subtle. Collecting animal skins and flowers? Ugh.
I want this one to be good, goddamnit!
26/04/2016 at 14:51 Unsheep says:
Having ‘procedurally generated maps’ is a concern. For me it tends to mean a developer have sacrificed other elements of the game for the sake of it. It’s far too early to be judgemental though, the game looks ridiculously fun.
26/04/2016 at 16:49 zooltar says:
Hi,
This is Tadek from Flying Wild Hog. Just a word of clarification – our levels are randomized rather than procedurally generated. The one we showed in the newest demo consists of two blocks (roughly 250×250 yards each) which are randomly selected from a pool. Also there are some elements of the decoration on the maps which are also picked from a pool of different assets. We wanted to maintain creative control on how the levels look, so we won’t plunge into chaos :>
26/04/2016 at 15:27 duns4t says:
Is it just me or is the field of view intolerably narrow? Maybe it’s just where they decided to place the arms/weapons towards the edges of the screen…
26/04/2016 at 16:25 Horg says:
Looks like a fairly standard 95-105 FoV to me, just some of the weapon models are larger than average which may make the screen seem smaller. If it was under 90 FoV I would have noticed right away, i’m one of them who gets motion sick from low FoV gaming.
27/04/2016 at 16:48 duns4t says:
On re-watching, I think it might just be the weapon models often extending into (or beyond) the center of the screen which breaks up the landscape and makes my head hurt. I’d have to go back and try Shadow Warrior 1 to see if the models were similarly obtrusive… could be why I bounced off that despite loving the artwork and classic FPSs.
26/04/2016 at 16:44 Boozebeard says:
I always felt like 2013 Shadow Warrior didn’t get as much noise as it deserved. At least compared to Wolfenstein, which was also very good (personally slightly prefer shadow warrior) but seemed to get a lot more press.
27/04/2016 at 02:34 ComradeSnarky says:
Continuation of long-running franchise whose last installment was 2009, published by Bethesda Softworks vs. Reboot of somewhat niche 1997 FPS, published by Devolver Digital.
I agree that it deserved more attention, though.
26/04/2016 at 23:19 denizsi says:
Environments look fantastic but the gameplay looks boring. Combat is too “wobbly”. Original Shadow Warrior is fast and furious but not necessarily nausea inducing. And what is with the Force Powers and Telekinetic Katana?
27/04/2016 at 02:37 ComradeSnarky says:
This is a sequel to the 2013 reboot, not the 1997 original.
27/04/2016 at 04:14 Buggery says:
Could do without the numbers flying out of the enemies. If you can’t represent doing damage to enemies visually, then don’t pretend to be Borderlands. Headshots should demonstrably be headshots, bodyshots should indicate that you’ve connected a shot but not done as much damage, etc. Makes everything feel too vague and random, if you know what I mean.
I liked the first Shadow Warrior remake well enough, but I’m a little weary of this approach I guess. It was a good game, but I had a lot more fun playing the original game afterwards, and it didn’t have shooting that felt nearly as good as the Wolfenstein sequels. Will remain cautiously optimistic.
27/04/2016 at 08:23 Unclepauly says:
Did you watch the same video? The demons bodies show crazy amounts of damage, it’s at an insane level how much damage is being shown. Also this is mainly a melee game while Wolf is mainly a shooting game. I could counter with Wolf’s melee not being as good as SW’s but I won’t do that.
“If you can’t represent doing damage to enemies visually, then don’t pretend to be Borderlands”
What does this mean?
27/04/2016 at 08:15 Unclepauly says:
gameplay looks boring? Am I in the right comment section?
19/05/2016 at 19:08 PanFaceSpoonFeet says:
Burri show helps when you need a good barrul a wheeskey.