![]() There’s three major boss fights in this game and while they’re all presented well in these one-of-a-kind, grandiose, gladiatorial arenas, they feel a bit drawn out and kind of unspectacular. The way they’ve been able to render the beautiful architecture of Japanese temples as well as some of the mountainous/cavernous areas of the “Shadow Realm” are well done and help distract from the levels basic layout. Some will charge you head on, others will attack from a distance with projectiles, so you will have to practice your target prioritization and use Wang’s dodge ability. Some you can two-hit with the pistol, some are more bullet spongey to the point of almost being mini-boss material. ![]() They throw a variety of enemies at you at increasing numbers, especially in the later combat arenas. The combat in this game is pretty fun and even hectic at times. ![]() That’s not to say that’s bad or anything, for two reasons: 1). The individual level design, at it’s core, is essentially: hallway, arena, hallway, unlock this door, arena, hallway etc. There’s also little branching areas that allow for secret hunting such as these bubbling blood fountains that offer “Karma” points, “Ki Crystals” and little glowing statues. The levels are broken up into chapters that all progress linearly. The guns sound punchy and powerful and the overall pace of the combat is quite fun and offers up a decent challenge, even on Normal difficulty. The movement speed is fast and smooth, just like the original game and akin to other FPS games from that era. Each weapon has secondary fire modes as well as two other upgrades which you can acquire using money in the Weapon upgrades section: Just to name a few, the revolver fires off rounds in rapid succession like those old Cowboy/Western movies, the uzi has a dual-wield option thats great for crowd control, but you chew through your ammo pretty quickly, the shotgun can equip a quad barrel attachment, since the standard double barrel wasn’t really doing it for me, and can be primed to fire all four shots at once and the crossbow shoots explosive bolts, although I found the splash damage on them to be kind of underwhelming. You can also acquire a skill that allows you to pick up a “Demon’s Head” and use that fight enemies as well. Occasionally, fallen enemies will drop “Demon hearts”, which you can use to take down a sizeable group of lower tiered enemies with a certain radius of you. You can also throw shurikens, but they’re kind of weak and not overly accurate to throw. The guns consist of a revolver, an uzi, rocket launcher, flamethrower, shotgun and crossbow. The core gameplay loop is to cut down hordes demons in combat arenas using a variety of guns or your katana. Gameplay-wise, Shadow Warrior is a first-person shooter/hack-and-slash game. Hoji explains to Wang that this ancient katana is an immortal slaying, demon killing weapon that consists of three swords needing to be merged into one. Mizayaki is then killed in a demonic invasion of his compound and Wang teams up with Hoji in order to secure the Nobitsura Kage. Wang confronts Mizayaki, only to be captured by him and learn of his bond with a demon named Hoji. Mizayaki refuses, Wang kills all of his body guards to try and take the katana by force and chases after him. Wang is tasked with purchasing the Nobitsura Kage, an ancient katana, from a collector named Mizayaki for 2 million dollars. Wang is a deadly assassin who works for Orochi Zilla, a powerful and wealthy industrial mogul. ![]() Like the original game, you play as Lo Wang, except instead of being a borderline cultural stereotype, this modern version of him is just some nerd who collects comic books, likes rocking out to Stan Bush (A Boomer-ass reference that I had to look up) and drives an awesome looking car that resembles and old Nissan S30. Much like games such as Wolfenstein: The New Order and Doom (2016), Shadow Warrior gets itself a contemporary reboot for the current console generation/PC hardware thanks to the work of developer Flying Wild Hog and publisher Devolver Digital. Sadly, Blood never got much in the way of a contemporary reboot, unless you count Blood: Fresh Supply and Duke Nukem 3D spawned… Duke Nukem Forever… Needless to say, both of those franchises have been put on ice for the foreseeable future, but not Shadow Warrior. Back in the days of the Build Engine, the original Shadow Warrior (released in 1997) was one of the three primary pillars of that engine, alongside Duke Nukem 3D and Blood.
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