![]() ![]() While the skills help you feel like the incredible badass Wang is setup to be, it also never feels too easy. It’s an in depth system and you have to spend your points carefully to customize your Wang. The upgrade system is a little intimidating at first, one menu for passive powers, one for special abilities and bonuses, and one for weapons. These other toys are both necessary for some more strategic encounters, and upgradeable to make for an overall more badass Wang. You get other toys to play with, this is an FPS after all so you get plenty of guns, the aforementioned ki which gives you special abilities (usually tied to sword attacks), and the occasional demon’s body parts. There’s nothing like diving into a thick crowd of enemies and chopping them to bits. The sword may have been a gimmick in the original, but it’s pure awesome here smooth, deadly, lightning quick and fun. Ki is certainly cool, if only it were more intuitive. You can’t work with the keybindings to fix this either, you’re just stuck with having to get used to the system. I can’t claim this has been a major detriment to the gameplay, especially since there’s such a variety of attacks and ways to safeguard yourself in the midst of combat, but it does make it feel a bit odd overall. I’ve often been in the middle of a combat intense situation, had to double tap the D key to begin channeling my healing magic, and would strafe to the right as an unintended side effect. This means when trying to do one action you may often find yourself accidentally doing another. In short using a special ability usually requires some combination of the mouse and the WASD keys, which are also responsible for combat and movement respectively. ![]() ![]() There are slight faults with the combat system, for example the game’s use of magic, or as it’s called here “Ki.” While the abilities themselves are cool and keep the game varied, using them can be a little counter-intuitive. Throw in some gameplay tweaks to keep the action fast paced and you’re in for a mostly fun experience. It basically feels like an old school 90’s FPS game, and I found absolutely nothing wrong with that. There is something decidedly old school about the combat, switching through weapons on the fly, no places to take cover and only relying on strafing and dodging, and no automatic healing for your character. Let’s talk about how the game feels, looks and sounds.Īfter a little bit of story setup you’re thrust into the action as you cut a very gory swath through a mixture of gangsters and demons. It’s not my typical kind of review coverage, but attempting to update the original was so head scratching I just had to dedicate a bit of time to it. Okay, right, so cultural sensitivity moment over. However all these things are more a head nod to the original out of place awkwardness of the first game’s low brow comedy and poor attempts to satirize Asian culture, it’s basically making fun of itself, saying “Yeah that wasn’t exactly the greatest idea… Now let’s move on.” So are fortune cookies with “sage” advice, and ridiculous looking weapon designs. Shadow Warrior 97 had awkward, out of place nude anime ladies scattered throughout levels and… Those are back. It’s a wittier, more serious Wang that stops being a stereotype and starts being a badass hitman… With a bit of a comic book obsession.Īlright, so it hasn’t completely distanced itself from the original. We meet the new younger Wang speeding down the highway dressed in a sharp outfit, smoking a cigarette and singing along to Stan Bush’s The Touch. They don’t sweep the political incorrectness of the original under the rug, rather they lampshade it, such as a line about the game’s first level where Wang comments on the locale: “I was hoping for something a little more cliche, but I guess koi ponds and Cherry Blossoms will have to do.” The original Lo Wang was a kung fu master with a full Manchu who spouted nonstop, repetitive Engrish sayings for the sake of comedy. Lo Wang is still our hero, but Flying Wild Hog makes a few immediate and effective changes. Second, while the story is dark and a bit more thought out than the original it’s still not a game that takes itself too seriously. First is the obvious, maybe not so much racism. Right away Shadow Warrior does two things right. Naturally I was a tad bewildered when I found out game developer Flying Wild Hog disagreed with me and set out for a remake. But the past is the past, and it seemed a hero like Wang who had such classy catchphrases as “Ancient Chinese Secret” or “BANZAI!” or the classy “Just like Nagasaki!” should stay right in the past where he belonged. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |