Thoughts on Shadow Warrior 2013

[PapaGreg096]

What with Ezekiel making a Doom thread I personally want to hear everyone's thoughts on Shadow Warrior 2013.

For me its a 7/10, I love the swordplay in the game and the various of techniques you use with it is icing on the cake. It had a surprisingly good story to it and the interaction between Hoji and Wang was both funny endearing. However I had have some problems with it; the enemies were too bullet spongey, the arena parts were too repetative(give Doom some credit at least it in some arenas had stairs), most of the guns feel boring(the shotgun sucks especially).

 

[DoPo]

I can certainly find many faults with the game, but overall, I really liked it. Best description I can give is it's a really fun first person sword-er with some guns thrown in for some reason. Like, really - cutting stuff with the katana and slinging spells felt quite good, however, I'm not really sure why the guns were thrown in - the only real place I used them was boss battles and even then, that's only because you couldn't use your sword for those.

While I'd agree with the 7/10 rating you give it, I don't really agree with what you said about the story and characters. The backstory was interesting, but the actual plot was meh. The interactions between Hoji and Wang were indeed funny in the beginning, but hardly ever got to "endearing" levels. The game tried to play it off like they had some sort of connection and expected us to care about the bond between the two but...there simply wasn't a bond. Never got established, the game just suddenly decided to go "I know you care about Hoji" to which I could only go "Why? You never really built anything to care about".

Still, the plot wasn't obnoxious and didn't really detract from the demon slicing experience for me.

By the way, Shadow Warrior is currently being given out for free on HumbleBundle store. It will be for the next 1 day and 16 hours (at the time of writing this). When I clicked on the thread, I thought it's what brought it on, but I guess it's just a coincidence. Still, I guess it's worth mentioning it while I'm here.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I think I like Shadow Warrior. I do find the core gameplay pretty good but those levels just drag on so freaking long that I think I'm not even halfway through the game after probably putting enough playtime that I probably should've beat a game like this. The last time I played it was probably a couple years back and I took a break from it and just never got back to the game. It seems like a game that just really really overstays its welcome.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

It was a good game. but not even close to Doom. not in any shape or form. i like its gameplay, meelee, but hate its boss fights and shadow realm missions. i think its level design is way too straight forward but still a good game. better than its sequel.

I give it 7/10

 

[stroopwafel]

Shadow Warrior isn't in the same league as Doom I think. Structurally it's more or less the same in that it's very simplistic and repetitive but Doom somehow stays fun as the gameplay feels more kinetic and there is a greater sense of escalation and variation as more baddies and weapons get thrown at you in different constellations. Even if it's just a variation on the same thing. With Shadow Warrior I never really felt that sense of progression and like previous poster said the levels are overly long as well as too hectic(and not in a good way). With Doom the designers knew exactly what they were doing with Shadow Warrior I felt that was much less the case. Even if they both try to capitalize on 90's corridor shooters. Doom brought a smile to my face beginning to end while with Shadow Warrior I was like ''ugh is it over yet?''. Didn't even complete it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Despite it's flaws it's one of my favorite shooters in many, many years. I don't know exactly why, but it just does something that really clicks with me. It's better than the second game too. They should have kept it simple instead of making it a looter-shooter.

 

[Zhukov]

Eh, it was alright.

Stuck to basics, got right what it needed to and didn't take itself too seriously.

Melee wasn't anything close to what people talk it up to be though.

Shame about the sequel being rubbish. Instead of improving what worked they went and smeared Borderlands all over it.

 

[DoPo]

And since when have first-person melee combat systems ever been remarkable?

Do you mean "remarkable" as in "good" or as in "worthy of attention"? I'd like to comment on the latter - it's because there aren't really that many of them. There are only a handful of them and some aren't even that amazing, for example Morrowind is has a very stiff and not every exciting. Having a game with first person melee where you don't just go next to an enemy and mash attack is definitely worth mentioning.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

It was ok.

Swordplay was basic, but fun. Didn't use most of the guns, just revolver for the flying little bastards, shotgun to mailslot those shield dudes and rocket launcher to soften up big guys before going in with the sword.

Combat was decent overall, but the 'get locked into arena, kill all enemies, move on to next arena' formula got old by the end, especially those damage-spongy big hat guys that spawn skellingtons.

 

[Saelune]

I love the sword, as do most who like the game. I havent played 2, but I hope they expanded on the sword. Except the bosses, you can play the whole game with just sword and Ki and I think thats awesome.

I also like Lo Wang. Gives some personality to the game, and his and the demon's banter is fun.

I also like the lore of the game. That demon world seems like an interesting place.

The only real flaw for the game is probably the levels. They are long and too obviously linear. One thing I liked about classic DOOM and related was how many levels felt sort of open, and exploring them was fun.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I enjoyed it far more than Doom. It was working on a lower budget and before Doom was released into mainstream acclaim, so my observed faults can be credited to that. I wasn't expecting much beforehand, especially when the main character made it clear they had a name that was going to be punned into punblivion. But there was personality, fun, variety, lots of slicing and zipping, an actual story, and somehow grew to like the characters for some reason as they bantered along the journey. Need to try the sequel still, that chainsaw mechanic looks arousing. Playing Doom long after Shadow Warrior felt rather disappointing in comparison. If we could combine the two perhaps, the budget of Doom with the variety and personality of Shadow Warrior?

 

[wings012]

I didn't expect the game to be as good as it was. I was pleasantly surprised at how the story took a more serious turn and I kinda felt for Hoji. Sure didn't expect that when the game started off with a guy going I AM LO WANG and making dick jokes.

The katana was fun and done a lot better than a lot of first person games with melee - but still kinda awkward in other ways. In the end I just stuck to running and gunning for most threats, unless I got myself cornered for some reason in which I'll spam the spin splash.

Also recycled assets up the wazoo but I suppose I can overlook that.

I had my fun, but it didn't exactly change my life.