Of course Shadow Warrior's main draw is its frenetic fisticuffs with a smooth blend of shooting, melee combat, and magic management. Whether you encounter these super-sized beasts is completely up to chance, though battling them isn't necessarily a bad thing as they leave behind better rewards. Each type of oni you encounter comes in three sizes too with Superior foes offering a stiffer challenge and Elite baddies being impervious to magic (though they'll still have elemental weaknesses). Armoured samurai are fond of blocking, serpentine gorgons snake their way across the scenery, and mini-bosses require slaying their chained minions before they can be attacked. Shadow Warrior's festive collection of foes is no slouch either.
In a lesser game scavenging for loot can be laborious, but Shadow Warrior 2's quick movement and unpredictable enemy encounters ensure that even these seemingly menial tasks feel fresh. The scenery is littered with gems to customise your weapons, new armaments to pick up, character-upgrading relics and more. There's stuff to pick up everywhere in this sequel. This focus on procedural generation subtly shifts the genre of Shadow Warrior from a linear shooter to something of a loot game.
Shadow warrior 2 demo Pc#
Eurogamer exclusive PC footage of Shadow Warrior 2. Simply zipping about the decadent districts and glamourous greenery is a pleasure in and of itself. Thankfully, movement is one of Shadow Warrior's best features as players can quickly sprint, double-jump, aerial-dash and climb around the colossal scenery. On more than one occasion I'd fall into this cavernous terrain only for my opponents - including mini-bosses - to relentlessly give chase. My first run through the demo concludes in a small village area, while my second contains a labyrinthine system of caverns beneath a remixed version of the village. Having played through the in-development demo twice, it's clear that this makes a big impact on exploration. Certain sections will look familiar as you'll see similar themes, architecture and enemy types specific to the stage, but the location of your foes, loot, and more will shuffle with each playthrough. Designer Pawel Kowalewski told Eurogamer that each stage is comprised of two or three randomly generated 200 meter square tiles.
Based on an hour playing its early build at PAX East, it seems up to the task.Īrguably the biggest game-changer this time around is that the levels are procedurally generated. It doesn't just want to make a better Shadow Warrior it wants to transform the Shadow Warrior brand from an acquired taste to a mainstream hit. Predictably, this retail follow-up to a digital cult classic has seen an obvious boost in production value (it looks scrumptious enough to rival any blockbuster these days), but that's only the tip of the iceberg for what Flying Wild Hog is up to.
This swift evolution from a niche team of around 30 to a triple-A developer roughly 100 strong is clear upon spending even a few minutes with its impending sequel, Shadow Warrior 2. Flying Wild Hog's 2013 remake of 3D Realms' campy 1997 first-person shooter Shadow Warrior was so successful that the Polish developer has more than tripled in size in the last three years.
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