Looking at: Shadow Warrior 2013

Hard Reset

The legendary Nobitsura Kage, highlighting SW13's melee focus

What happened to the FPS genre? It used to just be about gunning down waves of hellspawn mutant freaks while listening to metal music. Now it's all about saving America from villain X while pushing buttons and occasionally looking down iron sights for a split second. There aren't that many modern FPS games I actually enjoyed, so playing the 2013 re-boot of Shadow Warrior was definitely a pleasant surprise.

SW13 comes to us from developer Flying Wild Hog, the same people that brought us 2011's Hard Reset. FWG is clearly a company that has a reverence for shooters of yore, as both Hard Reset and SW13 are lovingly crafted homages to old school shooters like Quake, or Serious Sam. But do the old conventions still hold up in the age of the modern shooter?

Penis Joke

One of the few minutes of peace between the waves of foes.

The story of SW13 sees you as Lo Wang, a mercenary in the employ of the crime lord Zilla. Zilla has sent you to retrieve an ancient katana sword said to contain immense power. You get the sword and almost immediately everything goes wrong, with hordes of demons pouring out of portals and invading Japan. Thankfully one of the demons, Hoji, figures that Wang, along with the ancient sword Nobitsura Kage, should be enough to slay the demons, reforge the ancient blade, and free Hoji from his imprisonment.

While the story regularly takes a back seat to the action throughout the game, there actually is just enough of it to keep everything interesting and, more importantly, give context to your actions. You'll know exactly why you're going to a location and what the end goal of it is, and that's a step above other games of this type like Serious Sam or Duke Nukem (the good ones). The plot actually does evolve, introducing and explaining new characters, and while it's not exactly the highest caliber of writing it's far better then a game like SW13 usually gets.

A bit more divisive is the dialogue. SW13 is an incredibly juvenile game, never mind the fact that the main character's name is Lo Wang. There are jokes peppered throughout, ranging from simple turns of phrase and slapstick, to just south of racist pokes at Asian and American culture. It's a funny game, provided you can get on the same wave-length, and it's nice to see a game in this day and age willing to tell a joke without being afraid of some backlash.

Swords, Shotguns, and Sorcery 

Thanks to you, the world is in chaos.

Gameplay in SW13 hearkens back to the wave-based FPS shoot-em-ups of the mid-90's and early 2000's. You advance from arena to arena, taking on hordes of enemies at your own leisure, and when everything but you is dead you move on. Occasionally there's a mid-level boss or a simple puzzle to work out, but 90% of the time it's slashing or shooting hundreds of demons till the only thing that remains is hunks of gore everywhere. It's simple, easy to figure out, and a hell of a lot of fun when it all works.

Despite it's simplicity however, there is some welcome diversity to the mix. Lo Wang has access to a number of magical powers, both defensive and offensive through the use of his sword. Activating these powers is as easy as tapping a directional button twice then one of the mouse buttons. After doing it a few times you'll be able to activate it like a pro in the middle of battle, which is good because you'll need to more often then not. I have the healing and shield spells committed to muscle memory thanks to how often I used them.

My favorite weapon, the venerable crossbow.

SW13 is a brutal game, both in the amount of gore spilt everywhere and the actual difficulty of the game. Enemies can be absolutely tiring to take down, and some of the tougher fights feel like you're shooting at an actual sponge. This is my biggest issue with the game, is that to many of the demons you fight seem built to annoy rather then challenge. There's the shaman demon that constantly spawns in cannon fodder and creates a bullet proof shield. There's a charging bull enemy that can only be hit on the back, but turns around in the blink of an eye. Most annoyingly are the exploding suicide enemies, which remind me of the screaming headless bombers from Serious Sam in the worst way. Fighting some enemy types just becomes a chore, and you're only happy when it's over because it's finally over and you can move on. There are enjoyable fights, battles that make you use your head and out manned, but some of the fights, especially end of level fights, just feel like impossible slogs.

SW13's biggest saving grace is it's actual gameplay however. As I mentioned, there's a slew of spells to learn, but there's more the that. There's a full RPG upgrade system, with three paths for guns, spells, and passive upgrades, each with their own branching paths. Each upgrade tree has it's own unique currency too, allowing you to level at your leisure without worrying where to assign points. You'll constantly be upgrading, and that lends a welcome feel of advancement as you grow stronger.

The shadowy Hoji, your only friend throughout the game.

As for killing things, you'll utilize your collection of powers, along with your collection of weapons. There's nothing super standout, and all of the weapons are instantly recognizable. There's the classic revolver, SMGs, shotgun, crossbow, and rocket launcher to name a few. They handle well and there's a noticeable punch to the heavier weapons. There's a host of unlockable upgrades for each gun, including a secondary fire mode, provided you can find enough cash to pay.

The only really interesting weapon is the legendary katana Lo Wang wields. Melee combat is fast and furious as you swing with wild abandon, and whenever possible I'd ditch my guns to rip and tear the enemies apart the old fashioned way. Even better are the sword arts you can unlock, allowing for area of effect attacks, shield breakers, and other combos to make you feel awesome. The best moments in the game are when you cut your way through a horde of demons, coming out completely unscathed.

Old Style

Jokes are woven in, the most obvious being the collectible fortune cookies.

Graphically SW13 looks pretty good. There's a lot of work put into the style of the game, and it comes off pretty well. Locations are distinct enough that the levels don't all feel the same, and the texture work is decent enough. My biggest issue with how SW13 looks is it's lighting, which is problematically dark at the suggested gamma settings. It was never bad enough to ruin the game, but the flashlight was woefully underpowered and it made the darker levels harder to move around.

After the enemy balance, my biggest issue with SW13 is it's level design. It's abysmal at times. When it's just a series of corridors a la Doom everything works, but when you enter into a large, open area and are tasked with pixel hunting the one thing to let you move forward it gets tiring. Most annoying was one level near the end of the game partly shrouded in a poisonous cloud. I spent twenty minutes running around looking for the key to move forward while my vision was completely obscured. It's not that every game should have a compass permanently attached to the top of the screen, but some way to indicate where to go would've helped a lot considering the labyrinthine layout of some of the levels.

Levels range from Japanese castles, to downtown, and even demonic worlds.

Where the level design does redeem itself somewhat is the style of the levels. Each level is filled with things, making them feel alive and lived in, or as the case may be, demonic and long forgotten. Even better is that a large portion of these objects explode, and parts of levels seem designed to allow for massive chain explosions. Everything from cars to AC units, to random unattended fireworks stands are just waiting for you to shoot them. You'll need to be careful, however, as I've lost count of how many times I exploded myself in the heat of combat.

Overall sound design is perfectly fine. Lo Wang's voice actor seems to be doing a piss-poor impersonation of an Asian, somewhat fitting for a guy from Texas. None of the voice actors are bad, but none of them are particularly standout either. As for sound effects? The guns mostly sound punchy and weighty, save for the SMGs which sound appropriately yappy. Explosions are bombastic and heavy enough, especially when chained together. Enemies sound menacing and evil and there's a particularly satisfying amount of swishes, squishes and crunches as you reduce them to piles of goo. Music is a mix of techno, generic metal, and pan-Asian classical, all remixed appropriately.

Good Fortune

Almost every situation ends poorly for you.

Overall, Shadow Warrior is somewhat hard to actually recommend. On the one hand, it's a rare breed of game, a classic no-holds-barred shooter that puts action front and center. These types of games only come once in a blue moon, and even more rarely are they actually worth playing. Serious Sam 3 was two years before this, and even since SW13 there hasn't been any other shooter like it.

On the other hand, it's a deeply problematic game. It's RPG system is deep, but flawed, especially trying to save money for weapon upgrades. It's shooting is fun, but enemies are annoying and tiring to fight. Graphically it looks great, but the levels are maze-like and hard to progress through. It all averages out to be pretty good, but only if you can put up with the bullshit.

Shadow Warrior 2013 is a game for an audience that doesn't really exist. It's an old school shooter that's to new-school, and a new-age shooter trying to be old. It's the successor to a game no one really knows about, and the spiritual successor to games that don't exist anymore. It is a fun game, especially if you want a little more action and a little less dialogue in your shooter, but it comes with a hefty word of warning. Once you dig into this game, you might just be hungry again in an hour.