Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9 out of 10

Shadow Warrior is a first-person shooter game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. The game is a re-make of a game that was originally released on May 13th 1997 and developed by the legendary 3D Realms which was clearly inspired in its direction by their previous smash hit Duke Nukem 3D having been released on January 29th 1996.

The story follows Lo Wang who is sent to retrieve a $2 million katana sword by a rich and powerful industrial magnate Orochi Zilla under the express orders of not leaving the premises without the desired object, although Lo Wang unfortunately does not know exactly what he has let himself in for or what is to come.

There are four game modes including: a Story Campaign, Ex Mode, Heroic Mode and Survival Mode with the Ex Mode and Heroic Mode being unlockables. The story campaign spans seventeen chapters with a progressively unfolding storyline, while the Ex Mode is a further play through of the story campaign, although players are able to retain all of the powers and skills they have attained throughout the first play through, therefore allowing players to maximise their impact on every enemy across the entirety of the game. The Heroic Mode which is another different play through of the story campaign, but this time the ability to save progress is disabled as are mid level checkpoints; therefore players will have to approach each level strategically as if Lo Wang dies just once, then they will be returned to the beginning of the current level and have to battle through all of the enemies all over again.

The Survival Mode tasks the player with surviving for as long as humanly possible in order to earn the highest possible total score from surviving as many waves as possible and killing as many enemies in the process as possible too, which is certainly easier than it sounds as hordes of enemies from throughout the game will run straight at the character with the express purpose of killing Lo Wang as quickly as possible with a new wave spawning within seconds of killing the entirety of the previous wave. will receive a katana and a revolver with weapon and ammunition drops arriving periodically and positioned around the environment to help the quest for survival, although there are no weapon upgrades, powers or skills at your disposal unless you earn them within the Survival Mode itself, regardless of what has already been earned in the story campaign.

The challenges feature provides players with 53 challenges to overcome ranging from killing 100 enemies with a particular weapon such as using a katana special attack in campaign mode, killing 50 or 100 of a certain enemy type to finding 25 secrets and even destroying 1,000 destructible items in campaign mode, while on the road to completing the game.

The weapons come in the form of a variety of guns such as a revolver, uzi, crossbow, shotgun, flamethrower and occasions of mounted weaponry such as a machine gun in Lo Wang’s underground cave beneath his home, alongside melee combat with various swords available along with a choice of which weapon you start out with from the options menu ranging from your normal katana through to the Nobitsura Kage katana, Zilla Z45 Laser katana and even themed swords from other games such as the Shadow Warrior Classic katana, Hotline Miami katana and a Serious Sam 3 sledgehammer which all have their own unique style to them as well as shuriken blades that can be thrown at enemies, and many more weapons besides. The arsenal of weaponry is highly essential to survival, but also to assist in earning the absolute best shuriken ratings out of five for killing as many enemies as quickly as possible without being hit, while the diversity of the attacks is also key to scoring a maximum shuriken rating of five as any of the numerous weapons can be used to cause devastating destruction to any enemy with decapitations and the removal of limbs possible at the hands of an expertly timed shot or swing of a sword that often results in the squeal of a demon no matter how small or tall they may be.

Players can learn karma based abilities by collecting karma points which can then be redeemed to learn a particular skill, while there is such a wealth of diversity in skills as there are six categories including: katana mastery; knowledge; movement; luck; mind; and restoration with each category containing a total of six unique skills. There are also four categories of powers including: healing; protection; shockwave; and flux with each category containing a total of five unique powers, which can be unlocked by earning ki crystals. Weapons are also upgradeable beyond their initial specifications such as adding an extended barrel including a recoil compensator to the revolver to increase the accuracy by 50% or a quad pack for the shotgun to add two further barrels for maximum destruction or perhaps even ammo if players cannot find any nearby to get yourself out of a tricky situation with upgrades being purchasable via money, which can be collected alongside ammunition from crates, chests, drawers and even statues.

The character design is quite varied and while it initially consists of killing henchmen that are attacking with swords and uzis; it quickly changes pace quite early on to all manner of beastly demons and even skeletons that are looking to wipe Lo Wang from the face of the Earth. They will come in the form of walking and running enemies at first, but as players progress through the chapters; flying enemies will be introduced with each foe having their own unique capabilities and attacks with some enemies also having shields and coming in larger or smaller sizes.

The environment design is pretty amazing with superb attention to detail throughout that will see players visit temples, forests, city and village streets and an event a cave under the heroes’ home that is akin to that of Batman’s secret hideout which even includes Lo Wang’s hero influenced costume, amongst many more environments. The environments contain secret passages that sometimes lead to retro areas inspired by the original Shadow Warrior game from 1997 and there are plenty of destructible environments that are so well constructed to a point of strategically placing destructible objects within a certain radius of each other in order to set off a chain reaction of explosions that can lure enemies into by getting their attention, making them follow you and perfectly timing when you shoot at the destructible object. The destructible objects include lights, tables, chairs, cushions, glass, wood, signs, bicycles, cars, scooters, trucks, electricity boxes, potted fire lanterns, explosive barrels, boxes and carts full of fireworks and much more besides with each destructible object having its own reaction, such as the electricity boxes will send out a huge blast of electricity and proceed to electrocute anyone or anything standing nearby, while when the boxes or carts full of fireworks are shot at they all set off in a huge display of light and colour that will really hurt the enemies, alongside cars, trucks, scooters, potted fire lanterns and explosive barrels which all have a huge impact and will most likely result in immediately killing multiple enemies.

There is a variety of humour that is certainly inspired by games in the first-person shooter genre such as Duke Nukem and Serious Sam as there are 106 secrets spread throughout the game and while nowhere near all of them are funny as some tend to involve collecting karma points in secret passages; there are fortune cookies and Easter Eggs, such as a female anime character hidden behind waterfalls and in bath tubs located throughout the game. The arcade references a number of games published by Devolver Digital such as Hotline Miami, Serious Sam 3: BFE and the original Shadow Warrior as well as Flying Wild Hog’s Hard Reset as their posters are decorating the walls and clips of the gameplay and audio are playing on a number of the arcade machines which certainly provide some laughs, such as taunts from Lo Wang aimed at his enemies in the original Shadow Warrior including, “You are weak as a baby fart, go and live in fear” and “Give me your best shot Roboturd!”, while Lo Wang from the current Shadow Warrior produces various wise cracks on a regular basis.

The statistics include a varying range of statistical analysis such as your total score and challenges score; time played; the amount of challenges completed, secrets found, enemies killed, damage done, deaths, karma actions, objects destroyed and damage received; the individual mission score for each of the seventeen chapters; and the individual survival scores for each of the three survival scenarios.

The extras menu consists of an artbook, movies and credits with the artbook has 17% of the artwork unlocked with ten images available from the beginning and the further 83% unlocked as progression is made through the game as the artwork follows the story and the characters, while the films provide a full recap of the story, which are also unlocked as you progress through the story of the game, alongside well presented and atmospheric credits to showcase the talents of those who worked on the development and release of the game.

Shadow Warrior supports the share feature that allows players to upload a video clip  or screen shot to Facebook or Twitter; and broadcast live gameplay footage via Twitch or Ustream as players are experiencing the game with a simple tap of the share button and selecting the option of your choice. The PS4’s hard-drive continuously stores the most recent fifteen minutes of gameplay footage, so players still have the chance to decide if they would like to share something cool a few minutes after it has taken place. The share feature is a next-gen revolution that has only improved with the further customisation provided by the Share Factory app that allows commentary, music, themes, stickers, effects, text, picture-in-picture video between your game footage and your reaction from the PlayStation Camera and much more besides, which will only continue to prosper and flourish as it matures with additional features and further experimentation in the future.

Shadow Warrior supports the remote play feature that allows you to play almost any PS4 game on your PlayStation Vita via a Wi-Fi internet connection by pairing up the PS4 and Vita via configuring the settings on your PS4 to enable the Vita to connect to it, then entering the code provided from the settings menu on the Vita’s PS4 Link application with the initial setup taking around only two minutes. The performance during remote play is excellent as the graphics, audio and general performance are all of the same quality of the PS4 version with the exception of some optimisations to fit the various abilities and combinations of the control scheme to the Vita. The controls of secondary attacks and primary attacks have been moved from L2 and R2 to L and R respectively, while L1 for displaying the weapon selection wheel is now assigned to holding the bottom left of the touch screen and pressing R1 for dashing and holding R1 for sprinting have now been configured to the bottom right of the touch screen with the DualShock 4’s touch pad being replicated on the centre of the Vita’s touch screen for any optional variants of combinations, alongside L3 for crouching now being mapped to the left of the rear touch pad and R3 for aiming now being assigned to the right of the rear touch pad as well as select representing the share button. The refinements to the control scheme provide the feeling of a real optimised experience of the game as though it was purpose built for the Vita and are certainly the final piece of the puzzle regarding the quality of the remote play feature as they are on par with the excellence of the graphical fidelity, audio and general performance.

The controls are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller with the control scheme consisting of holding R2 gently or alternatively pressing R3 to focus the aim before shooting a weapon; pressing R2 to perform a primary attack with a sword or gun; pressing L2 to perform a secondary attack; pressing R1 to dash forward or holding R1 to sprint; pressing L1 to display the weapon selection wheel; pressing X to jump; pressing triangle to select your previous weapon; pressing square to reload, use an item or pickup an item; pressing O to perform a quick slash or throw a shuriken; pressing up on the d-pad to display your current mission status; pressing left on the d-pad to switch to the katana sword; pressing right on the d-pad to toggle a flashlight on or off; pressing down on the d-pad to display upgrades; pressing L3 to crouch; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to look around the surrounding environments; pressing the share button takes players to the share feature menu and pressing the options button to display the pause menu.

Players will have to learn a lot of combinations to perfect the usage of Lo Wang’s powers, abilities and skills, such as tapping up on the left analogue stick twice followed by holding R2 and releasing R2 when they want to unleash a frontal ki strike called Divider of Heavens or tapping right on the left analogue stick twice followed by holding L2 to restore up to 65% of the player’s health over a five second period called Peacocks Blessing which is particularly useful to heal the character when having sustained multiple heavy attacks from demons, while there are many more combinations to learn for an abundance of powers, abilities and skills.

The left-handed control configuration provides the options to switch the buttons layout for the weapon selection wheel from L1 to become R1 and the sprint of R1 to become L1; the L2 and R2 button layout for the secondary attack of L2 to become R2 and the primary attack of R2 to become L2; and the sticks layout for moving the character with the left analogue stick and crouching with L3 to become the right analogue stick and R3; and for looking around with the left analogue stick to become the right analogue stick and toggling the zoom with R3 to become L3. The alternative control schemes are an extremely positive design choice as it will certainly allow for players from different first-person shooter games to find the control scheme that is most comfortable for their play style. The touch pad implementation provides alternative control schemes for powers and combos by swiping across the touch pad, while the light bar implementation represents Lo Wang’s health with varying tones of green, orange, yellow and red, alongside a subtle amount of vibration such as when using a power with your katana sword or firing a revolver and crossbow, although it surprisingly does not vibrate at all for a weapon as rapid fire as the uzi.

As this is a port of the 2013 PC release; players would be forgiven for expecting that the graphics may be on par with PS3 games before playing the game, but they will certainly be pleasantly surprised with superb graphics that put the PS4’s powerful hardware to great use as there are spectacular particle effects of sunlight, sparks and dust as well as amazing lighting and shadows, smoke and flame effects, blood splatters, foliage, heavily destructible environments and full body reflections in mirrors and amongst the rippling of water, while the game performs smoothly throughout as all of the characters have fluid animations and look as detailed as the environments.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main menu, game mode menus, statistics menu, options menus, extras menu and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left and right analogue sticks, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the touch pad. The background of the menu screens revolves around a dragon that is styled in a Japanese mythological fashion which spins upon the selection of a new menu, while the presentation of the powers and skills upgrade menus with the powers menu seeing Lo Wang in meditation surrounded by lit candles and their smoke with ancient scrolls providing the appropriate context for each and every skill, which collectively shows a lot of attention to detail.

The audio consists of sound effects and voice-overs, which the latter providing a narrative dialogue, while the actor Jason Liebrecht who voices the lead character of Lo Wang adds a significant amount of comedy to the character; has a wide range of experience having previously provided his voice to such characters as Abel in Street Fighter IV in 2008, Super Street Fighter IV in 2010 and Bane, Eclipso and Hawkman in D.C. Universe Online in 2011 and amongst other videogames as well as numerous English voice-overs for Japanese anime including Dragon Ball Z, Full Metal Alchemist, Tsubasa amongst many more. The sound effects include gunfire from the weapons and henchmen’s weapons when firing at the character, demon enemies when firing their various powers and fireballs, explosions and screams of the demons as they prepare to attack as well as ambient sound effects that breathe more life into the surrounding environments, alongside ancient oriental music. There is no DualShock 4 speaker implementation which is surprising as it could have produced Lo Wang’s dialogue as well as the dialogue of other characters or perhaps even gunfire, explosions, ambient sound effects or the screaming of any nearby demonic enemies to build another layer of atmosphere into the audio.

The trophy list includes 53 trophies with 38 bronze, 13 silver, 1 gold trophy and 1 platinum trophy. The majority of the trophies can be earned as progression is made through the story campaign such as the Tiny Grasshopper bronze trophy, Cry Assassin bronze trophy and Cold Blooded Killer silver trophy for killing 100, 500 and 2,500 enemies in campaign mode; the Touch bronze trophy for obtaining five power upgrades in campaign mode; the Senpai bronze trophy for learning ten skills in campaign mode; and the Armed and Dangerous bronze trophy for buying five weapon upgrades in campaign mode. The hardest trophies have to be the Mr. Jones silver trophy for finding all the secrets in the game; the Cookie Monster silver trophy for finding all fortune cookies; and No Ordinary Wang gold trophy for completing the campaign mode on the Heroic difficulty level. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take around twenty hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are four difficulty levels including: casual, normal, hard and insane with the major differences between each difficulty level is a certain increase in the amount of damage received from every enemy, while the damage dealt out to enemies is vastly decreased to such a point that players may have to even double or treble the number of times they shoot or make contact with the katana or shuriken blades before having the same effect during the insane difficulty level in comparison to the casual difficulty level and in some cases; there are even a greater quantity of enemies to contend with.

There is no local or online multiplayer, which is surprising as it would have added new layers of gameplay in regards to the potential of competitive multiplayer for between two to four players locally via split-screen and significantly more online in Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and more besides, while co-operative multiplayer would have provided a full story campaign for two players locally via split-screen or online.

However, there are online leaderboards which focuses on top 50 rankings, the placings of those situated around yours and friends rankings with each leaderboard containing each player’s rank; name (PSN ID); and their score with the positioning of each player based upon their total points, while also covering the challenges scores and survival scores for all of the three environments totalling to three variations of five leaderboards and a combined total of fifteen leaderboards.

Despite the lack of any multiplayer features; the replayability remains strong with an entertaining story campaign, survival game mode and two unlockable game modes in the forms of ex mode and heroic mode, challenges, four difficulty levels, upgradeable abilities, unlockable art and movies, 106 secrets to find and competitive online leaderboards providing many reasons to keep on returning to the game for an extremely long time to come.

Overall, if you like your first-person shooters to have a modernised retro feel to them with plenty of gore, blood, flying body parts and an 18 rated age certificate to them in the style of classics such as Duke Nukem 3D, Serious Sam and Soldier of Fortune, then Shadow Warrior is an absolute must purchase at any price.

Jason Bonnar

 Analysis

• Title: Shadow Warrior
• Developer: Flying Wild Hog
• Publisher: Devolver Digital
• System: PS4
• Format: Retail/PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1 (Online Leaderboards)
• Hard Drive Space Required: 7GB