Reviews / previews
As far as Tomb Raider clones go, Shadow Man is
pretty good stuff--steeped in a rich comic-book world.
But because its gameplay doesn't live up to the
promise of its atmosphere, the game prone to spells
of tedium.
Shadow Man is played from a third-person perspective
using a robust new engine that visits two worlds:
distinctive architecture in the real world from Louisiana
to New York and the
dark shadowy realm
of Deadside, an
industrial version of
hell where our
villian-du-jour is
assembling souls to
bring about an
apocalypse, using
five serial killers as
his apostles.
Though used mainly
for corridors in Shadow Man, that engine does a great
job of conveying considerable distances. You begin
the game in plain view of a hilltop church that other
engines would have to render with a bitmap. But in
Shadow Man, you're seeing the actual church that
you eventually enter. This engine isn't as refined as
Heretic II's adapted Quake engine, but it does just as
good a job at creating dramatic levels, using widely
varied palettes, smoke and fire effects, rippling transparent water, moody
lighting, vivid sky textures, and excellent ambient sound.
The character models are equally impressive. The movement animation isn't
exactly fluid or realistic, but it fits in with the game's weird style, from the
gruesome thrashing of a dying soul to the way Shadow Man's limbs splay in
every direction as he dangles from a tightrope.
Any programmer can do a swaying pony tail,
but I can only imagine developer Iguana's
dismay when they were given specs for Mike
LeRoi, Shadow Man's real-world form. "Can't
he tuck in his shirt?" they must have
groaned. No such luck. Shadow Man is the
first game to give us what the option screen
calls a "dynamic shirt": It flaps around and
trails behind LeRoi as he runs and jumps.
As a whole package, Shadow Man's strongest point is the imagination of its
developers. Not only is their level design clever and stylish, but they use
spooky low-tech artwork to fill in the backstory. For example, early in the
game, LeRoi receives a dossier on the serial killers he's tracking. In another
game, this would probably be a throw-away inventory item, but in Shadow
Man it's a tiny packet of well-drawn fiction.
Like a Frankenstein monster, it's easy to see the seams where this game is
sewn together from a mishmash of cultural influences: the grand guignol of the
Hellraiser movies, an eerie Hieronyous
Bosch nightmarish-ness, a dash of Anne
Rice's banal bayou eroticism, a tired
fascination with serial killers, and an
assortment of Voodoo totems, fetishes, and
tattoos. It's essentially a comic book,
complete with purple-prosed cutscenes and
a stock contemporary comic book
protagonist: the underdog loser turned
irreverent super-anti-hero.
It's too bad this rich milieu is used in
gameplay that amounts to little more than a platform game set against a
creepy adult backdrop. Shadow Man doesn't so much tell its story as it just
forces you to jump through hoops. It's ultimately an expansive Easter egg
hunt set on vast levels. You have your typical find-the-switch challenges, key
hunts, and several jumping puzzles. And the heart of all this is little more than
a Mario-esque coin chase. Collect souls to unlock doors to find more souls.
At least it's all non-linear, which is at once its saving grace and its biggest
drawback. While it's nice to be able to roam freely, there's potential for a lot of
directionless wandering throughout these sprawling levels. A map or some
similar guidance would have made the game a lot less tedious.
But you do have a healthy dose of combat with varied monsters and a nice
arsenal of weapons with which to smack
them around. Lives aren't limited, so the
frequent deaths you'll suffer will only send
you to the beginning of a level. And you can
save your game at any time during play.
The game has a great feel, an interesting
lead character with an engaging premise.
But it's disappointing to discover it's merely
a jump 'n' run set against a creepy adult
backdrop. Shadow Man doesn't focus on its
story so much as it just forces you to jump
through hoops. The end result is an action
game with a lot of wandering through vividly
realized levels. And that beats most Tomb
Raider clones any day.-- Tom Chick / GamePro
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