Dumb, but the good kind of dumb
The original Shadow Warrior escaped me completely. History won’t repeat itself with the remake in development at Flying Wild Hog (Hard Reset) — not after some hands-on time with the first-person shooter at E3. The game starts out with protagonist Lo Wang driving his car, singing along to “You’ve Got the Touch.” Clearly, this is not intended to be taken seriously.
To be frank, watching Shadow Warrior being played wasn’t doing the game any favors. Playing it, however, was good ol’ fast-paced, stupid fun that long-time FPS players will remember fondly. Even if the guns weren’t anything to write home about, the katana was a joy to wield, as was Wang’s magic. Among other things, he can heal himself, push enemies to the ground and — my personal favorite, by far — launch an energy blast that flies right through foes. There were demon limbs everywhere.
The attempts at humor didn’t connect me with me outside of the aforementioned intro, and that’s okay. Shadow Warrior‘s gameplay scratched a certain itch; I’m willing to put up with the unfunny bits if I still get to slash demon heads off, which will seemingly never grow old. Can’t say I was expecting a whole lot from this new take despite how solid a game Hard Reset was, but this should find an audience in its targeted budget-friendly price range.
