Why Shadow Warrior wasn't received well critically? (LOCK PLEASE)

But it wasn't classic design.

Shadow Warrior is more than just a throw back. But then again as you said, you didn't play it so...

Flash fiction time: Too long didn't read - I don't like thing.

I played it last week and beat it, and honestly I thought the game was actually quite poor. Beyond just the writing and sense of humor being whatever, the core mechanics just aren't very good. The sword is unsatisfying to use, it's way too limp and lacks the crunch and satisfaction you want on a game feel level, ditto the guns. It's pretty freakin bloated for a game that isn't exactly varied or has a diverse set of ideas, since the lions share of combat encounters are just basic arena combat of you being boxed up in a room and fighting dudes. Through a lot of similar spaces, older school FPS games had the benefit of having interesting and more mixed up mazes, this didn't.

I also don't care for the upgrade system, and not even just for how fucking silly it is about adding accuracy perks to a gun (which eww), but more so just again, how much filler shit it is. Why is the amount of money I get for pressing the E-button on an environment prop tied to an upgrade? Why does the ammo work that way as well? Especially when I can just buy my ammo with money? Why is my ability to damage to a certain type of demon tied an upgrade system? It's just so unnecessary when the game could just focus on more interesting upgrades for the guns (the quad launcher for instance and targeting system for the rocket launcher) instead of shit that should be consistent from the word go.

The way the game handles statue hunts come off as the game not even understanding why Doom key hunts work. If you play Doom on "I hate fun" mode (Nightmare), you're still key hunting, but you are rarely, if ever forced to stay in a singular space and kill off a wave of enemies to take dudes out. This makes backtracking a total non-issue, because you can get what you need, fend off what you need to, and bounce. You can speed run a bit, and the pacing is never brought to a screeching halt. Shadow Warrior has a tendency to do the following

Relatively large area that has a few branches to the side with statues you need to break, you initially fight a big mob of enemies.

-Now go break statue 1, fight new mob of enemies (for the record sometimes you fight the mob before the statue breaking)

-Go break statue 2, fight new mob

-Back track to where you started (could happen before statue 2), fight a mob where you just fought a mob to start this entire fucking area

-Go break statue 3, probably fight one more mob

Next area

It ceases to be thrilling action, and becomes monotonous as a result. Also the way some of the mobs are built up go against the grain an effort to not be formulaic, but they also miss the point why certain formulas are tried and true. Like basic combat encounters: you fight dudes, then one of the bulky enemies: be it a shaman, a warlord, or um Berserker shows up, and they usually have friends so it's still a group. And you fight them, and that will take some time, and at this point you would think the fight is over, but now you gotta take on the flying goons. Who aren't a step up intensity, more so just an irritant of an enemy than a direct challenge. So it messes with some tried and true player psychology, we usually end up on the big bulky guy in every game ever, because that's the finish. Anything after him that isn't bigger and stronger would be anticlimactic. \

The scoring system does a poor job of explaining itself: It values time, and I guess it values not getting hit, but it really doesn't have you flex your expertise with the rest of the systems. It's not like you get bonuses for being creative with using the powers or mixing up your weapon of choice. In contrast Bayonetta and Devil May Cry expect you to not get hit, and do things quickly, but they also demand a level of understanding of their systems and for you to actually push your understanding of those systems. Those scoring systems are clear and better tied to their games, in Shadow Warrior it just comes off as bullshit.

The boss fights are straight trash.

A leaner game (it's a game like Alien Isolation, that would benefit from being a much shorter video game) would have improved the pacing or a game with better game feel would have kept the combat engaging. Since it does none of those, it just stayed mostly unsatisfying. I do like what I've seen of the sequel, it seems they've addressed my game feel complaints directly, but I also don't want to get it day 1, because yo seriously **** Shadow Warrior; game sucks.

And for the dweeb that honestly rolls with "git gud", I beat it on Insane, unless you did as well, and were 5 starring each encounter like a beast, I have immunity.

Oh this is necro thread, my bad.

Can you summarize it please.

Yeah boss battle are trash or in general Shadow realm too.

sequel has more enemy variety and no shadow realm THANK GOD!!. and no more stupid demon story in shadow realm.

I feel like game is divided into two part.

Mechanical ideas in it are good: I like the sword moves and spells, I like the fact that you can have a healthy arsenal, that dash move is divine, because there is no such thing as a bad dash move.

I dislike everything else about the game, and I mean everything else.

Its better than wolfenstien new order thats for sure.

Doom 2016 definitely own both combine by far.

Haven't played new doom yet, reinstalled Doom 3 to give that another go so I can do all 4 dooms in this year, but no, I wouldn't agree with that. As weak as the guns can feel individually in The New Order, dual wielding is still immensely satisfying thinks to the glorious gib shots. The silence pistol is a legit enjoyable pistol to use when sneaking around before combat spaces, the levels are opened up enough that when a combat encounter begins I have some genuine room to work, instead of consistently being funneled in, and the addition of captains makes what would have been a pretty vanilla stealth system a bit more enjoyable and gives the player incentive to actually use it and not just go "**** it, I'm shooting dudes". Which you can still do, and the game has a new game plus to boot.

It's not challenging, it also has bad boss fights, it's upgrade system is potentially just as stupid, and yeah it's shlocky ass story is a bit too try hard for the feels (Plus I really hate BJ's monologues). But it also has surprisingly good moments, the world building is nice, not surprising given the people on Butcher Bay and The Darkness worked on that game. And the whole "well I don't like it because i was promised an old school shooter" is fucking petty, it isn't, but it does a good job of taking old systems and molds them into a modern action game, without making all the same mistakes Shadow Warrior does.

But it has a better core gameplay loop and paced reasonably well. All in all a good game, not anywhere close to a great one, but it's a single player FPS, a great one of those is a fucking unicorn. And I'd take a competent modern shooter, over some wank that tries to present itself as some hardcore throwback who forgot part of the reason those old classics were classics, was that their core gameplay loop was engaging. And Shadow Warrior's core gameplay fucking sucks. Both mechanically and in composition.

Honestly the thing that impressed me the most about this game is the intro cutscene where the song "The Touch" plays as he is driving.....that was pure gold for me.

Game is fucking trash.

The biggest fault for me was the limp gunplay. The shotgun is especially egregious in this regard. It never felt powerful or satisfying to use, even when shooting four rounds at once. There wasn't really any reason to use it over the sword, since it needed be in melee range to be even remotely effective. Seriously, it might be the worst shotgun in any shooter I ever played.

Also, the arena design was very samey, which is kind of a big problem since that is what the entire fucking game revolves around.

@uninspiredcup: gonna agree with unspiredcup the sole appeal isn't that it's a classic game.

It feels more like a deus ex game with an only first person view. I found that the different weapons, leveling up, and the level design at first was awesome. It did bother me like in borderlands the environment only has so many interactions (ie. Your can't get to a goal with different ways, all the routes you go are intended by the developers).

@jg4xchamp:

Ever played Doom 64? If not, you might want to give a PC sourceport called Doom 64 EX a look. All things considered, it's actually a pretty solid Doom game, especially since you no longer have to use that shitty N64 controller.

Not this year, but yeah I've played it before. It's not a good game mate, it's diet-Doom.

It's a game you play if you want to literally switch your brain off. Terrible story, ancient game mechanics, boring graphics that repeat every level. linear on the rails game with crap combat it just wasn't very good.

Yeah, I am going to go ahead and guess that's why it didn't take the world by storm. The original wasn't very good even at the time, I don't get why they bothered to remake (or re-imagine, whatever) a game that was shit to start with. Doom it ain't.

Didn't appeal to me in the slightest. Still doesn't.

LOCK IT

Please don't bump old threads.

-Byshop