Though it fared decently on certain platforms, the original Shadow Man didn't quite realize the intentions of its developers. Its spotty overall performance and its weak graphical production held it back in a harsh way. Even its cool visual design and well-conceived story elements couldn't save it. Thankfully, this isn't the case with its PS2 sequel, Shadow Man: 2econd Coming. While the game does have a few kinks of its own, Acclaim's Teeside studio has definitely come a whole lot closer to realizing Shadow Man's seething, brutal world. This time around, you won't find the game's actual gameplay sequences to simply be onerous tasks necessary to advance the plot; since everything runs fairly smoothly, the game is much more playable than its predecessor. This makes everything about its cool world and story that much easier to enjoy.

The Shadow Man games are designed around the travails of Mike LeRoi, a young man whose destiny took a very odd turn. Through some strange course of events, he became the bearer of the Mask of Shadows--an ancient artifact that grants its wearer the ability to travel in between the worlds of the living and the dead. The bearer of the Mask, though, is also charged with the responsibility of protecting the denizens of the living world from otherworldly assaults, and his destiny, more often than not, is tied to the whims of a voodoo priestess who fixed the Mask upon him. In Mike's case, the voodoo priestess in question is Mama Nettie, and, lucky for him, she's both canny and, for the most part, benevolent. As logic would dictate, the Shadow Man games are built around the sort of dual-world dynamics that you see in the Soul Reaver series, but 2econd Coming takes this even further by more greatly varying the precise netherworld locales you'll visit. The game also makes nice use of African spirituality--you'll get the impression that the story's writers did their homework, and the effect is strongly felt. The names of deities are cited during cutscenes, and some of your more mystical weapons have Creole names. All of this adds up to a world that's rich and inviting.

Luckily, Shadow Man 2econd Coming has got enough in the way of gameplay for you to keep you caring about its world and events. It's a third-person adventure game of the sprawling, expansive variety, and it sets you loose on a series of huge, detailed worlds whose nooks and crannies you must explore in your quest to prevent a group of demons from reawakening their long-banished master. Just like in the first game, Shadow Man's current mission has apocalyptic ramifications--this cadre of demons intends to bring nothing less than Armageddon, and, if Shadow Man fails, that is precisely what happens. Preventing them from doing this, as you'd imagined, will involve a whole lot of combat, puzzle solving, and exploration--none of which are things that worked especially well in the previous Shadow Man game. 2econd Coming has improved upon most of these elements to some degree, though in some cases more satisfactorily than in others.

Combat is one of the areas that has been much improved, though when you judge it on its own merits, it has a few notable kinks. Mike LeRoi/Shadow Man has a whole bunch of weapons at his disposal, all of which he can use in both of his forms. The persona you actually get to control depends on the time of day: Mike turns into Shadow Man at night, though as the game progresses, you'll find a reliable way to manipulate this. Certain weapons are considered "voodoo weapons," and their effects are truly felt only when you wield them as Shadow Man. Conversely, you'll find little point to using some of your regular weapons when you have access to the uberpowerful voodoo artifacts. In either case, you'll have access to up to four weapons at any given time, which, given that the game has upward of 20 weapons available, is pretty essential. You basically map individual items to each of the PS2's shoulder buttons, with the L2 and R2 buttons serving as triggers for the active weapons and the L1 and R1 buttons acting as reserves that you can switch to instantly. A good deal of the time, this allows you to be prepared for whatever comes. When you actually engage a creature, though, things aren't quite so clean. If you're using a ranged weapon, the game's autotarget feature has you covered nicely--a reticle appears on the body of whoever last came within range, and you're free to fire upon it. Multiple targets don't fare as easily, as you're basically at the mercy of the game's targeting script, but given the pace of most battles, it probably won't be too much of a problem. Things are considerably less precise with melee combat, though. There is no command to "lock" on your enemies, so you'll constantly strafe right past them or else walk into them. The fact that you can attack with both arms independently helps this somewhat, but in the end, the lack of a lock-on seriously limits your ability to strafe effectively and, thus, fight in melee most of the time.