hadow Warrior Redux is a remaster of the original, and not something I ever planned to play. I felt satiated enough with the reboot and the original seems tacky like Duke Nukem, but without the nostalgia to draw me in and the novel alien and experimental weapons of that game; nor the humorous levels. I was not mistaken. The game is a cheesy doom clone. Lo Wang our protagonist, looks like an old man and makes perverted jokes about hentai girls. Basically Master Roshi with guns. The jokes never land and are clearly meant to appeal to your average teen.
The weapons lack personality and outside the basic fist, katana and shuriken, which don't get me wrong are awesome and feel awesome, but they aren't enough. The remainder don't really fit the ninja theme at all and their design looks horrible. The Rocket launcher and shotgun in particular are ugly. The sticky bomb and uzis are cool and do fit the "neo ninja" theme in their own way. The stick bomb in particular has this slick animation where the spikes pop out when you draw it. Implying Lo Wang throws it so hard that it sticks to enemies by impaling them. Funny enough I had the most with the grenade launcher. Pre-firing enemies and ricocheting off walls. But that just might be the OG Quake fan in me. The ripper heart which creates a clone of you and the head of the Guardian which you cut off a fire blasting enemy, in turn using their fire to blast others are cool. But too underutilized and usually saved for bosses every 3-4 levels. The ninja tools are pretty awesome and help set it apart a little. Smoke bombs, flash bangs, caltrops, night vision, and a portable med kit. I don't remember any other boomer shooters having this and it certainly adds another layer of tactical depth.
The level design is pretty standard and the theme is as you'd expect with Monkey monasteries, forests and Eastern style buildings mixed with urban jungles. A lot of the levels are hard to navigate and have a reliance on secrets to progress, which is thematic but unfortunately just annoying. I think having optional secrets with have been enough, and then interesting explicit puzzles that fit the theme, other then repairing the occasional forklift which is lame. Zilla's fortress is the worst example of this however. The areas are so dark and flashing, it's hard to see anything and made me watch a tutorial to blast through it as quickly as possible. The enemies are pretty bland as well. A pig looking man that's meant to be a ninja. A goblin wielding TNT, who dies and forms a spectre to hunt you down. The ogre looking Guardian who shoots fire at you. Sumo giants and Female warriors in scanty clothes and rippers, mutant looking gorillas. They all feel disjointed and out of place. I would have looked some standard footman clan or Oni Samurai to maintain the theme. Overall however the bones are still Doom, it feels good to move and shoot, and swap to the right weapon for the right job. It's too bad the rest of it is mediocre.
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| How are you meant to know a ladder is behind this? The optional secrets are phenomenal, the mandatory ones not so much... |
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