Hey,

http://store.steampowered.com/app/233130/

Just wanted to chime in... I got Shadow Warrior from the Steam winter sale and I beat it last week about. I was expecting something that would last eight to ten hours and be chock full of over the top action with corny dialogue and flimsy Asian stereotypes.

What I got was something completely different:

1. Lo Wang is a good protagonist. He's an asshole and a parody, but he's not a static character like "That Guy from Call of Duty" or Duke Nukem or somethin'.
2. Despite the small cast of characters, all of them are well executed.
3. There's actually a good story? Huh? What? Who wrote this?
4. Action gameplay is good, but in some places a little dodgy.
5. Game starts off a little slow, but that's to ease you into the combat.

-

Basically, the game plays like this from start to finish: Start a new level, move forward, kill things that get in your way through the use of sword and gun. There are seven main ranged weapons, each with an alternate firing mode for added variety, and a single sword. There are also four main spells and four main special sword attacks. So there's a lot to juggle in combat, which keeps things interesting. There wasn't a moment where I was relying on just my sword or just some ranged weapon, and I found all of the spells pretty useful against certain situations. Executing the sword special attacks at the right moment is satisfying and also rewarding.

If you don't care for slogging through hordes and hordes of demons - don't bother with this game. The game clocks in at around 20 hours if you play it on max difficulty and hunt for all the secrets. Maybe 15 if you skip the secrets and pick an easier difficulty.

Hoji is the main supporting character and he's what keeps the story interesting. The writing here isn't too clever to be irritating and isn't too dumbed down to be stupid and trite. The conflict is simple at first - and despite how it grows in complexity, you're still going to be killing demons all day - but it's still entertaining.

There's a healthy amount of enemy variety. And if you play on the hardest difficulty, you'll definitely be pushed close to your limit towards the end...

Some detractions:
-Unlocks and upgrades kill the momentum in this game. At least in my opinion, by the time I got certain skills and spells, I was already in desperate need of them. By the time I had everything "core" unlocked, the game was probably 66% over!
-There's a quiet spot in the game, the ship/sewer levels are pretty sparse in terms of dialogue and intrigue. It makes the experience a dour.
-In a lot of siatuations, you have to hold back using the sword. The sword is extremely satisfying to use, but after the first few levels you will find yourself clinging to the crossbow or SMG for relief from flying enemies, heavy-duty melee enemies whose damage is difficult to avoid, or the dreaded "main boss" enemies that sparsely decorate the game. The combat stays fresh all game long, but you kind of wish you could go to town with your blade more frequently...
-There's no replayability. Sure, there are unlocks, but a lot of them are not important. Sure, there's a new game mode upon beating the game, but you'll probably not be motivated to care. There are a lot of secrets in the game, but the levels are largely linear, so there's less incentive once you've explored them once. The levels are just way too long to casually replay them again too - which is actually a positive when you play the game for the first time, the levels are pretty deep and stimulating. Some took me an hour or so to beat.

On the plus side...
-It's cheap (well, it was 5 bux during the winter sale, not so anymore).
-Ending is satisfying (and it doesn't quite end how I expected).
-Better than anything I played in 2014? Well, D:OS held me for more time, but I got a more concentrated amount of enjoyment out of this. Weird for a random purchase.

Do give this one a try when it goes on sale again!

 

I played this game and enjoyed the fuck out of it. Seconding the recc.