I knew nothing of Shadow Man except for some screenshots and an extremely basic theming of Voodoo. I knew it had to be cool though, and that hard headed thought I formed helped me get through the beginning of this game. It starts really slow and aimless. You don't get a map so being dropped in the Deadside feels way more confusing than it actually is, and combined with you don't get any new powers for an hour or two, I felt like I would quit any other game; but I KNEW this had to be cool, and I'm glad I thought that.
Shadow Man's ties to voodoo and industry almost make it feel very Oddword, but instead of the humour, its way more sinister (one might even say edgy). The deadside levels are either these outside areas with tribal like buildings and temples, or inside a huge sprawling, maze-like industrial hell built to create an army. You do get to go to Liveside (living world) in 6 places, and they each have their own setting (prison, florida swamps, bayou).
The gameplay definitely feels like a mixture of Zelda dungeons, Tomb Raider platforming, and boomer shooter weapon variety (but not exactly boomer shooter gunplay). The Tomb Raider-ness made me go "Oh a game thats like old Tomb Raider that I can actually stand to play!" The weapons are neat, even if I didn't use most of them combat, but its fine because they also do puzzle stuff. The gunplay for me mostly consisted of holding the left mouse to charge pistol, and just doing that over and over. You can hold a voodoo weapon in your other hand and use that at the same time, but I found most of them not worth it to use except for one that just shot fire orbs, maybe the magic machine gun skull.
You collect Dark Souls to upgrade your pistol damage, and how much you can charge it. Basically once you start collecting these is when my brain clicked into "I gotta collect it all" mode and I started having fun exploring the levels. There are also Cadeaux, which is your less important collectable. They are used for upgrading your max health, and you need all 666 of them, and 120 Dark Souls, to get the super power-up. (Too bad the game has a bug that can just not count when you collect a Cadeaux and totally fuck up your collect-a-thoning. I ended up with 664/666, had to console command my way to the upgrade.)
The main character also feels completely unique, such a interesting guy.
Oh and let me talk about the fucking music, its so crazy. The music in levels will just be like an ambience, a backing track, and the music man will just put a bunch of sound effects into the track. The Playrooms will have children crying, drills drilling, and squeak toys going off. The Prison/Haunted Apartment levels will have the boss taunt you all throughout the level, but its apart of the music track. I really like it, it makes the game feel so dream-like and hypnotic, with the constant looping of these noises.
Overall this game wormed its way into my brain with its collect-a-thoning, its fun to explore levels, and its charming/fresh style.
Also the entire time I kept going "DAMN? This was on the N64?? I know this is a remastered that has content that wasn't in the N64 version, but even without that shit its super fucking impressive with how big these levels are.
Shadow Man's ties to voodoo and industry almost make it feel very Oddword, but instead of the humour, its way more sinister (one might even say edgy). The deadside levels are either these outside areas with tribal like buildings and temples, or inside a huge sprawling, maze-like industrial hell built to create an army. You do get to go to Liveside (living world) in 6 places, and they each have their own setting (prison, florida swamps, bayou).
The gameplay definitely feels like a mixture of Zelda dungeons, Tomb Raider platforming, and boomer shooter weapon variety (but not exactly boomer shooter gunplay). The Tomb Raider-ness made me go "Oh a game thats like old Tomb Raider that I can actually stand to play!" The weapons are neat, even if I didn't use most of them combat, but its fine because they also do puzzle stuff. The gunplay for me mostly consisted of holding the left mouse to charge pistol, and just doing that over and over. You can hold a voodoo weapon in your other hand and use that at the same time, but I found most of them not worth it to use except for one that just shot fire orbs, maybe the magic machine gun skull.
You collect Dark Souls to upgrade your pistol damage, and how much you can charge it. Basically once you start collecting these is when my brain clicked into "I gotta collect it all" mode and I started having fun exploring the levels. There are also Cadeaux, which is your less important collectable. They are used for upgrading your max health, and you need all 666 of them, and 120 Dark Souls, to get the super power-up. (Too bad the game has a bug that can just not count when you collect a Cadeaux and totally fuck up your collect-a-thoning. I ended up with 664/666, had to console command my way to the upgrade.)
The main character also feels completely unique, such a interesting guy.
Oh and let me talk about the fucking music, its so crazy. The music in levels will just be like an ambience, a backing track, and the music man will just put a bunch of sound effects into the track. The Playrooms will have children crying, drills drilling, and squeak toys going off. The Prison/Haunted Apartment levels will have the boss taunt you all throughout the level, but its apart of the music track. I really like it, it makes the game feel so dream-like and hypnotic, with the constant looping of these noises.
Overall this game wormed its way into my brain with its collect-a-thoning, its fun to explore levels, and its charming/fresh style.
Also the entire time I kept going "DAMN? This was on the N64?? I know this is a remastered that has content that wasn't in the N64 version, but even without that shit its super fucking impressive with how big these levels are.
Snigglegros
3 months ago