Wonderlessly forgotten game – Shadow Man

Hello everyone and with the coming 2222! I, as always, are a “very frequent” guest, but perhaps we’ll get to the matter. Today we will talk about one excellent game, which, it seems to me, knows criminally few people. Speech, of course, pro Shadow Man.

And I will say right away, I violated one basic principle of “objective nostalgia”, otherwise it is precisely the original versions, because Remaster was chosen for today’s video. However, why so we will talk later.

There are two versions in the old fashioned way: video And Text.

A little nostalgia

The original game was released in the distant 1999 year, and at that time all the main platforms at that time, because of course, the graphic component was adjusted primarily for the weakest of the platforms, otherwise under the PlayStation 1.

And it was on this console that I met the game. At that time, I was pretty small, and if I say that the game scared me to the shitting is nothing to say. Indeed, in truth, the environment, characters, sounds, monsters, but in general, everything in the game is done according to good black. But still I had the opportunity to enjoy this game, and I think those who have been looking at me for a long time already realized that of course my favorite “flights from Bati came to my aid!”. And in general it seems to me that these were one of the first episodes ..

Yes, I watched how my father plays in a binge, it was especially nice when you could help him with something, because Shadow Man is quite unfriendly to the players, the size of the world and the absence of any map caused at least difficulty. However, I don’t remember what it cost, but my father was able to pass the game almost completely, stopping only at the last boss that fenced him off from the treasured credits. As he himself considers this, this was that he could not get the second “Violator”, local Uber Automatic. Who, as I recently found, could not be obtained in the version on PS.

After that, several years passed and a computer appeared at our house, and somewhere a disk with Shadow Man for him … However, I could not persuade the dad at once, but I could not be on another platform, and the reason was simple, all-time controls on clavo-minim.

After that, I forgot about the game until 2013-2014, when I decided to roll the emulator of the first curling on my tablet and be given some nostalgia for the old games. And of course one of them was Shadow Man. But I could not master her and up to half, there were several reasons at once. The first-the sensory administration was probably even more all-more than on clavo mouse, the second I certainly encountered all the charms of the gamemerane of the late 90s of the 2000s. Because of what, in the end, I scored on the game, shifting my focus of attention to other projects.

And honestly, I periodically had thoughts about returning to this gloomy and cruel, but at the same time such a native world. However, it was worth me to remember not the best management, then immediately the desire disappeared. And you know, probably, it is worth saying right away why the management plays a very important role in this project, and everything is actually simple-there is a lot of platforming, and the original version of the game was not able to Quick-Save, because of which one error could result in an almost complete re-processing of the entire level.

But everything has changed when during “PC Gaming Show 2020»Remaster was announced! It’s simply not to convey in words how I was glad for this, because not only did the developers promise to make sane management and slightly improve the schedule, they also reported that they would add content carved out of the original! And I will say right away, I think the approach from Nightdive Studios is the most correct of all possible. Not only did they slightly refresh the game, because they also expanded it, returning to it everything that was originally supposed to be in it.

And for this reason, I decided to take Remaster for today’s objective nostalgia, because it is just a whole work, which was originally planned by such.

Plot

I would like to start this part with what I myself did not know before the moment I started writing the script. And then Shadow Man primarily existed not as a game, but as a series of comics published by Valiant. And you know to talk about them especially it makes no sense because my channel is connected with comics insofar as. However, we are interested in the moment when the entire publishing house, along with all the rights, is bought by the deceased studio Acclaim. Indeed, thanks to this, many of the comics began to be transferred to game platforms, including Shadow Man among them. The story of people who, by their own and not quite will, got the strength of the ancient voodoo artifact called “Mask of Shadows”.

So one of its owners was our main character of the game Michael Le Rua. However, this was not his own desire, but a necessary measure. However, before that it is worth returning a little to the past, when Michael was not a warrior of Voodoo, but a simple taxi driver. So, it would seem, the usual order turns into a chase with a shootout, at the end of which Michael’s passenger dies. But only near the body Le Rua finds a suitcase from $ 20, which was so necessary for the operation of his deadly ill younger brother.

But as we know, there is no reason just like that, because shortly after that he is found by those bandits who belonged to this money and put him a rather incompetent ultimatum, or he returns the money, or he and his family will be killed. While in a not better position, Michael decides to turn to local authority and leader some kind of gang named Bokoro. He agrees to the request, and gives protection, but only Michael himself, and the family, as they say, was not part of the deal.

So he, together with his family,, not without help from Bokoro, got into an accident, as a result of which his relatives die, and he flows into a coma. Leaving which he understands that he had lost his memory, and it was then that Bokoro comes to him, so to speak for a fee. So Michael is stupefied by Voodoo Magia by making a personal killer who is ready to fulfill the most dirty orders without question.

But, like any authority, Bokoro had enemies. These include the strong voodoo priestess Agnetta, whose gang he was very much bolder. Therefore, she and her people arranged a raid on the bokoro. However, everything did not go quite according to plan, and in a bloody mess she finds Michael and realizing that he was bewitched, with his last strength presses his shadow mask in his chest. What immediately removes all the cassocks, and Leu Rua returns, and will make him the powerful power of the sacred voodoo war. That against his will put on him a rather high responsibility, both before Netti and before the whole world. After all, now he is obliged to protect the world of mortals from any threats from the afterlife.

And here we are not quite smoothly moving to the game. It begins somewhere in the 18th century, when in London sewer Jack the Ripper complains that all his murders were a ritual for eternal life, but he did not work. And then a certain “Legion” comes to him and asks Jack to build a monumental building behind a facet of reality … Oh yes, in the game a gip is not only a skilled maniac, he is also a magnificent architect. In general, the Legion asks him in exchange for the desired immortality to build a monumental “shelter” in the afterlife, which should become a refuge for the darkest souls, like Jack himself. And when they are gaining sufficient number, they will go around the world of mortals with a bloody march.

Then we move in modern times, where our old acquaintance Agnetta comes a vision that the end of the world is coming, and the 5 most rigid maniacs are involved in this and the legion itself. And then she says that of course Mike, should stop them before they collect all dark souls, and the best way to do it is to absorb them to the most important hero. Fortunately, the strength of a man of shadow allows him to do this.

And you know, in fact, this synopsis is pretty good if not for a couple of moments. To find out the background of the character in the game, it will not work briefly, because of which to reveal Michael as a character, his experiences and other things, those same comics are important. And I’ll say how a person who knew nothing about them, the game has problems with the awareness of some points. As an example, it is incomprehensible because of what the brother of the protagonist died, and why is he so worried about this that he even comes across the obvious stand from the legion. The relationship between Michael and Agnetta is also not clear, where he has a mask of shadows, and why it is implanted in his chest, and not dressed on his head.

However, there is something for which I want to praise. So, for example, the same 5 maniacs are revealed quite well by the standards of the game. And besides, it was served quite concisely, so Agnetta hired a private detective that he collected all possible information on them, forming in the end small personal affairs for each of the five. And this is actually a rather terrible reading that describes their characters, murders and other little things.

Well, I would also like to praise that they paid attention to the description of this world. Yes, all this is again submitted through reading small records or Tarot cards, but all this helps to plunge into this terrible world even better. So you can find the magazine of Jack the Ripper, which describes some aspects of the shelter, how, for example, stop the engine of the citadel or how they move between the world of the dead and living.

Well, or almost at the very beginning, we will find the prophecy that the former carrier of the mask of shadows kept, and … this is the prophecy is quite funny, because it starts everything, starting from what objects the main character will find and what plot moments await him ahead. But in general, it works just as well on immersion in this world.

Gameplay

And now I would like to https://casinobetti.net/ start a conversation about the gameplay immediately with what Shadow Man is generally. This is Action-Dventur. This follows approximately the following – we have a conditional open world, which is divided into several levels, and they are interconnected by gates, which the hero can only open if a sufficient number of dark souls are collected.

But it is sometimes not so simple to do, because the “govi” with souls are scattered around the world. So, for example, one can be at the very beginning, but it will only be possible to get to it closer to the middle of the game. And forget that there on some location 12 hours ago you saw Govi with that very missing dark soul is quite easy. Or you can also easily forget that 8 hours ago you saw a door for which you need conditionally 80 souls to get an object that can also be useful for the very drums that you saw 10 hours ago.

And this is everywhere, because this world is huge … Well, at least such a feeling is created, and not least because of one strange solution-there is no card in the game, no. However, all of the above suffering are slightly exaggerated. After all, the original game had a map that came with a license disk.

But thanks to the developers from Nightdive, because they made a card for the remaster, which is important because 3 locations were added here, but you need to download it separately. And honestly it is easier with her, but you still have to sniff it, since all the locations on it are depicted quite figuratively.

So you still have to sniff every corner. After all, dark souls are sometimes hidden quite well, but besides them in the game there is something to look. So the gifts are scattered everywhere, 100 which can be exchanged for an additional health cell. Or all kinds of secrets that open if the player rises in a certain place. For the most part, these are various jokes like the shift of the skin of Michael or UFO instead of flying demons. But there is one rather useful one, this is a first -person view.

Play so, of course, is still a pleasure, but it helps to pass especially hemorrhoids of platforming areas. Yes, despite the fact that Nightdive could make some kind of miracle with management to a greater extent, Platforming in places is still felt rather clumsy. Especially when it comes to simple jumping from one ledge to another, because it is quite difficult to calculate how far the character flies.

But you will not always have to travel to your two, the game has the opportunity to quickly move between previously visited locations. Which is very useful, because, as you already understood, it will not have to come back not what is often, but constantly.

But of course where without enemies in action-envelope. There is no something outstanding in them, these are just carcasses that get damage, but at the same time they beat quite noticeably, so you should be more accurate. The same applies to the bosses, it is just psychos who will either fill us with lead, or how abnormal fights in close combat. And of all of them I want to highlight only the battle with Jack the Ripper, it turned out to be the most intense. And yes you understand correctly, I will not show it to you, because you need to see it yourself. A new boss was added to the remaster that he meets the player almost at the very beginning, and this mucus was given to me quite hard, especially because of the desire of this shit to constantly throw me into the lava.

And of course, if the game has enemies, that is, weapons. So the arsenal turned out to be truly diverse. In the world of the living, at first we will be able to use only ordinary weapons, that is, different pistols, machine guns, shotgun.

But in the afterlife world, the arsenal is already more original, and besides, it is used not only for killing adversaries, but also to open previously inaccessible to visit the zone. So initially the hero has only a shadow pistol, during the murder of which the enemies literally break into pieces, and in their place there is a soul, which, like in Painkiller, treats the main character. And what is cool, the shadow pistol improves as we collect dark souls that allows you to make a more powerful shot.

However, soon we will be able to find another more powerful weapon, as an example of a dagger that shoots fire and allows the use of altars of teleportation. Or a torch in the form of a bone hand that illuminates the path and can burn stretched skin, which blocks the road. Well, or a hammer in the form of a jaw, which produces several shells at once, striking a crowd of enemies, well, they can be tapped into the drums mentioned earlier in order to open hidden passages, and believe this far from this far from everything. All this voodoo Arsenal unites two things: the first is that after the murder of opponents from them there will be no soul, because everything is burning alive, and the second they use one resource, the local voodoo mana that is spent quite quickly, but as the dark shower we can collect it more.

Well, at the end of the part about gameplay, I wanted to tell about the coolest moments where all aspects of the gameplay are presented in the best way. These are churches of blood sisters in which we get sacred marks. So these zones are various strips of obstacles, with puzzles and skirmishes with the sisters themselves. Who check whether a person of the strength of a mask of shadows is worthy.

At the end of each of the temples, we get the previously mentioned sacred marks, which are only 3 types:

1) marked on the forearms will allow grabbing the burning boxes and ledges with their hands;

2) marks on the lower back will allow the hero how yoga walk on burning coals;

3) and marked on the upper back will allow you to swim in lava.

Well, having gathered all 3, the hero will completely cease to receive damage from any fire. And you know this cool when you see as the character changes, because not only is he covered with tattoos, as well as the dark souls gathering his eyes and masks in the chest become brighter.

Michael at the beginning and at the end

Atmosphere

But what turned out in the game just great is the atmosphere. And it can be divided into 3 parts: Voodoo-Gener, “refuge” and zones in the world of the living, in which 5 serial killers live. And let’s about each separately.

So the afterlife in the game is not paradise and not hell, but rather a purgatory where absolutely all souls fall anywhere. Bloody waterfalls, buildings for worshiping various LOA, and old temples that keep their secrets.

Inhabitants to match the environment. So some skinny, gray, forever crying, but do not be leaded to their harmlessness, because in any successful case they will be ready to pull out a piece of vitality from an uninvited guest. But there are other more aggressive ones who behave as frank predators. So these creatures with disproportionate parts of the body will not even try to show their harmlessness and immediately with terrible screams will attack Voodoo Wood.

Although the man himself is a rather peculiar personality. In the usual appearance, Michael will behave almost like a simple person who can know a little more than the rest. However, it is worth the night or will move to the afterlife, how its character changes dramatically. He is fully aware of his superiority over all these creatures, and in general he considers himself the lord of the world of the dead about what he says more than once throughout the game. Which is actually not surprising, because as we recall his shadow gun literally torn everyone into pieces.

And the only thing in the game as for me did not rejoice in relation to the main character is his character during the collection of dark souls. After all, they tell us more than once that dark souls change their carrier, and can completely cloud the mind by making a real monster out of the defender. However, this is not demonstrated in the game, we do not see changes in the voice, or the hero’s struggle to preserve our personality. So this all remains only with the words of the characters.

Well, I would like to close the topic with GG, on its voice acting. After all, a person whose chose is suitable for this character as possible. I say, of course, about the editors of the peper, whose voice, it seems to me, is undeservedly rarely used in video games.

Honestly, I don’t know where he takes his voice from, this baseness comes from somewhere from the ground. So it is just ideal for a character, who considers himself at least the god of the afterlife.

But let’s move on to the “shelter” of the legion. Artists were able to show the foreignness of this building in the world of dead. You feel directly that she has no place here. After all, it feels like some kind of metallurgical plant among conditional nature. Loud, shaking mechanisms completely diverge from the usual parts of the afterlife, which are shown dangerous, but at the same time in its own way quiet and peaceful.

But this is only with a cursory examination, because it is worth going inside as it becomes clear, it is not a “refuge”, but a real hell. This is especially noticeable in the location “game rooms”, which are actually torture. Everywhere the mountains of the skin, which was removed from the inhabitants of the afterlife, stoves that are heaving bodies.

And there is something that is generally beyond the line-as an example of a room that consists completely of money or in appearance an ordinary children’s room, which is completely knocked out of the total surroundings and that is what it scares. You have a logical question – why is it? And when you begin to think about it, you correlate everything that you saw before you become true in this place.

This is also facilitated by a local soundtrack that looked good in some Silent Hill. The cries of women, the laughter of children and the sounds of the tooth car are only a small part of what will pursue us during the study of this “shelter”.

Also in the heart of this building is the “cathedral”, the zone from where maniacs travel between the worlds of the dead and living. For these purposes, “schemes” are used, people who are on the verge between life and death. Their spine is exposed, and the chest is torn. However, in order to travel, you need to push their chest even wider with a mechanism that looks like medical retractors.

But there is little environment, so the enemies in this zone turned out to be completely different, unlike what we saw earlier. These are huge men dressed in bdsm lovers costumes. Someone is armed with Myasnitsky hooks, someone with an ordinary gun, and someone with a chainsaw and human torso, which is used as a shield. And there are completely strange representatives of the dog club, the floor of the floor of the dog who looks at least not pleasant.

And then I would like to praise Remaster. In childhood, this game scared even despite soap instead of textures, because fantasy finished everything quite successfully. So everything happened here just as you imagined what it was somehow uncomfortable.

Although, where it really becomes uneasy, it is in the habitats of the five maniacs. I will highlight two. The first is, of course, Jack a Ripper who lives in London sewers, which are located next to the metro. Only now, when he is immortal, he brought this place to maximum comfort. So here you can find rooms in which female bodies are suspended. But these are just flowers, because it is worth delving even further, and before us the truth will open up the frightening sight. Apartment where the entire interior is made of human flesh. Yes, this I understand the designer approach. In addition, while we will study this location, one of Beethoven’s favorite compositions – Moon Sonata will play. She had never been so much inflated as here as here.

But, perhaps, let’s move on to the second psycho. Avery Marx, who is also known as the House Worker. His special handwriting is that before the murder he turns off the electricity in the house, after which he can easily find the victim, because he hears the device of night vision. In the game, he lives in an abandoned apartment building, which is located somewhere on the outflow of New York. And at first everything seems quite typical for abandonment, until you start peering into the details. After all, somewhere the stool is covered with human skin, somewhere a table, well, or the birdhouses standing around, which are also made of human flesh. Soon you can find those unfortunate who became his victims. All these horrors, coupled with rather close spaces, was borne so that I took a break a couple of times for this level.

But it is worth noting one not the best fact that connects almost all these levels. This is the lack of unique enemies, so in 3 out of 5, not counting the maniac himself, they are waiting for a meeting only with dogs, which, although they are inscribed well, but I would like to see more chernukha. Well, okay, I think here was not least production costs under the capacity of the consoles and the volume of carriers in those years.

Remaster

And of course I want to talk about what Remister eventually brought. And the first thing we will touch on the textures, all of them were improved, especially I want to praise those moments when they were completely redrawn, because it is felt that this is how the developers from Nightdive made efforts and understood how exactly they should look like that. But in some places it is still noticeable that they did not do it like this with such enthusiasm, and some of the textures were simply driven through Apskyle with neurosetes. However, I will say in defense that at the same time they are not knocked out and look quite authentic, adding some moment of randomness and madness to this already strange world.

A bunch of various graphic effects appeared in the game, here you have a depth of sharpness, blur, smoothing, ambient ocClow, and most importantly, lighting has changed, and more precisely it appeared as a whole. And it looks cool. Although some areas in places look too dark, but as for me this is not a drawback (unlike the recent GTA), because thanks to this the atmosphere of the game becomes only gloomy and frightening, especially at those moments when the hero illuminates his path with a flashlight or torch.

I also said earlier that 3 levels cut out of the original were added to the game, and here the funny moment was not written for them. Therefore, people from Nightdive contacted the composer who wrote music for the original so that he would write it for new levels. And it turned out to be no worse than that which already.

But regarding the old compositions, it is not entirely clear, the developers wrote that they were made by Remaster, but in exactly how they were not specified by either the fully rewritten compositions, or just old with an enlarged bitrate. However, which of the options may not be, it worked. The emboss sounds clearer, but something colossal did not happen, because he was already great.

And of course, the most important thing that is here is as I said earlier the addition of cut levels, the correction of different moments of geometry environment, the addition of the original models that were censored in the past, carved enemies and other small details.

And there is a thing for which you want to scold and praise the developers. This is that some gaming moments promised on the release have not yet been added. As an example of mini-beoss Queen Seraphim. Some technical difficulties just appeared because of which they decided to add it in the following patch. However, relatively recently, they said that they would release the next big patch along with the release of the game on the consoles. And here is the main problem – there is still no release date (a couple of days ago appeared – January 13). But I think the fans are ready to wait for everything to work out as it should, because besides all game improvements, the developers reported that they will release the tools to create modifications, that as a result can extend the life cycle of the game for more than one year.

Before I summarize, I want to share my thoughts on the topic of why the game has not earned well -deserved popularity. And as for me the main reason for this was the fact that Shadow Man had a rather serious competitor – Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. These two games are very similar to the gameplay, and in places one might think that someone is stealing from someone, but this is unlikely, as they were developed in parallel. And the fatal mistake was that the developers did not postpone the date of the game, because Soul Reaver was released on August 13, 99th, and Shadow Man on August 31, 99th, 99th. And it is clear that the mass consumer chose the sequel to the already popular series than the game on not the most popular comics. And, it seems to me, if the developers initially transferred the date of exit to October \ December, then perhaps they could win more attention. But what happened, and it is funny to watch that all the developers seemed to have forgotten about Legace of Kain, and not the most popular Shadow Man received a remaster.

And this is cool, because people from Nightdive admitted that Shadow Man is a game of their childhood and therefore they wanted to refresh it, returning it there everything that was originally there to be. And you know, this is not a frequent remister in which it is felt that it was done with the soul, because it is clear how the developers themselves relate to the game of the game. They bought the rights to a non -most popular game, but at the same time important for them. Made her remaster, which is not a fact that it will pay off. But in the end, we have a great remaster, great game. Which I recommend that you also buy and go through, because this is a unique project, with a good terrible atmosphere, about which some of you most likely have not even heard until today. And besides, it costs only 435 rubles.