Shadow Warrior Short

Shadow Warrior was released in 1997. With the Quake series either side of this games release it was the beginning of the end for the sprite based 3d shooter. Still with the success of Duke Nukum 3D, fans of the series were looking for their next fix and they found it with this game. Shadow Warrior holds onto a lot of the style, humor and gameplay of it's predecessor.

My initial impressions weren't good. The controls, screen size and aspect ratio all needed to be changed to make the game enjoyable.

Gameplay is pretty standard for games of this era. Hunt down different coloured keys to get through doors so you can get to the end of the level. Level design can be challenging and downright unfair. Hidden ladders or keys required to progress can slow the game to a crawl. Enemies though of unique design can pretty much always be beaten by strafing and shooting.

However speedrunners can get a lot out of this game and new times are still being posted today. The weapon and item variety keep the game interesting and finding a secret area can be rewarding in itself.

Shadow Warrior Complete is free to download from gog.com.