Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior

Free for those who have Shadow Warrior on Steam!

As a janitor working for Zilla, you arrive on the scene sometime after Lo Wang has gone through. Your mission: to mop up the blood, pick up the debris and dispose of the many body parts lying around (while pocketing some loose change *cough*). The janitor has some silly quips while going about his job but otherwise it's just a really odd, relaxing game with no combat - despite being in FPS format which sees you armed with rubber gloves, a mop, and a handheld clutter and blood detector.

Take that blood splatter!

There's only one map which means you'll probably finish pretty fast, if you are careful to rinse out your mop often and watch where you step and I think its a pretty good, and different, distraction for those willing to kill an hour or two. If you've gotten it free from steam you may as well give it a try. Otherwise no need going out of your way for it. I give it two and a half decapitated body parts leaking blood everywhere out of five. :)

Payday: The Heist

I once said I'd never play this, then I got it as a gift and guess what? I like being the bad guy. :P

I had a quick look at my review list to see any non-MMO titles where you actively played as a villain, at least in part of the game. As of this post, I found four: Black Flag (Kenway's a Pirate), Thief (Garret steals stuff), Shadow Warrior (Lo Wang is a bad dude and works for a bad dude), Necrovision: Lost Company (Nazi Zimmerman unleashed a zombie plague). This is the first coop shooter I've played where you are the bad dudes. Four misfits trying to get rich quick.

AKA - Four stupid clowns.

While there are Heists which let you walk around and case the places first before going into the "action" segment, most missions actually just drop you right into the action where something just went wrong. By rule of thumb something ALWAYS goes wrong, mainly because the "fifth" member, an NPC strategy guy comes up with the most ludicrously hilarious plans to get your objective and get your team out. It also helps that you are penalized for shooting civilians and are actually encouraged to take hostages from both them and the police force.

Hostages can be traded later to get downed allies to respawn quicker which is a pretty clever idea. Also clever is the "fairness" of the police AI. They don't swarm you like hornets unless you are standing near a camera or making a lot of noise. They actually go hunt you down slowly, albeit in ridiculous numbers. Their special forces are also cool, from the tanky shields and bulldozers to the agile tazer dudes and wall running spec ops guys that down you instantly if they reach you. It is to the point of being comical which is what gives this title a free pass into the bad guy zone.

Also impressive is the "drop in" capability of letting friends just join a game in progress, and while lag is slightly present when I host it is still very playable and enjoyable. I also very much like that the worldwide success rate for each map is shown during mission selection, and that no rating is currently higher than 30%. So far my brothers and I have won 2 maps but there are plenty to go. There is a slight lack of customization I've found, but that might be remedied by gaining more experience/reputation.

All up, I'm glad to say I shouldn't have judged this book by its cover and give it three and a half bullets out of five. I recommend it especially to those who already have cooperative game teams.

Shadow Warrior (2013)

There is a demon apocalypse and only one man can stop it! Erm... and the Space Marine from Doom is not available... *cough*

This remake of the original Shadow Warrior game is, in a word - fantastic. The graphics are beautiful (which is weird for a FPS), the action is fast paced, the controls easily mastered, the plot better than decent and the comedy top notch. Well, for low brow comedy that is. I mean the hero is named Lo Wang after all. Throughout the game you can power him and his many weapons up however you like - I played on Insane and didn't get enough to unlock everything so that means it all comes down to your preferred style of play.

There are two features that really sucked me in this game, the first of which is the sword. I -LOVE- melee, and the way they have done it here is awesome as the katana can become uber powerful if you put your skill points in that area. There is less, hide behind cover and shoot, and more crazy hectic evading that keeps your heart rate up. The second one is that your left hand can be controlled independently of your right. Using a rocket launcher? That's cool, you can still swing your sword with your other hand. Or you can akimbo some uzis. Or you can be using a healing spell while hacking stuff with your sword (that was me, most of the game).

Blood and Gore is a plus!

As expected the game play is quite linear but there is ample opportunity to explore to find secret areas but the main problems come from two spots which turns the game into a chore instead of an exciting experience. The first is ALL THE BOSS FIGHTS. They are damage sponges, who face you in spots where ammo spawns freely because the creators knew this and thought it was a good idea. End result is repetitive dullness. People need to learn that bosses need not be damage sponges. A fast fight where you die or they die in a few hits is WAY more effective (like the final zone in Mission 16, where you fight waves of demons - that is challenging but fun).

The other spot I didn't like is Mission 13. In previous levels I was averaging around 30 minutes to clear but slowly this timer kept increasing after every stage. Mission 13 is the culmination of "lets make a long level for no reason other than making it long". 2 hours to clear for me. It's not even because there are hard fights, it was simply because the level design is so expansive, like someone didn't get the memo of keeping things short and to the point. The fights themselves didn't help since it was the same configuration of bad guys just in different rooms - Them in a circle room. Them in a hall way. Them in a lobby with stair well. Really? In MMOs the term for that is GRINDY.

Lo Wang, you are an improvement over your predecessor but failed to reach total enlightenment - I give you 4 out of 5 demon hearts.