Shadow Warrior

Shadow Warrior is top-notch action entertainment. It doesn't matter whether or not it is a remake. The game stands its ground, and qualities of the game exceeds even the contemporary mainstream production. Lo Wang has returned and with him law and order.

It’s hours of mindless, bloody, expletive-filled fun in an action-packed fantasy world illustrated with gorgeous graphics, a good variety of unlocks, and enough challenges to make completionists feel as if they got their money’s worth.

This is an old-school shooter that actually gets what made old-school shooters work, and it gives us some clever new ideas on top of them.

It's fast, old school and with tons of blood. If you're looking for the "proper Duke Nukem" of this age, you've just found him.

There’s a gritty, punk spirit here that I haven’t seen since No More Heroes. As such, Shadow Warrior is more than a victory for fans of the original, but a spiritual rebirth of what made games of that era so fun in the first place.

I haven't had this much unadulterated fun chopping and dropping enemies since the late '90s, and I, for one, am eagerly salivating for a bit more of Flying Wild Hog's Wang.

Is it far from a perfect experience but it is great fun for anyone who enjoys shooters or merely slashing away with a katana sword. Fans of 80’s action movies will unquestionably appreciate what Shadow Warrior has to offer.

Shadow Warrior is highly 90’s in a very good way. Pace is fast, health kits are in, guns are powerful, action is great, puns are bad and there is lot of flying blood and boy parts. The letdown is level design: they are too bland. [Nov 2013]

I’m not going to spoil anything, but between the myriad of weapons, Lo’s hilarity, the collectables/secret areas, and the simple but effective story, you’ll actually be pretty motivated to continue playing to the end, which says a lot about the game’s entertainment value.

When you get down to it, Shadow Warriors does an impressive job of straddling the line between its retro upbringings and the more advanced first-person shooter offerings of late.

A successful revival of the mid-90's shooter. Shadow Warrior's combat is fun despite an irritating sense of humor. [Jan 2014, p.66]

Shadow Warrior is an unrepentant love poem for all things 90s and plays out as a greatest hits album of the video games and buddy cop movies from that time.

A great revival of an old, crazy game and a very pleasant, fast FPS providing many hours of enthusiastic mouse torture. [12/2013, p.58]

Old school action with old school heart, reinforced by neat modern features that shows the way a present day shooter should be done. [Nov 2013]

Remember when FPS games were fun? Shadow Warrior does too. While it does drag on for a bit at times, it offers tons of enjoyable action in a world where bringing a katana to a gunfight is actually quite viable.

This reboot of Shadow Warrior can be defined as the glorious return of a famous brand of the 90s, a brand remembered with great affection by the players of the time. This modern version deserves to be played in this very valuable new edition.

Nevertheless, Shadow Warrior is a highly-polished fun FPS that realises that while being old-school is great there’s no reason why you can’t still be innovative.

Shadow Warrior is great for both fans of the original and anyone looking for something fresh in the genre. There isn’t much else out there quite like Lo Wang and his sword.

Shadow Warrior is a surprisingly good game, proving that classic shooters are still needed. I haven't had so much fan while playing an FPS in a very long time. And speaking of long time - it's a really lengthy game (15-17 hours is a lot by today's standards). If you're a fan of this kind of games and you like gore and crude humor, you simply need to buy and play the new Shadow Warrior.

A gleefully tongue-in-cheek throwback to shooters of yore, Shadow Warrior offers fantastic melee combat and a truly beautiful world to discover and then slaughter in.

First-person shooters are never going away, but, if you fancy a great and bloody time pretending to be a katana wielding, nerd assassin after getting drained on role-playing military soldiers, then you can’t go wrong with jumping into the role of Mr Wang and slicing up some demons.

It's a well-realized trip back to the good ol' times.

Shadow Warrior has big guns, deadly blades, enemies ranging from small to enormous and enough explosions to satisfy even the most pyrotechnically enthusiastic gamer.

Like Spinal Tap said, there’s a fine line between clever and stupid. Shadow Warrior treads that line carefully, but not before chopping everything to bits. Good stuff.

Shadow Warrior won’t win any awards for complexity. It’s a shamelessly self-confident return to the whiplash, blood’n'guts symphony of 90s-era shooters, but it salvages the low concept, and it’s own checkered legacy, with ironclad mechanics and the likable, if oafish, story it tells.

Shadow Warrior does exactly what it should. It's an ode to the authentic shooter genre like we've known it from Duke Nukem, Serious Sam or the original Shadow Warrior. Shadow Warrior is a surprise that remains interesting 'til the credits start rolling. The humor and story will keep your attention from dwindling, but the gameplay can get repetitive at times. The most important thing is that it's simply fun, from start to finish.

Shadow Warrior is a ten hour trip through blood and explosions enriched by a rich evolution system. Design and graphics are far from being perfect but if you love old-school shooters take this katana and go cut some monsters in half.

The re-imagination of 3D Realms’ classic is an interesting mix of old-school action and modern elements: One man, loads of weapons, even more ammunition, arena battles against a plethora of enemies, one-liners (even though they need improvement) and character upgrades. This is basically the gaming version of The Expendables. So if you liked them, give Lo Wang a shot.

Shadow Warrior gives us one of the most beloved characters of the '90 videogaming industry, in a game with fun gameplay, fulfilled of black humor and irreverent quotations.

Shadow Warrior is the reboot nobody seemed to ask for but are lucky to have gotten anyway. The game is good, bloody fun and a bloody good time.

Without any doubt, Shadow Warrior, is a great reimagining of the old classic. The game is brutal in many ways, with one-liners reminding us of Duke Nukem. It’s a bit repetitive and some variation wouldn’t kill the mood. Overall it is a good game with a lot of blood and a great fighting system. In the words of Wang: it’s wangtastic!

Shadow Warrior is a retro-shooter with all the right stuff we expect from such a title. Hordes of enemies, demonic creatures, Duke Nukem humor, a lot of blood and mangled limbs. If you settle for this, the reboot by Flying Wild Hog works like a charm and compared to other similar operations, the graphics are far from poor or sketchy.

Shadow Warrior is an amazing game for fans of mindless destruction.

It looks good, it's cool to play, but the singleplayer feels stretched and there are not enough different opponents to balance this.

It's a lengthy romp with plenty of action, though it does fall somewhat flat when it comes to being memorable or offering stand-out encounters; it's gory entertainment, doesn't take itself seriously -- the recent release of "Viscera Cleanup Detail" confirms that -- and has some good first-person swordplay for $40.

Shadow Warrior is a wild ride; crazy, hilarious and fun. It’s an old-school wolf in modern clothing that plays and feels just like the classic 90’s shooters we all fondly remember. Though it tries a bit too hard in some areas, it can’t be faulted for at least trying to elevate itself above other shooters.

Shadow Warrior is a good shooter that stands out for its humor and fast-paced action, and that's enough to satisfy fans of FPS until something more substantial comes along.

If you're going to remake a game known for its tacky humor, this is the way to do it. The crassness is here, but it's merely seasoning in a colorful old-school first-person shooter that allows excitement to build organically from the way its systems interact.

A gory old-school shooter that largely makes up for a lack of variety by being making combat very, very enjoyable.

A visceral game in every sense of the word. The blood of the enemies on the floor will merge will yours as you try to push through the levels. Old school, made today. Simple, straight to the point and very fun.

Shadow Warrior isn't free of some design flaws that can take away from the experience, but as an action game, its combat is solidly put together. While not the easiest to use, the various weapons and sword fighting combos you have really make you feel like a badass warrior whenever you pull off a gruesome decapitation.

As a throwback revival, Shadow Warrior lives up to the minimal expectations all but the most die-hard old-school PC shooter fans might have for what it should be. But when Shadow Warrior is less content to settle and reaches for more with its swordplay, its boss battles, and its story of cross-dimensional family infighting, it flirts with something much more — often enough to make clearing a lower bar seem insufficient.

The game is fun, at least it starts out fun, but repetition eventually morphs into boredom and killing demons changes from a guilty pleasure to a chore. By the game's mid-point the joy of combat has faded, the humor has worn thin and the characters and storyline aren't strong enough to carry the game. Shadow Warrior does stay true to its 1990s roots, but never truly moves past them.

It’s a game full of hits and misses, whether it’s the boorish comedy, uneven pacing or erratic level design, but its combat hits more often than not, simple as it may be.

Flying Wild Hog has re-imagined a cult classic while maintaining Shadow Warrior’s unique personality in a shamelessly flawed and flimsy shooter concerned more with laughs and blood-letting than balance, and the team’s bold embrace of the game’s roots goes a long way to excuse the game’s problems.

For a game obsessed with OTT violence and knob gags this is a surprisingly charming and likeable shooter, if an unavoidably shallow and repetitive one.

It's exciting, guts-spilling fun in short bursts, but the campaign feels too long and dramatically self-indulgent for its own good. That said, if you want to sever limbs and cleave through torsos using bullets and a blade, you're bound to enjoy yourself. Just don't expect to get your brain or your heartstrings involved.

This is pure throwback FPS fun, an updated take on the '97 3D Realms original. As such, the objectives are barely removed from that of the archetypal Doom: kill everything, find the key and get to the door.