Obviously, Shadow Warrior is a franchise that is intrinsically edgy. We were aware that not everything had aged well since 1997, times have changed and we decided to keep the outdated stuff out of our series. If you’re a fan of his cheesy one-liners, it's fair to say that you can expect that same energy in Shadow Warrior 3! Kuba Opon, Shadow Warrior 3 Game Director: When we started working on Shadow Warrior, our writers reimagined Lo Wang as a younger goofball who considered his jokes a divine power. Going back to the original reboot of the original Shadow Warrior from 1997, how did the team at Flying Wild Hog recreate the best elements of that game while leaving behind some of the less desirable elements?
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We chatted with Shadow Warrior 3 Game Director Kuba Opon about that refocus, how the developers worked to inject more verticality into this third entry in the franchise, and why Unreal Engine was a good fit for the first-person shooter. This time around, the studio decided to go back to that source game, and pull forward a renewed focus on a story that was historically an “insane, bombastic adventure.” Shadow Warrior 2 received equal acclaim, quadrupling the sales of its predecessor, and laying the groundwork for this year’s Shadow Warrior 3.
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That first reboot hit in 2013 and managed to do what few other reboots from that era achieved: create an enduring success that would become a foundation for a new series based on the franchise. They wanted to sanitise some of the cheesy one-liners and ‘90s crass humor of the original, but not strip away so much that the game lost its character. If you can tolerate the baseless, dated humor, then Shadow Warrior 2 is an easy recommendation, but it’s a shame the excellent combat and deep customization systems need a caveat at all.When Flying Wild Hog decided to reboot classic 3D Realms shooter Shadow Warrior, the team knew it had to walk a fine line. The drink selection is great, but the jukebox is too damn loud and only plays hair metal one-hit-wonders. It’s like the FPS embodiment of a dive bar, a place to kick back and tear up some demonic bad guy fodder with some friends. No matter how repetitive the environments and loot-tinkering get, Shadow Warrior 2 stays a rewarding slapstick comedy thanks to its thrilling open-ended combat. Chainsawing the leg off a massive mech against the neon backdrop of a cyberpunk metropolis or blowing holes in bipedal hammerhead shark demons in a craggy mountain village is more than enough set-dressing for me. The level design feels mushier than a purely authored shooter, in large part because the procedural levels are so open and aimless, but as good-looking conduits for combat, they work just fine. But it’s pretty easy to ignore the RPG systems for long periods and still skirt by on the normal and hard difficulties, especially with some co-op friends.Įnvironments, as beautiful as they are, also lose their meaning quickly. There’s such a glut of the stuff it becomes a chore to navigate the clumsy menus every time a new gem or gun drops so I can try them out. There’s no time for talk.Īs I developed my art, exploding mob after mob in a shower of gems and guns and ammo and collectibles, the loot systems quickly lost their allure and mystery. They’re red and bad and you have to shoot them. (What year is it?) And then it's back to dick jokes.ĭoom (opens in new tab), a similar shooter, gets away with its exaggerated premise by keeping it simple: Hell spits out some demons, caricatures of evil that don't do a lot of talking. The subject and butt of the joke, the difficult transition process, isn't placed in an amusing light-it's just pointed at as if to say, hey, transgender people, right? It nests the act of coming out in the tension of the joke, coloring it as something to be uneasy about.
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Later on, a character mistakes Wang’s monologue about a small woman inside him-a spirit that takes up residency in his head and acts as a guide-as him coming out as transgender. It's not a lovely historical slideshow to conjure.
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The ‘joke’ is the word genocide, the intentional mass murder of an entire race or nation.
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It’s an indistinct weapon, utilitarian and mechanical, and that’s it. Early on, I found a gun called the Genocider, which is where the joke begins and ends. Vulgarity and edgy humor aren't inherently bad, but Shadow Warrior 2 uses it without purpose.