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Game Review - Shadowman 2
Dec. 31st, 2005 09:13 amTitle: Shadowman: 2econd Coming
Platform: PS2
Genre: Third Person Action/Adventure
Price Paid: $5.99 - 10% (used)
Would Pay: $4.00
Complete: Yes
This is an extremely mediocre game. Not quite bad enough to quit, unlike others I could mention, but almost. The graphics were dark and bland. Levels were either wide open or tight confined areas, even when they shouldn't have been tight. The user interface was poorly designed, taking many clicks to get to commonly accessed things, like the map.
The developers could apparently read minds, and not in a good way. When you get through a section of jumping puzzles, sighing with relief, "I'm glad that wasn't timed", making the next one timed is not a good thing. Some of the jumping puzzles were harder because of problems with games - poor collision detection, poor clipping, poor control response all piled on each other to complicate things, often in the worst way possible - narrow ledges made effectively narrower by limits on jump;many tries needed to climb a ladder in a timed puzzle, wasting time; collision detection readjusting your position, pushing you off a ledge; the sameness and openness making finding the area shown in the hint cut scene a chore. Some crash bugs near the end causing random crashes almost made me give it up. I knew I was close, so I persevered but the temptation was strong.
The feature I liked most about the game was actually slammed by the author of the FAQ I was using when lost. Dying means extremely little, you are simply placed at the checkpoint of your choice. There is no loss of any other progress, any dead monsters remain dead, switches remain flipped, and, most importantly, the bosses remain damaged. There was no way I could finish the final boss without this. If death was anything more than an inconvenience, I would've quit this game much, much closer to the beginning.
Platform: PS2
Genre: Third Person Action/Adventure
Price Paid: $5.99 - 10% (used)
Would Pay: $4.00
Complete: Yes
This is an extremely mediocre game. Not quite bad enough to quit, unlike others I could mention, but almost. The graphics were dark and bland. Levels were either wide open or tight confined areas, even when they shouldn't have been tight. The user interface was poorly designed, taking many clicks to get to commonly accessed things, like the map.
The developers could apparently read minds, and not in a good way. When you get through a section of jumping puzzles, sighing with relief, "I'm glad that wasn't timed", making the next one timed is not a good thing. Some of the jumping puzzles were harder because of problems with games - poor collision detection, poor clipping, poor control response all piled on each other to complicate things, often in the worst way possible - narrow ledges made effectively narrower by limits on jump;many tries needed to climb a ladder in a timed puzzle, wasting time; collision detection readjusting your position, pushing you off a ledge; the sameness and openness making finding the area shown in the hint cut scene a chore. Some crash bugs near the end causing random crashes almost made me give it up. I knew I was close, so I persevered but the temptation was strong.
The feature I liked most about the game was actually slammed by the author of the FAQ I was using when lost. Dying means extremely little, you are simply placed at the checkpoint of your choice. There is no loss of any other progress, any dead monsters remain dead, switches remain flipped, and, most importantly, the bosses remain damaged. There was no way I could finish the final boss without this. If death was anything more than an inconvenience, I would've quit this game much, much closer to the beginning.
