[Note: key received from Devolver Digital for free]

After extensive playing of the game... I fear as though I may have jumped the gun in my earlier review. Shadow Warrior 2 on the surface seems like a nice improvement over the 2013 version, however when you scratch away the flashy paint there are some noticeable problems. It's tough because this isn't a bad game per se but these problems drag down the experience and as a whole the game advances in some areas but feels like a step back in others.


What I mean about enemy design here is how their attacks and variety of moves but also how the enemies fit into the overall array of enemies that you fight. There are a lot of enemies, however very few have anything truly unique about them. As an example, in 2013 there were golems that were only able to take damage to their back. During engagements you would often bait them into charging into a wall and then get your hits off on their back. These same enemies make a return in SW2 however this mechanic is completely gone. You can instead wail on them from any direction and deal decent damage. All enemies are basically the same in this regard. They have "weak spots" which apparently increase the amount of damage, but the increase is hardly worth the time and effort that you'll often just go for meat shots instead.

Very rarely did I ever feel like the enemies worked well together to create a cohesive force. For example in Serious Sam 3 the enemies complement each other in that you must prioritize certain enemies over others. You should kill kamikazes first, even if there are gnaars closer to you, as they will catch up faster and kill you quicker. You can dance around the gnaars. In Shadow Warrior 2 the only enemy that has any sort of prioritization is the Dynomite which is... just the kamikaze but like the goombas from Mario. This isn't bad, but it's just one enemy type out of many that the game has... but none of the others do anything special or interesting.


Meh. I played a couple of hours with a friend and we both didn't see much difference from the single player experience to bother justify the enemy HP buffs that reduced our fun. Despite the co-op being revealed in the reveal trailer, it doesn't feel remotely fleshed out. It feels tacked on. I am rather disappointed as even though I knew the limits (such as everyone playing as Lo Wang to themselves), the co-op still managed to underdeliver in a lot of ways. No interaction. Very little meshing. It feels like Torchlight 2's co-op instead of say Diablo 3.


I know that story isn't a primary focus for a classic old school style shooter but man does the writing here blow on several levels. The game throws characters at you with no introductions whatsoever. Kamiko is a worse Hoji in every respect. The game seems like it's going to bring up interesting things and then [fade to black]. None of the characters are particularly notable aside from Wang. There's no build up for your boss fights. It's just... it's just empty. Real missed potential here. I liked the writing in SW2013 as well.


It seems like they all take place on the same maps on the others and again the story isn't there to prop these side missions up and the gameplay difference between the side missions and the actual story missions is actually really minor. The only bonus for playing through the side missions is the additional weapons and some skill points. Again it feels like missed potential for some interesting content but instead it's just mediocre content that you could skip or not.


Loot drops too often. The differences between the different types of loot is too marginal. The UI is poorly designed and you cannot sort/filter to your desires despite having hundreds of gems in your inventory. You can only mark gems as junk individually. You can only sell all junk if you have a controller connected (yeah...). You can craft them but the stats are completely random, so you're just rolling the dice again, hoping for a marginally better result. The skill trees are kinda nice but somehow it seems even less fleshed out than 2013's. I do like that they used the artwork from 2013's comic book style cutscenes for them though. That's appreciated.

These are some of the problems that I had with the game. I still enjoyed my time with it, but it feels a lot more bittersweet than I would've hoped. It reminds me a lot of Halo 2 in that it feels like the right direction, but the execution was fumbled. Hopefully they will return with Shadow Warrior 3 with a much more refined solid product that I will be able to wholeheartedly recommend.

[Note: key received from Devolver Digital for free] After extensive playing of the game... I fear as though I may have jumped the gun in my earlier review. Shadow Warrior 2 on the surface seems like a nice improvement over the 2013 version, however when you scratch away the flashy paint there are some noticeable problems. It's tough because this isn't a bad game per se but these problems drag down the experience and as a whole the game advances in some areas but feels like a step back in others. [h1]Enemy design[/h1] What I mean about enemy design here is how their attacks and variety of moves but also how the enemies fit into the overall array of enemies that you fight. There are a lot of enemies, however very few have anything truly unique about them. As an example, in 2013 there were golems that were only able to take damage to their back. During engagements you would often bait them into charging into a wall and then get your hits off on their back. These same enemies make a return in SW2 however this mechanic is completely gone. You can instead wail on them from any direction and deal decent damage. All enemies are basically the same in this regard. They have "weak spots" which apparently increase the amount of damage, but the increase is hardly worth the time and effort that you'll often just go for meat shots instead. Very rarely did I ever feel like the enemies worked well together to create a cohesive force. For example in Serious Sam 3 the enemies complement each other in that you must prioritize certain enemies over others. You should kill kamikazes first, even if there are gnaars closer to you, as they will catch up faster and kill you quicker. You can dance around the gnaars. In Shadow Warrior 2 the only enemy that has any sort of prioritization is the Dynomite which is... just the kamikaze but like the goombas from Mario. This isn't bad, but it's just one enemy type out of many that the game has... but none of the others do anything special or interesting. [h1]Co-op[/h1] Meh. I played a couple of hours with a friend and we both didn't see much difference from the single player experience to bother justify the enemy HP buffs that reduced our fun. Despite the co-op being revealed in the reveal trailer, it doesn't feel remotely fleshed out. It feels tacked on. I am rather disappointed as even though I knew the limits (such as everyone playing as Lo Wang to themselves), the co-op still managed to underdeliver in a lot of ways. No interaction. Very little meshing. It feels like Torchlight 2's co-op instead of say Diablo 3. [h1]Story[/h1] I know that story isn't a primary focus for a classic old school style shooter but man does the writing here blow on several levels. The game throws characters at you with no introductions whatsoever. Kamiko is a worse Hoji in every respect. The game seems like it's going to bring up interesting things and then [fade to black]. None of the characters are particularly notable aside from Wang. There's no build up for your boss fights. It's just... it's just empty. Real missed potential here. I liked the writing in SW2013 as well. [h1]Side missions[/h1] It seems like they all take place on the same maps on the others and again the story isn't there to prop these side missions up and the gameplay difference between the side missions and the actual story missions is actually really minor. The only bonus for playing through the side missions is the additional weapons and some skill points. Again it feels like missed potential for some interesting content but instead it's just mediocre content that you could skip or not. [h1]RPG elements[/h1] Loot drops too often. The differences between the different types of loot is too marginal. The UI is poorly designed and you cannot sort/filter to your desires despite having hundreds of gems in your inventory. You can only mark gems as junk individually. You can only sell all junk if you have a controller connected (yeah...). You can craft them but the stats are completely random, so you're just rolling the dice again, hoping for a marginally better result. The skill trees are kinda nice but somehow it seems even less fleshed out than 2013's. I do like that they used the artwork from 2013's comic book style cutscenes for them though. That's appreciated. These are some of the problems that I had with the game. I still enjoyed my time with it, but it feels a lot more bittersweet than I would've hoped. It reminds me a lot of Halo 2 in that it feels like the right direction, but the execution was fumbled. Hopefully they will return with Shadow Warrior 3 with a much more refined solid product that I will be able to wholeheartedly recommend.