Shadowalker

Are you afraid of ghosts, monsters and things that go bump in the night? Well if so, then look away, as Shadowalker is full of them!

Like Castlevania, in this platform style game you play a bit of a mysterious dark hero who’s tasked with doing some major ghost and ghoul-bashing action throughout a number of different levels with the mission to help free the kidnapped children. In all honesty the liberation of the children’s just an excuse to go around beating up the monsters, but hey, some mindless slashing and shooting’s not terrible now and then!

You play Shadowalker who’s background is a bit of an unknown entity and will start to unravel the connection between you and the demons you’re tasked with slaying. As with all good platform games, there’s a good theme and this is no different, in fact it’s very engrossing and has a better plot than many Hollywood movies! Well, ok, perhaps it’s not going win any Oscar nominations any time soon, but still, it’s got some entertaining qualities which give you just another good reason to keep playing the game.

After you’ve had the intro, you start the game by looking at a map which has a destination highlighted. Once you’ve selected the destination of choice you will load up the level and will need to get prepared for some action. As you complete the levels more destinations will be revealed, along with other useful areas like the equipment shop, which allows you to purchase better swords, guns and armour to help you in your mission.

Although the game follows quite a linear pattern you can always return to the levels you have already completed to search for hidden items and to collect more coins to spend on power ups. As you would expect, coins and other useful objects are found in chests, barrels and by defeating monsters.

The controls are pretty responsive and as you progress, you will be rewarded by unlocking better attributes; such as double jumps. I found the jumping a little awkward, for some areas of the game you have to jump in a sequence but one mistimed key press and you’re back at the start again. However the fighting in this game is quite special as Shadowalker’s able to choose which weapon’s best to do the job e.g. will slash at enemies and objects nearby and aim your pistol at the baddies further away. Again, this is pretty ingenious but does have the odd complication as you may end up shooting at one enemy when you wished to be slashing at another, but nonetheless you will get the hang of the controls pretty swiftly and will probably be able to overlook this awkwardness pretty swiftly.

Overall then, the game’s very engaging and entertaining and will offer you a good few hours of fun. It’s a well presented and very pleasing game overall. If there was going to be any major irritation, it’d be the loading stages for each level – but I guess good graphics have to come at some price.

Rating 86%

Positives

Great graphics

Nice controls and intuitive fighting

Some good puzzle sections which will keep you busy for a while

Negatives

Loading times

A little repetitive

The levels are quite short