Shadow Man review

Taking the role of Michael, you seemingly have little worth living for, haunted by memories of gang killing that effectively flushes your life down the toilet. Even the protection from a voodoo bokor could not save your family and leaves LeRoi barely clinging to life. Unfortunately the bokor turns Michael into a voodoo slave, only to be rescued by the priestess Mama Nettie. Gathering her dwindling powers, she turns the slave into the Shadow Man by using the Mask of Shadows.

As Shadow Man you are blessed with supernatural powers and traditionally protect the land of the living from the Deadside, where everyone that dies resides. Under the guidance of Mama Nettie you must travel between both worlds to prevent the apocalypse. Five legendary serial killers are gathering under the direction of Legion, to build an enormous temple known as Asylum.

The story is a fascinating mix of voodoo, evil, regret and ultimately salvation. Loosely based on the comic of the same name, Acclaim have crafted a sizeable storyline that is populated with memorable characters including Jaunty, an Irish snake-skeleton who acts as the Deadside guide. The dialogue is thick, the cut scenes numerous and the tale soon becomes the main reason to keep playing.

This is a good thing, as the game play remains divisive amongst players. Shadow Man relies on elements of exploration, as you scour environments across Deadside looking for the Dark Souls. There are a hundred and twenty of these indestructible souls to be found and digested. By doing so, Michael increases his powers but Legion also seeks these souls for his own followers. By collecting these souls Deadside gates open, allowing the player to explore new areas.

Levels rely on a staple recipe of combat and platform jumping. Critically the in-game camera is not suited to displaying many obstacles and needs to be lured into position. The combat is pretty basic and relies on strafing combined with rapid firing. The environments possess a memorable atmosphere and subdued stark nature that mirrors the voodoo swamp theme and works well within the limitations of the console.

While Shadow Man is ambitious with its open approach, allowing the player to tackle the game in a non-linear fashion, there are issues. Most frustrating is the save structure that pushes you back to the beginning of a level. Any doors or puzzles that you solved will remain solved, but you will still need to make those hazardous jumps. This could have been overcome by including ladders or ropes that you released when reaching a particular stage. Instead trial and error is a frustrating element and also backtracking. This was the major area of criticism for Shadow Man, demanding that players perform marathon tasks across earlier levels to defeat Legion.

Looking back now, this was an era where the size of game seemed to matter more than the actual quality. Where time played was a more important factor that the quality of time spent enjoying proceedings. This vogue still persists today, yet Shadow Man remains on of its greatest culprits. Not assisting players with a help function or some form of guidance often resulted in many just giving up with the game and walking away.

A multi-format release in 1999 including the original PlayStation and Nintendo 64, the Dreamcast is the definitive version amongst the consoles of the period. Despite this the game does not push the Dreamcast too hard visually. The resolution is improved but other differences are hard to identify; more could have been achieved with this version. The soundtrack is excellent, cleverly crafted and often leaving huge sections of silence to underpin the atmosphere. The voice acting is also worthy of praise with the main characters delivering their lines with authenticity.

Returning to the game in 2010, the potential of the characters and Shadow Man world is obvious. This voodoo warrior would be an ideal candidate for resurrection in the hands of a more experienced developer.