Shadow Man (Dreamcast, 1999)

I can see why Shadowman may have been well received at the time. Many of the elements present here have been used in games such as Metroid Prime. However, bland and confusing environments, bad pacing, and all too frequent deaths hold this game back.

The environments of Deadside are dark, washed out, and maze-like with no minimap to guide you. The main area is divided into subsets of smaller areas, many of which have few identifying characteristics.

Starting in the Asylum area, enemies become extremely powerful relative to your character, which makes for a lot of premature deaths. Toning down the damage dealt by these enemies would have done wonders for the game's balance. It doesn't help that Shadowman's Shadow Gun does very little damage if it hasn't been charged. The charging system here feels out of place and you wish you could just tap the button to shoot.

Finally, when Shadowman dies either due to unbalanced enemies or one-hit kill hazards such as pitfalls and fire, he has to start at the beginning of the area. I don't mean the beginning of the room, I mean the beginning of the area. Keep in mind that each of these areas is roughly half the size of a Zelda dungeon; that means that you lose about 15 minutes of play if you die in the later half of a level. Again, much of this will happen in Asylum where fire and nasty enemies are prevalent.

I wish I could recommend this game as an old school action-adventure title, but nowadays, this concept has been done so much better. If you haven't played all the Metroid Prime games yet, do yourself a favor and play those instead for a much better experience. It's not a bad game, but it's just too frustrating to merit playing.

Shadow Man seems to want to be Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver, but with voodoo lore instead of vampire lore. On its own, its okay, but the graphics and cutscenese leave alot to be desired, as does gameplay. I stopped playing shortly after the second level, but its alright.

Plays well for a game of its age. Gameplay holds up well, wish I could say the same for graphics and voice acting... Overall, a great game that shouldn't be overlooked.