Shadow Man

[Gehennas]

I'm not sure how obscure this game is exactly, but it's overlooked as far as i can tell.

 

 

An Action-Adventure/Third-Person-Shooter published by Acclaim in 1999 released for Windows, PSone, N64 and Dreamcast.

 

Mike "Shadow Man" LeRoi can walk the world of the living and the world of the dead (called "Deadside" in-game), which he has to enter to stop a group of serial killers under the command of Legion, a prime evil attempting to end the world of the living.

 

What i like most about it is its theme. Many of the plot elements, weapons and items are heavily inspired by Voodoo, which is kind of unusual. It's a nice change from the usual demonic theme you'd expect in a game about entering the underworld. Some of the characters and dialogue are actually pretty hilarious and quite original. For a shooter from 1999 it has a pretty ok plot and narrative. Gameplay is a mixed bag, shooting sections can be quite one-sided until you get a good selection of weapons and powers. When you do, however, it gets fun since you can use any 2 weapons you want at the same time. Platforming might be enough to scare some people away from the game.

 

Another thing some people consider problematic is the backtracking. You will often find places you cannot access until much later. For me, this actually makes it feel like an open world game, though it's rare you can choose between multiple locations. You will usually just walk into a dead end.

 

Overall i think it has a very cool atmosphere, design and characters. Gameplay is not great, but good enough. A quite unique game.

 

Intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EClmtxRBQkI

 

 

It's available on Steam for a few bucks.

[UndeadNecro]

Bought this on Steam, looking to download and play it soon but the reviews make it out to be like a Mario-64-Spyro-esque level system. If it's more open-world, that's great, I suppose. Back tracking can suck sometimes but only if it ends up having no point.

[topsquid]

This is one of the few games, besides half-life, that I ever played through to the end.

[Civilized Ape]

I remember seeing an advertisement of this game in a Nintendo magazine when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I've never played this game, but I think that I will just pick up a N64 Emulator one days of these. Also, this game has a sequel that is exclusive of the ps2, that is even more obscure, I don't know if it's good or not, because I never played!

Edited November 5, 2020 by Civilized Ape (see edit history)