Shadows: Awakening

Это определённо одна из самых игр в истории. Ну, да, прикольно, демоном бегит, на ходу чубзиков меняттт. В первой четверти игры прям хорошо, а дальше словацкая фантазия кончилась и выдала лишь самый типовой гаемплуай актион РэПоГэ. Головоломки по сложности рассчитаны на учеников лесной школы и только бесят. Особенно шарики и весь сегмент в канализации. Вообще, для бездумного тыкания вполне сойдёт. Надо бы первую игру пощупать, может быть она лучше была.

I became interested in this game because of its predecessor, Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition, a good 2004 title that features interesting mechanics, beautiful environments for its time, and a narrative with many positive points. I was disappointed to realize that Shadows: Awakening makes several mistakes in narratively succeeding its predecessor, especially by using retcons or completely neglecting old conflicts and motivations—particularly those of the Order of the Veil, the mage order at the center of the franchise’s story. In the paragraphs below, I explain some of these issues. Several interesting characters were neglected or completely forgotten, such as High Magus Sollan, the former leader of the Order of the Veil, who doesn’t even appear in this game. Carissa, who in the first game is a mage and Sollan’s lover, was turned into a warrior mage who doesn’t even mention Sollan. Even Carissa’s personality is no longer the same. The important protagonist Alita from the first game is only mentioned in books and has no participation in the game, despite having been a key figure in the destruction of the God Slayer sword in the first title. Alita is now treated as if she doesn’t exist. The game’s rich world lore was not delivered in a satisfying way; some events from Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition do echo in this sequel’s narrative, but in very strange ways—such as the case of the Accession Wars, the conflict between humans and Taymurians. It makes no sense for this war to exist. In the first game, we help a group of Taymurian refugees be accepted into the human city of Corwenth, but in the time between the two games, the Taymurians’ Conclave of Tribes demands the refugees’ return and claims the territory for themselves for no reason other than simply wanting it. This creates a conflict between the two peoples, with consequences poorly portrayed in the second game. The worst part: this story isn’t even told during gameplay, but only through books you find—a terrible way to explore the game’s universe. Among many other narrative problems, the plot is the main one. At no point is it satisfactorily explained why demons are acting and influencing the Order of the Veil. Of course, with the destruction of the God Slayer sword in the first game and the weakening of the Dreamworld, which becomes the Shadowrealm, one might assume demons began to infiltrate the world of the Heretic Kingdoms. But how did they manage to possess Lady Mara and the other powerful members of the Penta Nera? Why are these Devourers acting to bring about the world’s destruction? Who is behind all of this? Why is Krenze opposing them? What are his real motives? None of this is contextualized in the game. Events simply happen without much explanation, several plot threads from the first game are abandoned, and the ending of this game fails to bring the narrative together in an orderly way. I truly don’t understand the reason for inserting new narrative elements into the universe, such as the Devourer and the Shadowrealm, when the original lore still had many aspects that could have been further developed. However, the narrative issue that bothered me the most was the lack of deeper exploration of each of the game’s Puppets (selectable heroes). This is the game’s highlight, since the player can choose to control various interesting characters. The aesthetic, cultural, and historical variation between them is extremely cool, but all of that remains only on the surface. It’s as if the player captures important historical figures, but none of their personal conflicts are actually explored; they serve only as hero skins in the game—except for one or another hero whose past is touched upon, but even then it’s not satisfying. Despite everything, the game is good. It’s fun and bold enough to try innovating with the mechanic of switching heroes during battle. What motivated me most in terms of gameplay was the search to discover all the heroes available to collect. The different combinations between classes, their spells, and stats also allow for good gameplay variety. As an Action RPG, the game is average. Many features were poorly implemented, such as the equipment grind, which was not done correctly. There is no randomness in item drops, for example. Also, when playing on the highest difficulty level, I noticed that legendary items were found constantly, as if they were common items. Shadows: Awakening is a game worth playing, especially if the player has already finished Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition. Just don’t expect too much.

I love this game, mostly. If you hate wonky character movement or the inability to pan the camera DO NOT waste your money on this game. There are countless puzzles that have to be solved, but you cannot see most of the area you need to see because you cannot pan the camera....or you have to stop in the exact perfect spot on the screen, but movement is click to move....and the character moves to the "general" area you clicked, not the exact place you clicked. I feel I need a full refund....but I have played too long to request one.

很早就买了，最近重玩。 一款平庸的俯视角rpg，虽然从一些细节能看出制作组用心制作了，但游戏真的很平庸。 手感稀烂，经典各打各的。 一堆意义不明的解迷，我最讨厌的就是那个滚球的解迷，拼反应力还好，最难蚌的是机关触发要长按，手柄又要自己手动瞄准，经常是球都掉下去了才发现人物在虚空普攻没在触发机关，经历了几次之后再无游玩想法。 漫长的跑图，缓慢的移动速度，本身就是通马桶级别的叙事和任务，结果还安排了巨多又臭又长的跑图，令人忍俊不禁。 有的评论还提到了攻略问题，至少简中是没有一个完整的攻略的，虽然我是扫图玩家没遇到需要查攻略的情况，但还是提一嘴。 优点当然也是有的，凡界影界的随意切换还算有点新意，虽然样样都松但好歹能想到的都有，也能勉强说一句“麻雀虽小五脏俱全”？但反正我是不会为了这个就玩这款游戏的。 总之，不推荐游玩。

Great game, though the final boss made me feel like Chris Redfield pushing boulders..

Good diablo-like ARPG with interesting Demon-Puppets mechanic and world switching to solve puzzles, fight enemies, etc. Shadows also has a good story with several endings and a lot of side quests.

НЕ ПОКУПАЙТЕ ЭТУ ИГРУ! ОНА НЕ ПРОХОДИМА! ПАЗЗЛЫ С ВАЛУНОМ СЛОМАННЫ И БЛОКИРУЮТ ПРОХОЖДЕНИЕ! Идея со сменой персонажей интересная, но всё в этой игре какое-то несуразное, дофига бектрекинга, дофига каких-то странных пазлов блочащик прохождение, где-то чуть кривой хитбокс, где-то чуть кривая анимация, не удобный инвентарь... В целом получается очень нудная игра с неинтересным изнуряющим геймплеем. Начиная с 3-4 главы появляются блокеры мешающие прохождению, затупы и какие-то вымученые попытки растянуть хронометраж. И скука превращается в рейдж, сидишь как еблае, тратишь время на эту залупу, будто других игр нет ((( Кто там не придумал пазл катящимся валуном под который нужно включать платформы - он вырвавшаяся из ада мразь, явившаяся в наш мир чтобы пытать нас этой парашей, ♥♥♥♥♥, непроходимой.