Just so you don’t think I’m simply being run over by hordes of Evil Monkeys coming from Ryan’s computer, I’ll lay a few ideas on the table to make this game better. SM doesn’t seem to know what type of game it is, try adding some NPC’s that you can interact with by the simple touch of a key, just having random replies would be an improvement and add more depth. Add some more in-game interest on each level to make things more unique and less repetitive, like somebody gets flattened as a tunnel caves in and then you have to find another way around; at the moment SM’s levels are far to linear. Add some scenery instead of just basic level layouts, the earliest levels and later ones are really the only good ones, for the most part the levels are just dull. There are just a few of many suggestions popping around in my head, take note.

Ok so how does it look?

If it wasn’t for the fact that gameplay was so mediocre then Shadowman would rock, all it needs is a little more in to stop it becoming a simple blast-em-up when it’s constantly trying to be something more. Thankfully it’s not all bad, the evil monkeys at Speedy3D have seen fit to really give us a game with extremely sexy graphics. Textures are all high quality and help to make the otherwise dull levels something different. It’s only a pity most levels don’t have a specific theme otherwise I could have said, “The textures match the environments they portray very well”. Sadly Shadowman doesn’t define its levels much beyond a simply name which being fictional is hardly going to tell us what it’s about. There are just a few levels like the first which do show some signs of being unique and cleverly made, pity this doesn’t go for all.

The graphics are not ahead of their time but they are far from being behind, a well set out array of effects and texturing to the highest quality really help make the SM that little bit better. A VooDoo2 or TNT2 would be fine, but anything below might have trouble-running SM due to a fairly up to date and texture hungry engine.

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