No matter how repetitive the environments and loot-tinkering get, Shadow Warrior 2 stays a rewarding slapstick comedy thanks to its thrilling open-ended combat. Chainsawing the leg off a massive mech against the neon backdrop of a cyberpunk metropolis or blowing holes in bipedal hammerhead shark demons in a craggy mountain village is more than enough set-dressing for me. The level design feels mushier than a purely authored shooter, in large part because the procedural levels are so open and aimless, but as good-looking conduits for combat, they work just fine. But it’s pretty easy to ignore the RPG systems for long periods and still skirt by on the normal and hard difficulties, especially with some co-op friends.Įnvironments, as beautiful as they are, also lose their meaning quickly. There’s such a glut of the stuff it becomes a chore to navigate the clumsy menus every time a new gem or gun drops so I can try them out. There’s no time for talk.Īs I developed my art, exploding mob after mob in a shower of gems and guns and ammo and collectibles, the loot systems quickly lost their allure and mystery. They’re red and bad and you have to shoot them. (What year is it?) And then it's back to dick jokes.ĭoom, a similar shooter, gets away with its exaggerated premise by keeping it simple: Hell spits out some demons, caricatures of evil that don't do a lot of talking. The subject and butt of the joke, the difficult transition process, isn't placed in an amusing light-it's just pointed at as if to say, hey, transgender people, right? It nests the act of coming out in the tension of the joke, coloring it as something to be uneasy about. Later on, a character mistakes Wang’s monologue about a small woman inside him-a spirit that takes up residency in his head and acts as a guide-as him coming out as transgender. It's not a lovely historical slideshow to conjure. The ‘joke’ is the word genocide, the intentional mass murder of an entire race or nation. It’s an indistinct weapon, utilitarian and mechanical, and that’s it. Early on, I found a gun called the Genocider, which is where the joke begins and ends. Vulgarity and edgy humor aren't inherently bad, but Shadow Warrior 2 uses it without purpose.
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