Games as an art form is a modern concept, it wasn't until the seventh console generation that the technology that was being offered met the needs of developers that had high artistic ambitions; as well, many of the design trends that are associated with high budget, AAA games began in this generation. So, because of this, the general mass's perception of what is considered retro video games, is that of primitive, outdated experiences; games that were good for their time, but are archaic in comparison to the standards of today. Shadow Man, and games of its ilk, stand in direct opposition to this narrative; proving that games not only always had the capacity to be art, but also that these older games are often more ambitious than the games that are coming out today.
Shadow Man's presentation is its main weapon of allure, so is the nature of the cinematic platformer. The game finds itself in the lineage of juggernauts like Tomb Raider and The Legacy of Kain, but were as Tomb Raider drew the player in with it's Indiana Jones parody, and Legacy of Kain with its enriching dialogue and characters, Shadow Man opts to do it with it's world. Being directly based off of a 1990's comic book series, the game's world is appropriately dark and edgy, but in a more sophisticated way that stops it from being too pulpy. The hellish landscapes of Deadside are full of jagged cliffs, winding and warping tunnels, bridges that seem to lead into expansive nothingness, and rivers of blood that flow through the land; but combined with a more mute color pallet, it all feels grounded and real, while still giving off the vibe of something otherworldly. The asylum that stands erect in the center of the map; it is imposing. It offers a kind of grand scale and volume that wouldn't be popular in the medium until Half-Life 2's citadel would make it a trope. The inner contents of the asylum too strengthen this notion, with the inside being a sprawling labyrinth of gothic architecture and brutal torture chambers, all connected, all intertwined. This all serves the purpose of creating a type of world that was rarely seen in video games at the time, if at all; it even rivals some of the greats from today like Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls (appropriately enough). This isn’t all just for show, I would like to add; the world Shadow Man creates plays directly into its core design as a game.
Despite what I said earlier about Shadow Man being a cinematic platformer, the gameplay more resembles that of a Metroid-vania, with the gigantic, sprawling, interconnected areas that feed into one another. The game is designed for the player to constantly loop back, and re-explore previous areas once they have acquired new abilities, in fact, the game out right requires you to do so in order to progress; needing the games big collectable, the Dark Souls, in order to level up and break through gates to reach new areas. This is where the world design overlaps with the gameplay; as the player explores the macabre environments of Deadside, they are constantly asking questions and being left in the dark, but as they explore deeper more and more information is recontextualized. The player remembers weird quirks about the different areas that at first fit right in with the alien and twisted nature of Deadside, but when equipped with new knowledge and new abilities, these areas start to make more sense and begin to open the players mind to more possibilities. Environmental hazards and decorations that may first seem like simple set dressings and obstacles that were meant to seemingly just fade into the players subconscious, are eventually brought back to the forefront of the players mind once they gather new abilities. Compare this to how games, up until this point, would make locked gates and secret areas obvious by having jarring textures or by just straight up telling the player they need a new ability. Even newer games have this problem, with the running industry joke of putting yellow spray paint over anything and everything that can be interacted with. As well, the game offers a refreshing amount of nonlinearity that newer games are too scared to allow, in fear of disrupting the “carefully crafted” narrative. There were times in my play through where I swear I did things and got to areas way before or way after it seemed like I was initially supposed to; but nothing was broken, that is just how the world is structured. Many games nowadays offer worlds that, on the surface, halt the player from progressing farther than the story allows them too; but in Shadow Man, the narrative is open and mysterious enough to allow for the player to get things done in the order they come across them, or however they feel like doing it.
That being said though, there are still some things that haven’t aged the best, or at least they have in the original 1999 release of the game. The controls, while actually pretty intuitive and well done for a pre-Halo video game, are very choppy and require a lot of starting and stopping just to round a corner, the combat is not very good, the ability to dual wield any combinations of items is really fun, but trying to reliably hit any flying enemy is near impossible, and the lack of autosave is really infuriating when my N64 gets nudged and can’t read the cart anymore, making me lose two and a half hours of progress. But thankfully, the good ole boys over at Nightdive Studios have worked their magic and more than faithfully remastered this game for modern systems a couple years ago. So consider these complaints void if you decide to play the remaster.
Shadow Man is a game that was ahead of its time, and even after its time, it still proves itself comparable to even the best of what modern gaming has to offer. It is ambitious, meticulously crafted, and I think stands as a timeless testament to the stance that games are, and have always been, art.
Shadow Man's presentation is its main weapon of allure, so is the nature of the cinematic platformer. The game finds itself in the lineage of juggernauts like Tomb Raider and The Legacy of Kain, but were as Tomb Raider drew the player in with it's Indiana Jones parody, and Legacy of Kain with its enriching dialogue and characters, Shadow Man opts to do it with it's world. Being directly based off of a 1990's comic book series, the game's world is appropriately dark and edgy, but in a more sophisticated way that stops it from being too pulpy. The hellish landscapes of Deadside are full of jagged cliffs, winding and warping tunnels, bridges that seem to lead into expansive nothingness, and rivers of blood that flow through the land; but combined with a more mute color pallet, it all feels grounded and real, while still giving off the vibe of something otherworldly. The asylum that stands erect in the center of the map; it is imposing. It offers a kind of grand scale and volume that wouldn't be popular in the medium until Half-Life 2's citadel would make it a trope. The inner contents of the asylum too strengthen this notion, with the inside being a sprawling labyrinth of gothic architecture and brutal torture chambers, all connected, all intertwined. This all serves the purpose of creating a type of world that was rarely seen in video games at the time, if at all; it even rivals some of the greats from today like Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls (appropriately enough). This isn’t all just for show, I would like to add; the world Shadow Man creates plays directly into its core design as a game.
Despite what I said earlier about Shadow Man being a cinematic platformer, the gameplay more resembles that of a Metroid-vania, with the gigantic, sprawling, interconnected areas that feed into one another. The game is designed for the player to constantly loop back, and re-explore previous areas once they have acquired new abilities, in fact, the game out right requires you to do so in order to progress; needing the games big collectable, the Dark Souls, in order to level up and break through gates to reach new areas. This is where the world design overlaps with the gameplay; as the player explores the macabre environments of Deadside, they are constantly asking questions and being left in the dark, but as they explore deeper more and more information is recontextualized. The player remembers weird quirks about the different areas that at first fit right in with the alien and twisted nature of Deadside, but when equipped with new knowledge and new abilities, these areas start to make more sense and begin to open the players mind to more possibilities. Environmental hazards and decorations that may first seem like simple set dressings and obstacles that were meant to seemingly just fade into the players subconscious, are eventually brought back to the forefront of the players mind once they gather new abilities. Compare this to how games, up until this point, would make locked gates and secret areas obvious by having jarring textures or by just straight up telling the player they need a new ability. Even newer games have this problem, with the running industry joke of putting yellow spray paint over anything and everything that can be interacted with. As well, the game offers a refreshing amount of nonlinearity that newer games are too scared to allow, in fear of disrupting the “carefully crafted” narrative. There were times in my play through where I swear I did things and got to areas way before or way after it seemed like I was initially supposed to; but nothing was broken, that is just how the world is structured. Many games nowadays offer worlds that, on the surface, halt the player from progressing farther than the story allows them too; but in Shadow Man, the narrative is open and mysterious enough to allow for the player to get things done in the order they come across them, or however they feel like doing it.
That being said though, there are still some things that haven’t aged the best, or at least they have in the original 1999 release of the game. The controls, while actually pretty intuitive and well done for a pre-Halo video game, are very choppy and require a lot of starting and stopping just to round a corner, the combat is not very good, the ability to dual wield any combinations of items is really fun, but trying to reliably hit any flying enemy is near impossible, and the lack of autosave is really infuriating when my N64 gets nudged and can’t read the cart anymore, making me lose two and a half hours of progress. But thankfully, the good ole boys over at Nightdive Studios have worked their magic and more than faithfully remastered this game for modern systems a couple years ago. So consider these complaints void if you decide to play the remaster.
Shadow Man is a game that was ahead of its time, and even after its time, it still proves itself comparable to even the best of what modern gaming has to offer. It is ambitious, meticulously crafted, and I think stands as a timeless testament to the stance that games are, and have always been, art.