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amazon Shadows Awakening reviews
For many people, perhaps Games Farm is not a very famous name. Best known through the “second class” game Air Conflict, it seems that this is just an average game company only. This Slovak game studio is probably home to the second most “internal” 3D Artist division in Europe, because – if only in terms of graphics, two titles Shadows: Heretic Kingdom and Vikings : Wolves of Midgard can “crush” quite a few other big game studios.
Both of the aforementioned games both possess extremely excellent graphics, but they are not appreciated because the game design is quite weak, dragging the overall score down. For example, since being “hidden” from 2013, Shadows: Heretic Kingdom has made many people expect for its release with just a few pictures.
As an ambitious game studio, Games Farm has no intention of letting things end there, but they took advantage of the graphic materials of Heretic Kingdom, put a lot of thought and effort into shaping, “Enchantment” it becomes something more valuable. Four years later, at the beginning of September 2018, Shadows: Awakening was officially born as an unofficial “heirloom” – because Games Farm did not “drum” as much as the Heretic Kingdom, but maybe they want to use their actions to prove them instead of the cliché words like before.
So, what about Shadows: Awakening? Can it “regain honor” for its predecessor? Invite you to read with Biareview to learn through the following reviews.
Taking the core of a role-playing game with an isometric perspective, at first glance, many people will mistakenly think that Shadows: Awakening is going to follow the “rainy road” that seniors like Diablo, Titan Quest, Grim Dawn … were to wear off. This is not entirely wrong, as the focus of the combat system in Shadows: Awakening is still pointing to moving mouse, pressing shortcut to use skills, biting blood / Mana when needed … The difference is that the combat rhythm is not so fast like other traditional A-RPGs.
In Shadows: Awakening, players will control the main character is a demon (Devourer) in the underworld. Through possessing the souls of one of the three (long dead) heroes, it can interact with the world through their bodies. To make it easy to understand, the player can switch back and forth between the hero (the ocean world) and the devil (the underworld) at any time in the game. This is also the core gameplay that throughout Shadows: Awakening, players will have to perform many times whether while searching for paths, solving puzzles, or even fighting.
For example, there are areas in the ocean world that are blocked by walls or fissures, which in the underworld can pass through. Therefore, players will have to constantly switch back and forth between the two worlds to find their way forward. And every time a character gets an effect that “does not look good”, the immediate transition to the underworld will help the character get out of that state. Even when fighting bosses too, players must skillfully watch the right timing to switch between the two worlds to be able to attack their weaknesses in a reasonable and effective manner.
Solving puzzles in role-playing games is not a new feature, but with action-heavy A-RPG games, this is usually done quite “careless”. However, to fully exploit the idea of ”changing the world”, Shadows: Awakening has invested quite carefully in its puzzle business. Players will often have to go back and forth, using their observation and thinking abilities to solve the many and varied puzzles of Shadows: Awakening, from harvesting a switch, to passing fiery brick tiles or bring a stone ball to where it is needed …
Throughout the storyline, players will have the opportunity to meet and “unlock” more heroes (who have also died long ago). There are some characters that almost everyone will have, but others can only be found through a certain quest line, or very well hidden. With 3 main characters with completely different storylines, lines, and interactions with about 15 other characters, players will spend a considerable amount of time if they want to fully enjoy Shadows: Awakening.
Up to now, even when not being appreciated with previous products, Games Farm’s graphics have never been the focus of the “public opinion”. It can be seen that from the Heretic Kingdom to Shadows: Awakening, the “effort” of the 3D artist team at Games Farm has only increased, not decreased when the graphics quality of the game is more than enough to conquer any difficult player – and the best part is that it doesn’t require a PC with an “astrophoto” configuration like some kind of AAA game.
Shadows: Awakening captures players from the very first frames with amazingly sharp detail and fanciful tones – whether it’s cold, dark underworld, or dusty tombs that fall asleep the flow of time, up to the arid, charred burnt plains, or ancient, eternal strongholds. All are portrayed in an incredibly meticulous manner, to the point that every corner in Shadows: Awakening, no matter what angle you shoot “under”, can proudly claim that you deserve a “masterpiece”.
What I love most about Shadows: Awakening, is that the designers have studied many different cultures in real life, and skillfully “cook” to create a multi-civilization. Country in Shadows: Awakening. From the nomadic walls reminiscent of Persia “1001 nights”, the curvy Chinese palaces, to the burial murals bearing an ancient Egyptian hint … all evoke feeling “strange but familiar” when the boundary between real and virtual is delicately blurred.
The environment is like that, what about the characters in the game? With the number of playable characters is quite “huge” compared to an A-RPG game, it can be said that Shadows: Awakening has done a great job creating a very separate highlight for each “child” mine. From the magic princess Evia who is both noble but innocent, the skilled warrior Kalig with a cunning mind that does not match her massive body, to the cool Ironclad Zombie could not speak but know how to solve the problem very thoroughly with … two heavy steel punches.
If we say that the environment in Shadows: Awakening is the luxurious ceramic disc, creating the foundation for the whole game; and the characters of all shapes and types are delicious dishes, representing the soul of the game; then the animation and lighting effects are the spices that are skillfully and subtly tasted, the binder that all together to form an inseparable whole. With ice – fire – electricity attacks, killer arrows, “force” shots, punches – bangs on the ground, shaking the screen … the feeling of fighting in Shadows: Awakening has to Enjoy the complete transmission of your device, whether it’s key – mouse control or Gamepad controller.
Gameplay design has probably always been a big problem for Games Farm, although there have been quite positive changes since the Heretic Kingdom, it is not enough to turn Shadows: Awakening into a super product that can compete for the title “Game Of The Year 2018”. Although with very attractive combat experiences and great graphics, players still cannot avoid feeling quite clearly the weaknesses in the design – a balance that Shadows: Awakening reveals throughout the game.
First to mention the design of the inventory and the Stash is very “weird” without understanding why Shadows: Awakening does so. Instead of having a master inventory to accommodate items, the dressing sequence in Shadows: Awakening takes place in a rather “bizarre” direction … to choose items on people (from a pile of weapons – hats – shirt – shoe – belt …), then each item will drop a list of the equipment belonging to that group. This makes the player’s experience very “awkward”, whether when finding new things to wear or when buying/selling in the store.
Next, the difference in difficulty between the two levels “Normal” and “Hard” is extremely high and quite absurd. If in Normal, a player could play “Rambo” when he met someone who cut off his head, taking blood in a while – then on Hard, this never happened.
Difficulty increased due to index deviation so, Shadows: Awakening also “squeezes” players by reducing the amount of money dropped on Hard, plus … increasing the cost of services (items in the store, upgrading Enchant, filling potion / Mana), making the player’s life more miserable.
In the end, it is that Shadows: Awakening does not seem to encourage players to plow much, since most of the experience points for character leveling come from quests, but not fighting monsters much. This is not a problem, if the monsters in Shadows: Awakening revive themselves – unfortunately not, so the thing players have to do the most throughout the game is to run over and over a map to do it.