Post by wafflerevolution on Sept 11, 2013 18:08:00 GMT
by Apathetic_Prick
Yoooou Want Some Wang
In 1997, 3D Realms did the unthinkable. They released a controversial game that spoofed Asian action films (and was the subject of many racism rants for a few years after).
Riding on the tails of 3D Realms previously released (oh, and also controversial) shooter Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior once again used Ken Silverman's Build Engine (a much enhanced version, as well) and featured a smart-ass main character by the name of Lo Wang (I personally would've called him Hung Lo, or maybe Wong Wei...).
However, Lo Wang isn't a heroic character like Duke. No, Lo Wang is a ruthless killer out for revenge against a former employer – and thus, like the (at the time) recently released Blood – also made from a heavily modified version of the Build Engine – Shadow Warrior's main character isn't exactly a nice guy.
Shadow Warrior's actually pretty unique as a first person shooter. Themes aside, it featured usable vehicles. There were several new sector effectors (such as true 3d floors, which ironically was not in Quake, either), although the water sectors were still treated as separate sectors that you effectively teleported in and out of.
While Duke 3D more than deserves a mentioning, I think that Shadow Warrior should come first because it's the better game and built a very strong and under appreciated foundation upon which a lot of developers (Bungie, Valve, Sierra just to name a few) had more than likely taken ideas from.
The foundation of Shadow Warrior, as mentioned, is the Build Engine by Ken Silverman, which was one of the most-used engines by developers; on the Doom Engine, other than Doom and Doom 2, only three other games were made – Heretic, Hexen and Strife (in fact, more titles were built on the Wolfenstein 3D Engine than Doom's). On the Build Engine, however, many more titles came about , such as Blood, Tekwar, Powerslave/Exhumed, Nam, WWII GI, and Extreme Paintbrawl. Build did a lot more than Doom did (without requiring major coding surgery that would have violated copyright laws), so it made it a lot friendlier to developers.
Build supported: Room-over-room architecture (upgraded to 3D architecture come Shadow Warrior), moving sectors, sound "sprites" (basically an object that makes an ambient sound), scripted events, destroyable sectors, the list goes on.
Build was, after Doom, the next step in the evolution of the FPS. Unfortunately, the Quake Engine overshadowed it and the great Build titles that were released after Quake's release, and thus the brilliant game – both technically and aesthetically – that is Shadow Warrior – as well as its expansions.
Shadow Warrior also has two expansions – Twin Dragons, which, as long as you're using Windows 98 is playable – and Wanton Destruction which can be played no problem with a source port because it's compiled.
Both expansions were cancelled although Wanton Destruction is complete (I'm not sure about Twin Dragons. It may be complete, but I don't know for sure. It came with an interesting readme file, though). Both are available as freeware downloads.
Shadow Warrior is an excellent game built on a gaming engine that was very much ahead of its time, but obscured by the "next generation in technology". It's unfortunate, but it happens. However, those of us who've had the opportunity to play it (with an open mind – let us not forget the criticism from Asian communities towards this game because it took the piss out of their culture) – know how great a gem it truly is.
Yoooou Want Some Wang
In 1997, 3D Realms did the unthinkable. They released a controversial game that spoofed Asian action films (and was the subject of many racism rants for a few years after).
Riding on the tails of 3D Realms previously released (oh, and also controversial) shooter Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior once again used Ken Silverman's Build Engine (a much enhanced version, as well) and featured a smart-ass main character by the name of Lo Wang (I personally would've called him Hung Lo, or maybe Wong Wei...).
However, Lo Wang isn't a heroic character like Duke. No, Lo Wang is a ruthless killer out for revenge against a former employer – and thus, like the (at the time) recently released Blood – also made from a heavily modified version of the Build Engine – Shadow Warrior's main character isn't exactly a nice guy.
Shadow Warrior's actually pretty unique as a first person shooter. Themes aside, it featured usable vehicles. There were several new sector effectors (such as true 3d floors, which ironically was not in Quake, either), although the water sectors were still treated as separate sectors that you effectively teleported in and out of.
While Duke 3D more than deserves a mentioning, I think that Shadow Warrior should come first because it's the better game and built a very strong and under appreciated foundation upon which a lot of developers (Bungie, Valve, Sierra just to name a few) had more than likely taken ideas from.
The foundation of Shadow Warrior, as mentioned, is the Build Engine by Ken Silverman, which was one of the most-used engines by developers; on the Doom Engine, other than Doom and Doom 2, only three other games were made – Heretic, Hexen and Strife (in fact, more titles were built on the Wolfenstein 3D Engine than Doom's). On the Build Engine, however, many more titles came about , such as Blood, Tekwar, Powerslave/Exhumed, Nam, WWII GI, and Extreme Paintbrawl. Build did a lot more than Doom did (without requiring major coding surgery that would have violated copyright laws), so it made it a lot friendlier to developers.
Build supported: Room-over-room architecture (upgraded to 3D architecture come Shadow Warrior), moving sectors, sound "sprites" (basically an object that makes an ambient sound), scripted events, destroyable sectors, the list goes on.
Build was, after Doom, the next step in the evolution of the FPS. Unfortunately, the Quake Engine overshadowed it and the great Build titles that were released after Quake's release, and thus the brilliant game – both technically and aesthetically – that is Shadow Warrior – as well as its expansions.
Shadow Warrior also has two expansions – Twin Dragons, which, as long as you're using Windows 98 is playable – and Wanton Destruction which can be played no problem with a source port because it's compiled.
Both expansions were cancelled although Wanton Destruction is complete (I'm not sure about Twin Dragons. It may be complete, but I don't know for sure. It came with an interesting readme file, though). Both are available as freeware downloads.
Shadow Warrior is an excellent game built on a gaming engine that was very much ahead of its time, but obscured by the "next generation in technology". It's unfortunate, but it happens. However, those of us who've had the opportunity to play it (with an open mind – let us not forget the criticism from Asian communities towards this game because it took the piss out of their culture) – know how great a gem it truly is.