Playing it for the first time. I'm somewhat surprised.

[Spasmatique]

I was thinking about playing this one for years because I remembered it getting really good reviews when it came out. I never owned a console, though, so I decided to check out the PC remaster.

NOTE: I haven't beaten the game yet. I'm writing this as I'm looking for about seven souls to level up to 9 and enter Undercity.

Nice, simple graphics; moody soundtrack which is mostly unintrusive in a good way; good controls AND has real quicksaves (!). Very solid all around. I've been reading about the Hell difficulty and it sounds like it probably let some deranged game masochists squeeze a few more hours out of this game.

However, the size of the whole world is just astounding. I've never played a TPS/platformer with levels this hard to memorize. I learned to take screenshots of inacessible areas early on, just to keep track. The game has a very old school vibe because of this. Sometimes it gets frustrating when you're trying to find the souls required for your next shadow level upgrade. At some point I had to check an old German map to learn that I was supposed to shoot a pile of meat off an underwater pipe entrance right next to the teddy warp point in Playpens/Playrooms. Some levels are SO big that they made me think "does this corridor really have to be this long?" a few times.

Also, how the hell am I supposed to know what the accumulators are for? Did I miss something? They don't even have a decent description in the manual. Sure, I can just read the forum, but it shouldn't be this way unless they're intentionally meant to be something for you to figure out. Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Anyway, definitely a good bang for your buck, especially for a game in this genre. Even the more frustrating parts somehow manage to keep you engaged.

P.S. Is there a legend for those old German maps? The site is dead.

[Unseen]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2268290983

My guide for the old pc version of shadowman has maps. Bit obsolete now since the remaster has added new cadeaux but you can still use the maps. I do not take credit for these maps the link to the original creator is in the guide. It does not have all the live side maps have not been able to find those anywhere.

Hope they help good to see someone new enjoying this atmospheric classic.