Shadow Man Developed by: Acclaim Release Date: August 1999 Platform:   By Randy Sluganski

Foreword

I love all things spooky--books, movies and especially computer games. When they are poorly done, I love them even more. Call it a personal shortcoming. But the tale I am about to unfold is not for the weak of heart. It is a story of broken promises and false advertising--it is a sad narrative of a public relations group without a clue and of a company that neither recognizes nor respects its buying audience.

Flashback: May 1999. I am in Los Angeles at the E3. On a visit to the press room to do a quick update and check my messages, the following email arrives:

... Access PR now represent Acclaim Entertainment. If you receive this in time, there is an Acclaim E3 party tonight (May 13) and I could do all I can to get you in -- free food and drink!

Shadowman(sic) is the company's Just Adventure + title and the story is AWESOME! Let me know and I can try to schedule a booth appointment too (booth 1100 South Hall) No guarantees, but if you have time, I can try and schedule it. Let me know!!

(For the record, all quotes in this article/review are verbatim and the original emails are documented. However, all names have been omitted for legal purposes.)

Well, I thought, this sounds great! A personal invitation from an old PR friend who now represents Acclaim. Not only will I get some inside information, but a free meal to boot!!

I arrive at the Acclaim booth, smug and secure in my knowledge that I am now an insider. The young lady at the counter dutifully records my name and the name of my "informant" and then disappears into the crowd. When she returns, a dour look crosses her makeup-heavy face as she intones, "No one here seems to know a Mr. X." "How can that be," I ask, "I just received an email from him not 10 minutes ago?" I show her the missive, I plead, I cajole. Finally, my groveling wears her down and she concedes to allow me a brief visit inside the "tent" that is showcasing the Shadow Man demo (actually, I think she was upset because my spittle was streaking her makeup) on the following condition only--I must not partake of any sustenance when I leave the demo area. I agree--only because to me games are more important than food and drink.

The next 15 minutes were to be one of the highlights of the E3. The creators of Shadow Man personally walked me through a demo of the game. They repeatedly refer to Shadow Man as an action/adventure game. The plot and the construction of the product are described with a minuteness that brings the game to life. They knew I was a fish on the hook and reeled me in with an offer to be furnished with further updates on the game and a review copy at the release date. I supplied them with my business card and shuffled backward from the promised land as I muttered my hosannas. Fadeout.

Fast-forward to the present day. I have made numerous long-distance telephone calls to Access in a continuing futile attempt to obtain updated information for a preview of Shadow Man. The truth be told, everyone at Access was and always has been polite and very helpful, but requests for information never seemed to reach the intended party. My "contact" had become a verboten subject, so I would call again every other week and ask to speak with the person I had spoke with previously, only to be given the Buffalo Shuffle with empty promises of preview material and review copies. Finally, though, the big break came! An account executive at Acclaim was to forward my requests to a PR manager at Acclaim. I had found the Big Kahuna!

Rude and uninformed are the first two words that come to mind. The others are not printable. My email request to the Big Kahuna received the following reply:

I took a look at your website. Unfortunately I can't provide you with copies of our games until you get your content up to date. The last review I saw was from a game released more than a year ago.

In disbelief, I telephoned the BK, fervently hoping I would reach him before high tide had washed him out to catch the big one:

Me: "We have reviews of Rent-A-Hero and Discworld Noir, previews of Faust and The Longest Journey--exactly what website are you looking at!"

BK: (A moment of silence as he tries to decide if this is a trick question) "Well, you do have a review of Monkey Island 2 on your front page."

Me: (Blood gushes from my bitten tongue at his ignorance of anything that is not an action game) "We do review action/adventure games and I would like to do a review of Shadow Man."

BK: "Shadow Man is not an action/adventure game. There is no adventure in the game."

Me: "But the creators told me there was adventure elements in the game. The advertisements all state action/adventure as does the Acclaim web site, comic book and game box ..."

Not so long ago, Acclaim almost single-handedly brought the console industry to its knees with their consistently laughable adaptations of movie and popular comic icons. Through hard work and some solid products (Turok, Turok 2 and their sports franchises), Acclaim managed to again become a player. Now they need to learn how to relate to the adult purchasing audience they must pursue for their PC products. No, Just Adventure does not receive the enormous visits of a Sega or a Nintendo website, but we do receive over 600,000 hits a month from over 15,000 devoted readers. I have personally witnessed the sad sight of console players running after and kissing the asses of video game companies in return for review copies. The unspoken promise of a good review hovers above the heads of these parasites. Acclaim does not seem to be able to relate to any audience other than the so-called "Nintendo generation" (and I do not use this phrase in a derogatory sense), so allow me then to put my final impression of my experience with Acclaim into two words that they can understand (all of you WWF fans do a crouch chop here)--SUCK IT!

The Review

Shadow Man has all of the ingredients necessary for a good action/adventure game except for one small detail: they forgot to put any adventure in this action/adventure game! The Big Kahuna spoke the truth--there is no adventure in this game! Oh, sure, there is plenty of jumping and climbing and running (why is the main character always running like he is constipated, why not slow down, take it easy and enjoy life, er, death?), there are innumerable boxes and ledges and lava pits and well, you get the point, nothing even remotely original. There is the awful sight of watching a polygonal Shadow Man suffer and die in a lava pit and innumerable other death traps. The only thing missing is a gut-wrenching cry of, "I'm meltiiiiinnnng." One point that still eludes me, though, is how can a man who travels between the world of the dead and the living, who exists as a voodoo nonentity, die again? Only in video games and Bruce Willis movies.

Shadow Man actually does have an intriguing backstory. Mike LeRoi, the protagonist of Acclaim's third-person nether-worldly journey, is a zombie slave of a voodoo priestess. He has a voodoo mask in his chest, a skull in his hand and a song in his heart as he attempts to free the world of the living (or Liveside) from a group of five escaped serial killers who, besides sharing a similar fondness for poetry, have expelled the undead (from where else but, dah-dah, Deadside) upon the world. The opening cut-scene sets up many of the details, but unfortunately the game neglects expanding on much of this early attempt at depth and is instead a nonlinear platform game masquerading as a 3D horror-fest. The initial promise of a seedy New Orleans replete with voodoo soon disintegrates into a generic subway station, a generic desert, a generic swamp that could be set in any city in America. The flavor of New Orleans is never incorporated into the story.

What begins as an almost awe-inspiring experience soon disintegrates into a tedious, mind-numbing experience on the order of Nightmare Creatures. Wave after wave of what are supposed to be fear-inducing and nauseating creatures spawn and respawn relentlessly in a ruthless attempt to keep the Shadow Man from reaching the next of 16 levels (I have an uneasy feeling that this is the type of game that brainwashes teenagers into believing that killing sprees are harmless fun). Never fear, though, you can return to any level you have previously visited via the help of a tattered teddy bear. That's right, a tattered teddy bear--a totem that links the Shadow Man to his lost loved ones (apparently, Acclaim is trying to capture the Beanie Baby crowd). You will have to revisit previous levels as Dark Souls and Cadeux must be collected to continue onward, or downward, as the case may be.

The levels are big and often wide open. This precludes any sense of foreboding. Horror games need small, cramped areas that make you feel as every breath is your last, where every turn of the corner is taken slowly in fear of what might be lurking. None of that is present in Shadow Man, nor is there homage to any of the classic horror movies or games of the past--a category in which Blood and Blood 2 excelled. Instead, we are constantly confronted with a barrage of scenes that are intended to be gruesome but rather become nothing more than still portraits on a lifeless landscape. There is never a sense of fear, an urge to explore. What could have been a deliciously frightening game becomes a race to collect tokens and mutilate enemies.

Don't misunderstand, the graphics are often impressive, but after playing a magnificent game like Drakan and being drawn into that universe on the strength of the combined efficiency of the animation, the characters and the constantly changing side quests, it is a major disappointment to be subjected to a main character whose every movement is as jerkily animated as a disoriented marionette, to an awkward combat system, to a game that would vastly improve if it were to forsake its console roots and take that bold step forward into a world where characterization and plot advancement are integral.

Acclaim has repeatedly said that they would like to market Shadow Man into a viable franchise that branches out into comic books, action figures and game sequels. This may happen, but with the competition that is out there now, it is doubtful. In such a crowded market, it would be nice to see Acclaim take a chance and attempt to appeal to an older market. They certainly have the talent, and Shadow Man would have an innate appeal to adventure gamers. But asking this of a company that is not even aware that Discworld Noir is a new release would be as futile as attempting to convince Hasbro that Simon 3D will sell in the United States. Oh, and hey Big Kahuna, hang ten for me when you ride that next big one. Now that would be an adventure.

Final Grade: C-