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-