This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.
| Publisher | MacSoft |
|---|---|
| Tested on | Performa 5260/100 Mhz |
| Gameplay | 5 / 5 apples |
| Graphics & Sound | 4 / 5 apples |
| Interface | 5 / 5 apples |
| Difficulty | 4 / 5 apples |
| Bugs | 3 / 5 apples |
| Overall | 4 / 5 apples |
| Reviewed by | Jonathan Dreyer |
Lo Wang. Master ninja assassin for 20 years. A shadow warrior. Shadow warriors are the best of the best, and Lo Wang was the best of the shadow warriors. Every top company in Japan had a shadow warrior… a protector, a negotiator, a cleaner.
Lo Wang worked for Zilla Enterprises, a conglomerate with control in every major industry. Too much control. Power corrupts, and Master Zilla’s corporation was corrupted to the core.
Lo Wang discovered Master Zilla’s demonic scheme to rule Japan, using creatures summoned from the dark side. A man of honor, Lo Wang quit. But one as powerful as Wang either must be on your side, or no one’s side. Master Zilla unleashes his creatures for their first test: to kill a single man, a shadow warrior… Lo Wang.
Gameplay
I am completely sure that everyone knows how a 3D first-person shooter works so… Shadow Warrior is by the creators of Duke Nukem and was ported to the Macintosh by the same man who ported Duke, the infamous Mark Adams. Shadow Warrior is based on the Duke Nukem engine but with many more graphics. The increased number of graphics is why Shadow Warrior will run slower than Duke on the same machine.
Let’s go over Lo Wangs arrsenal, which includes his Fists of Fury, his Katana sword, shuriken throwing stars, riot gun (quad-barrel shotgun), an UZI or two, a triple mode rocket launcher, grenade launcher, mines that will stick to absolutly anything, a really cool rail gun, and 2 mystery weapons; a “Gaurdian Head” and “Ripper Heart”. Items at Lo Wang’s disposal include gas bombs, smoke bombs, flash bombs, caltrops (small razors that sit on the floor), night vision goggles, and a tool kit which allows you to repair damaged vehicles like tanks, forklifts or other broken machinery.
The settings in Shadow Warrior are much more interesting than Duke’s, whether it be on a boat, train, or controling a a mechanical gun…
Interface
I give kudos to Mark Adams for, as usual, adding all Mac interface preferences control boxes. Most ports will usually leave the PC-like internal graphical control boxes.
Difficulty
Shadow Warrior is no more difficult than any other first-person shooter, it’s mostly just shoot everyone and keep going. As in most games Shadow Warrior includes the required 4 difficulty settings.
Bugs
I’m sad to say that I found Shadow Warrior unusually troublesome. A few times the game would freeze up just after launching, or every time I tried to change the sound and music setting and restart the game would crash. I eventually worked around those problems and was able to play the game.
Conclusion
In my opinion Shadow Warrior is a very decent first-person shooter although it’s nothing to get really excited about, also consider that there have been 3 first-person shooters released in the last while just by MacSoft.
If you can’t get enough first-person shooters to please you, go for this game, but if you’re becoming tired of these sorts of games maybe you should keep browsing when you’re in your favorite Mac store.
Find a copy
Shadow Warrior has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Shadow Warrior on Amazon.