Shadow Man (video game)
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| Shadow Man | |
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| Developer(s) | Acclaim Studios Teesside |
| Publisher(s) | Acclaim Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | July 31, 1999 N64 PC September 30, 1999 PS |
| Genre(s) | Platformer, Action-Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single Player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, PlayStation, Windows |
| System requirements | 200 MHz Pentium CPU, 32 MB RAM, Windows 95, GPU |
| Shadow Man: 2econd Coming | |
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| Developer(s) | Acclaim Studios Teesside |
| Publisher(s) | Acclaim Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | March 2, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single Player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
Acclaim released the Shadow Man video game based on the Shadowman comic books in November 1999 on the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and PC. A sequel, entitled Shadow Man: 2econd Coming was released for PlayStation 2 in 2002, following the events after the destruction of the Cathedral of Pain. Note that the comics and the games seem to be set in separate continuities.
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[edit] Shadow Man
[edit] What is a Shadowman?
The title of Shadowman, also known as the Walker Between the Worlds and the Lord of Deadside, is given to the one who possesses the Mask of Shadows, a magical voodoo artifact. The Shadowman of the video game (unlike Jack Boniface from the comic book series) has given himself completely to the power of the night and is able to travel between the realms of Liveside, the ordinary living world we all know, and Deadside, a bleak realm to which everyone, without exception, arrives after death. His rule stems from the fact that he alone cannot truly die - if killed he will always rise again, while the other lost souls of Deadside will disappear into oblivion.
[edit] Shadowmen
The Shadowman protagonist of the games is Michael LeRoi, a failed English literature student turned lowly cab driver in New Orleans. Discovering a bag full of money left in his cab, Mike sent the money to his family and paid for his little brother Luke’s life-saving operation, and in so doing, fell afoul of the organized crime syndicate that had lost the money. Mike sought the help of a bokor, a voodoo priest, who cast on him a spell of protection. In exchange for the spell, Mike became the bokor’s servant. The spell worked as the mob gunned down Mike and his family leaving Mike as the sole survivor. Mike was liberated only when Mama Nettie, a voodoo priestess, raided the bokor’s bar, the Wild at Heart, killing the bokor and implanting in Mike’s chest the Mask of Shadows.
Mike's predecessor was Maxim St. James, who presumably became Shadowman simply by wearing the Mask of Shadows. Maxim knew that according to prophecy one Shadowman would bear a burden of saving the living world from a great evil (however, that same prophecy had been written by Legion before his initial banishment, merely to trick a future Shadowman to collect the Dark Souls he wanted). Though that Shadowman turned out to be Mike, Maxim spent his tenure as Shadowman sealing mystical voodoo items away in hidden places only another Shadowman could reach, keeping them safe for whomever would fulfill the prophecy to use. Jack Boniface is mentioned in the game's instruction manual, but is otherwise not referred to. A fourth Shadow Man named Cole Cardinaux is also mentioned, who was never in the comics. He is said to be the Shadow Man between Maxim and Jack.
[edit] Shadowman's Abilities
By day he is Mike LeRoi, working at the Wild at Heart. By night he becomes the Shadowman. Mike is essentially immortal – though he can be wounded, if killed as Mike he will reappear in Deadside as Shadowman. And if Shadowman takes sufficient damage he will ‘die’ but simply rise again.
Shadowman is able to use various voodoo magics and artifacts. He has no need to eat, breathe, or sleep, enabling him to travel long distances through most kinds of environments. In Shadowman’s hands, weapons and other items take on dark voodoo aspects. In particular, Mike’s trusty .45 pistol becomes the Shadowgun, which has the ability to drain the souls from its targets, giving Shadowman more power.
Shadowman initially was very vulnerable to fire, which would 'kill' him immediately upon contact. However, in his first adventure he acquired magical tattoos called "Gads" that gave him increasing levels of immunity to fire until he was ultimately able to immerse himself completely in lava without suffering injury.
Collecting Dark Souls will raise Mike's Shadow Power and voodoo meter, allowing him to charge his Shadowgun for a more powerful shot. In Liveside, his .45 also has unlimited ammunition. However, it is the weakest of the standard guns. Other guns can be found but require ammo.
Mike can also lock onto targets to strafe them. Mike's weapons can be wielded in both hands, allowing not only two weapons at a time, but the targeting of two separate targets at a time. Mike can also climb ledges as well as moving side to side while hanging on a ledge. In addition, Mike can also move over-handed along hanging ropes.
[edit] Story
The prologue opens on November 9th, 1888. Jack the Ripper, lamenting over his failure to find the soul in his victims, contemplates suicide. Legion, however, finds him before he can kill himself, and offers to accept him in his plans for the apocalypse- Jack is an architect by trade and will design and build the Asylum, where other evil souls will be gathered and the Dark Souls obtained to power an immortal army.
In November 1999, Nettie has visions of the Five and Legion. The prophecy begun, Nettie sends shadow Man to Deadside to obtain the Dark Souls to keep them away from Legion. As of now, not only has Jack the Ripper re-emerged in London, but three of the Five have taken over Gardelle County Jail in Texas. Many Dark Souls have already made their way into the Asylum.
At the end of the game, Mike sees Luke in Asylum and chases him to the central throne room of the Dark Engine. Mike, believing Luke to be scared, offers his bear to comfort him. However, Legion had merely taken Luke's form. With the bear in hand, Mike cannot leave Deadside and he has brought the Dark Souls into Asylum- Legion also reveals that the encient prophecy was written by himself to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. he knew that the best way to obtain the Dark Souls would be to trick a Shadow Man into collecting them.
Shortly into the battle, Legion falls, only to mutate into a larger form. This form is much more powerful but Mike magnages to defeat it. The prophecy is ultimately fulfilled when Mike forces all the Dark Souls into Legions body. In his weakened state, Legion is unable to handle the power of the Dark Souls, and the Asylum crumbles as a result.
[edit] Differences Among Releases
The PC version appears to be the chief version amongst the four releases. It features fully customizable controls, a brightness and gamma setting, and screen resolution setting. The Dreamcast version is a slightly stripped down PC port, losing the customizable controls for presets as well as losing the brightness, gamma, and resolution settings. Certain in-game graphics and effects are also not as pronounced.
The N64 version runs at a much lower resolution. Certain effects such as Mike's separate shirt, birds in the bayou and various searchlights at the Asylum entrance were also cut. Certain bits of incidental dialogue were cut and even noticeable pieces were removed from some maps- notably, the theater and deep pit in the Cathedral of Pain. However, the game is Expansion Pack compatible which can be used to increase the resolution.
The PlayStation version was noticably inferior. Many lighting effects and textures were removed and the resolution was low. Controls could not be altered and the game would often struggle while loading certain elements during levels. while the other three ports were generally well-received by review publications, the PlayStation port was generally disliked.
[edit] Shadow Man: 2econd Coming
[edit] Story
Narrowly escaping the destruction of Legion’s Asylum, Shadowman returned to the Wild at Heart to find it under attack by another voodoo priest, Papa Morte, and his friend, Jaunty, kidnapped. Rescuing Jaunty from Papa Morte’s clutches, Shadowman found the little man was suffering under a powerful and dark curse. Nettie sent Shadowman to Thomas Deacon, a PI involved in the occult, who in turn told Shadowman that Morte is actually Morteth, a Grigori demon who with his comrades is trying to free the Grigori leader, Asmodeus. Shadowman once again raced to find a set of magical talismans, this time against the awesome supernatural power of the Grigori.
[edit] Shadowman's Abilities
New to this game is a day and night feature, similar to such games as Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In Liveside, day will pass to night. When night falls, Mike becomes Shadow Man. The watch item can also force a change from day to night or night to day as the player needs.
In addition to guns and voodoo projectiles, melee weapons are also found, as well as simply allowing Mike to punch enemies. Two-handed weapons are also introduced.
[edit] Other characters
[edit] General
Mama Nettie – Less familiarly known as Agnetta, Nettie is a 400-year-old voodoo priestess who controls Shadowman, though somewhat tenuously. Nettie maintains her youth and beauty through sexual relations with Mike LeRoi. Nettie’s voodoo power is less than the Lord of Deadside’s, and she is unable to travel to Deadside to assist him there, but her experience with things arcane make her a valuable mentor and helper in Liveside.
Jaunty – An Irishman of noticeably short stature, Jaunty was ritually sacrificed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nettie claimed him after death and now Jaunty serves her in both realms. Though he has no power to speak of, the fact that he can travel to Deadside makes him a useful assistant to Shadowman, and a way Nettie can communicate with Mike. In Deadside Jaunty appears as a skeletal serpent. Jaunty tends to act in a superior way towards Mike by virtue of his longer experience as a walker between worlds – Mike finds this irritating.
Thomas Deacon – While a cop, Deacon was crippled and his partner was killed, all thanks to Morteth, a Grigori demon. Deacon left the force to become a private investigator and hunt down the Grigori. He and Nettie often exchange information, but it is his obsession with the Grigori, not any particular altruism, that rules him. Deacon does not appear in the first game, though he supplies Nettie with the file on the Five.
Luke – Mike’s little brother who was killed in a mob hit. Luke’s teddy bear is the only thing Mike has left of him, and the memories it contains have made it into a portal for Mike to travel from Liveside to Deadside and back again.
Maxim St. James – A previous Shadowman, who created the Paths of Shadow in Deadside, where Shadowman’s weapons and magic are carefully hidden from those who might abuse them.
[edit] First Game
Legion - An ancient evil force once banished from Deadside, though his return was expected eventually. It is unknown if he is the same Legion as mentioned in the Bible, though he often quotes Mark 5:9. He refers to himself as both "I" and "We" interchangeably. His voice seems to echo a reversal of what he is saying, implying that there are several beings speaking. He bleeds from the mouth constantly and is always seen carrying a sword. Legion is rather manipulative of both his enemies and allies.
Victor Karl Batrachian – AKA the Lizard King. The leader of the Five, a doctor who charmed wealthy women and murdered them for their money. Batrachian, while on death row at Gardelle County Penitentiary, took control of the prison with two of his fellow Five, and after slaughtering inmates and guards alike, stood off the National Guard. He appears to be a parody of Hannibal Lecter.
Marco Roberto Cruz – AKA the Repo Man. One of the Five. Murdered couples in and around the Mojave Desert. Part of the Gardelle siege. Earned his nickname due to his job as a repo man.
Milton Pike – AKA the Video Nasty Killer. One of the Five and participant in the Gardelle siege. Vietnam veteran expelled from militia groups for cruelty to their own members. Earned his police-blotter nickname from the horrifying videotapes of his murders he sent to the police.
Avery Marx – AKA the Home Improvement Killer. One of the Five. Mentally disturbed, he overcame his problems by cutting the power to his murder sites and wearing night-vision goggles to give him the advantage over his victims.
Jack-2 – AKA John Q. Pierce and Jack the Ripper; member of the Five, and their engineer. Though given the nickname Jack-2 as police believe he is a copycat killer, he is actually the original Jack the Ripper, preserved by Legion to join the ranks of the Five.
[edit] Second Game
Asmodeus - The chief demon amongst the Grigori and the one they work to resurrect.
Papa Morte – Alias used by the demon Morteth of the Grigori, who love to hide in areas rich in folklore. From the voodoo-steeped swamps of Louisiana, Morteth gathered power to find the sigils necessary to release his master Asmodeus.
Baba Yaga - Human appearance of Babayagoth, a Grigori Sephiroth, disguising herself as an old seer who lives inside a hut in the dark snowy forests of Tarovskaya, eastern Russia. She first stalks the hero around her domain, trying several times to assassinate him with energy bolts from a distance. Later, at the very end of the Shadowman's trip to Russia, she confronts him directly, turning into her demon form, but is eventually destroyed by him.
[edit] Trivia
The first Shadowman video game sold one million copies on all systems cementing it as a runaway success. This was despite the fact that Acclaim chose to market their Turok games more heavily, and the planned merchandising blitz for Shadowman - including sunglasses and other apparel - was cancelled.
Shadowman, along with Acclaim’s other comic book franchise Turok, was part of a widely criticized ad campaign. Acclaim offered a monetary prize to people willing to have an ad for Shadowman 2 engraved on their tombstone.
The music for the first game was written by Tim Haywood, and has won many fans through its extremely disturbing use of samples, especially in the 'Asylum' areas of the game. 'Asylum: Playrooms' for instance combines the tinkling sound of a music box with the sounds of crying children, drills and breaking bones.
In the cutscene of his encounter with Shadow Man during the second game, Papa Morte has a distinct resemblance to wrestler Charles Wright - best known for his personas Papa Shango and the Godfather.
Valiant Entertainment, who currently hold the rights to the Nintendo 64 version, recently stated in response to a fan letter that they are considering making Shadowman available on the Wii's Virtual Console download service. [1]
The song that features in the opening scene (where Jack meets Legion) is the few opening bars of Beethoven's famous Moonlight Sonata
[edit] References
Information regarding the video games was taken from the instruction manuals for both games. Supplemental information for The Five was taken from Deacon’s File, information found in-game.
