Shadow Man (computer game)

The voodoo priestess Nettie seeks out Mike LeRoi aka Shadow Man in "Wild at Heart" to tell him that he has to save the world once again. She assigns him a particularly difficult task. The world of the living is in danger and Shadow One must penetrate once more into the "realm of the dead" in order to stop five killers and their legion leaders , who in the "realm of the dead" a huge cathedral (the "asylum", which is the tower to Babel , which can be seen in a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder ) for their own kind in order to rule the “realm of the dead” and to plunge the world of the living into chaos and death. Shadow To be able to cope with this task, you have to collect “dark souls” in order to penetrate deeper into the “realm of the dead”. To get to the "five", he must go from the "Cathedral of Pain" through so-called "soul gates" ("Shisma gates") and destroy one after the other. But this turns out to be more difficult than expected, because the "five" are immune to the weapons of a living, because Shadow Man can still only return to the realm of the living as Mike. That's why he has to look for the three-part “L'Eclipser” in the “Realm of the Dead” so that Nettie can put it together and thus cover the world in darkness, so that Mike can also become Shadow Man in the realm of the living and so the “Five “And defeat Legion.

Characters

main characters

Michael LeRoi / Shadow Man: Hero of the Game; a 32-year-old taxi driver who lost his mother, father and brother Luke in a shootout. Due to a voodoo spell, however, he survived with serious injuries and was thus tied to a voodoo priest (Bogor), who brought the curse on Mike and made him his killer. Nettie broke the curse , however , planted a "shadow mask" on Mike and now ruled himself over Mike, who became the Shadow Man through Nettie's mask , a warrior who can wander between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Nettie: An old voodoo priestess who created the shadow mask and implanted it in Mike so that he could control him. She uses Shadow Man to wander between the worlds because, despite her power, she is unable to penetrate into the "realm of the dead". Furthermore, she is actually several hundred years old and her soul only uses the body of a young woman, which she keeps young through regular love relationships with the shadow powers of the Shadow Man .

Luke: Mike's little brother who was killed in an attack on Mike. Mike receives from Nettie Luke's teddy bear , with which he can now travel back and forth between the worlds and thus always get back to the "realm of the dead". Luke is shown as the only sore point of the Shadow Man .

Jaunty: He is the victim of a ritual murder and also a wanderer between the worlds. Nettie persuaded him to work with her and gave him his life back in return. In the "realm of the dead" he is now a snake with a skull. Nettie seems to have betrayed Jaunty a little when they agreed to work together, because in the "realm of the living" he did not get his original body back, but is now a fat, misshapen dwarf.

opponent

Legion: Is the ultimate evil that called the "five" to itself because each of them has a "dark soul" within. In the asylum he creates terrible creatures that are supposed to penetrate into the "realm of the dead". Furthermore, from the “realm of the dead” he and his five helpers prepare the apocalypse in the “realm of the living” in order to conjure up the end of all life on earth. Legion uses Shadow Man without his knowledge to collect the "dark souls" and lures him deeper into the asylum in the form of his brother Luke, in order to finally snatch the souls from him and use his power to create powerful creatures, which then live on the Earth will bring about chaos, devastation and eventually the apocalypse . The trademark is a passage from the Bible (Mark 5: 9), which is varied again and again: "Legion is my name, because there are many of us." (See also Legion .)

Jack: He is the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper and lives in the London Underground , the subway shafts of London. Jack helped Legion build the asylum and is megalomania in person. He lurks in dark corridors and likes to attack from unmanageable passages of the sewer system with a long knife.

Dr. Victor Batrachian: A mad lunatic in the truest sense of the word who waits for Mike in prison to send him back to the afterlife. He likes to attack from behind with his baton and is extremely precise and quick in his attacks.

Milton Pike: An ex- Green Beret soldier who also lives in prison and waits for Mike with a machete, M16 and a considerable amount of hand grenades to satisfy his penchant for military war games. In contrast to his friends in the basement, who use all kinds of tricks to tackle Shadow Man , he uses conventional means to fight.

Avery Marx: Lives in an old, run-down and apparently empty apartment building. He's a really insane butcher who can use any means to satisfy his sick habits, no matter how lousy. He is a cruel serial rapist and mass murderer who ambushes Mike with his pneumatic nailers.

Marco Cruz: This insane mass murderer lives in the prison yard and is waiting to put Mike in his place and ridicule him, and then ambush him.

Gameplay

The tasks in the game are essentially finding items and weapons, visiting temples and caves to advance the plot. The most important task is to track down and destroy the "Govi" in which the "Dark Souls" are located, who give Shadow Man his overwhelming shadow powers and give him the opportunity to open so-called "coffin gates" to continue into the "realm of." Dead ”. Another task is to visit the three huge temples in the "Realm of the Dead" and get tattoos that give Shadow Man additional powers to penetrate even deeper into the "Realm of the Dead" and to visit places that would be voodoo for him -Brand marks have been refused.

A trademark of the game is the shadow weapon that Mike receives from Nettie at the beginning of the game in order to be able to destroy the "Govi" in the "Realm of the Dead". By collecting the "dark souls" the power emanating from this weapon is increased. Only as a Shadow Man can Mike use this weapon in such a way that the shadow mask transfers its power to the shadow weapon. This weapon is also necessary to take out opponents who have "dark souls" in them and must be destroyed.

development

The original version was not available in Germany because the blood depiction was too drastic. To avoid indexing , the color was changed from red to green in the German version. In the German dubbed version are several well-known speakers, including Helmut Krauss (Michael LeRoi / Shadowman), Tommi Piper (Jaunty), Regina Lemnitz (Mama Nettie), Joachim Kerzel ( Legion ), Martin Keßler (Avery Marx) and Till Hagen ( Jack the Ripper ).

The intro sequence is accompanied by Beethoven's moonlight sonata . The A flat major waltz by Johannes Brahms can be heard in the "Die Spielzimmer" level .

The game was re-released on September 17, 2013 in a downloadable version for Windows.

reception

“And so the intense gaming experience is undoubtedly one of the most impressive and remarkable titles that will frequent the hard drives of PC gamers this year. Bye, bye Lara! "

- Chris Peller : Test report Power Play

Web links

Shadow Man at MobyGames (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Gerald Wurm: Shadow Man - Save Your Soul - Schnittbericht: USK 16. In: Schnittberichte.com . Retrieved October 21, 2019 .
↑ Steve Sunu: 'Shadow Man' game returns with digital distribution . September 17, 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
↑ Test report Power Play 10/1999

[1] Gerald Wurm: Shadow Man - Save Your Soul - Schnittbericht: USK 16. In: Schnittberichte.com . Retrieved October 21, 2019 .

[2] Steve Sunu: 'Shadow Man' game returns with digital distribution . September 17, 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2013.

[3] Test report Power Play 10/1999