I loved Shadow Warrior, it was a classic styled game for the modern era with a good story, characters, humor, and settings. Shadow Warrior 2 is a disappointment.

The story comes off as forced and confusing coming off the previous game, they even recycle the whole buddy who stays with you and talks in your head from the first game. Instead of a level to level story game with a clear start to finish, SW2 is a hub world game with the same four reused levels played over and over again with pointless, unoriginal, and boring sidequests. Go to the same place, kill a different kind of enemy, return to hub world with little to no plot progression. After 13 hours I feel like i have accomplished nothing but figure out the needless new mechanics.

They introduce a redundant amount of new weapons, a new elemental damage system that serves nothing but to marginally upgrade your weapons and fill your inventory with countless items that you don't care to sort through, and of course the new hub world.

What pisses me off the most is how much they reference the first game and it just points out how unoriginal and bland this game is in comparison to the first. It rides on the success and jokes of the first, which only makes me want to play that instead. I loved spending hours playing SW1 twice, but here they throw so much area in the maps but nothing to see in them, its all copy pasted and I found myself just speedrunning through levels to finish instead of taking my time to enjoy like like in SW1. The only thing that kept me playing was Wang and to hopefully see the story improve, which even that couldn't keep me playing to the end.

Don't bother with this game, just buy the first one or a Doom game. Wish I could refund it and I hope they don't butcher the 3rd one like they did this one but they probably will. SW has become a cash grab failing where Doom has succeeded. I have never done a review like this before but this game spit in the face of everything I enjoyed about SW that I felt I had to.

I loved Shadow Warrior, it was a classic styled game for the modern era with a good story, characters, humor, and settings. Shadow Warrior 2 is a disappointment. The story comes off as forced and confusing coming off the previous game, they even recycle the whole buddy who stays with you and talks in your head from the first game. Instead of a level to level story game with a clear start to finish, SW2 is a hub world game with the same four reused levels played over and over again with pointless, unoriginal, and boring sidequests. Go to the same place, kill a different kind of enemy, return to hub world with little to no plot progression. After 13 hours I feel like i have accomplished nothing but figure out the needless new mechanics. They introduce a redundant amount of new weapons, a new elemental damage system that serves nothing but to marginally upgrade your weapons and fill your inventory with countless items that you don't care to sort through, and of course the new hub world. What pisses me off the most is how much they reference the first game and it just points out how unoriginal and bland this game is in comparison to the first. It rides on the success and jokes of the first, which only makes me want to play that instead. I loved spending hours playing SW1 twice, but here they throw so much area in the maps but nothing to see in them, its all copy pasted and I found myself just speedrunning through levels to finish instead of taking my time to enjoy like like in SW1. The only thing that kept me playing was Wang and to hopefully see the story improve, which even that couldn't keep me playing to the end. Don't bother with this game, just buy the first one or a Doom game. Wish I could refund it and I hope they don't butcher the 3rd one like they did this one but they probably will. SW has become a cash grab failing where Doom has succeeded. I have never done a review like this before but this game spit in the face of everything I enjoyed about SW that I felt I had to.