Shadow Warrior
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| Shadow Warrior | |
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| Developer(s) | 3D Realms |
| Publisher(s) | GT Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Frank Maddin Jim Norwood |
| Engine | Build |
| Release date(s) | May 13, 1997 (DOS) October 1, 1997 (Mac) April 1, 2005 (Source) |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | RSAC: V4: Wanton and Gratuitous Violence ESRB: Mature (17+) |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Mac |
| Media | CD (1) |
| System requirements | Intel Pentium CPU, 16MB RAM, 60MB Hard disk space, 256-color VGA, DOS 5.0 |
| Input | Keyboard, Joystick, and/or Mouse |
Shadow Warrior is a first-person shooter computer game featuring Lo Wang, a master ninja assassin or "Shadow Warrior", developed by 3D Realms and released on May 13, 1997 by GT Interactive. Shadow Warrior was developed using Ken Silverman's Build engine and improved on 3D Realms' previous Build engine game, Duke Nukem 3D, by introducing true room-over-room situations, the use of voxels instead of sprites for weapons and usable inventory items, transparent water, climbable ladders, and assorted vehicles to drive (some armed with weapons). Although ultra-violent, the game emphasized tongue-in-cheek humor.
Two original novels featuring Lo Wang, For Dead Eyes Only and You Only Die Twice, were published in the wake of the game's release.
On April 1, 2005 3D Realms released the source code for Shadow Warrior under the GPL, which resulted in the first source port a day later on April 2, 2005.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Add ons
- Three expansion packs to "Shadow Warrior" were started even before the release of the game itself; however, after Duke Nukem 3D, the relatively disappointing sales had publishers drop the projects. Two of them can now be downloaded free of charge.
[edit] Twin Dragon
- Twin Dragon was the first missionpack that was released as a free download on July 4, 1998. It was created by Wylde Productions and Level Infinity, and features music by Castles Music Productions.
[edit] Wanton Destruction
- Wanton Destruction was created by Sunstorm Interactive, tested by 3D Realms, and then sent to the distributor. For unknown reasons the distributor never released it, and because 3D Realms did not have a copy, the material was lost for years. Despite numerous requests from fans, it could not be released to the public.
Charlie Wiederhold still had the 4 maps he made for the add-on, and that got him hired as a mapper for Duke Nukem Forever at 3D Realms. With permission from 3D Realms they were released on March 22, 2004.
On September 5, 2005, Anthony Campiti, former President of Sunstorm Interactive, e-mailed 3D Realms that he found a CD called "Add-on Archive 1", which he discovered was the complete Wanton Destruction add-on. [1] 3D Realms received the CD September 8, and put it online as a free download the next day.
[edit] Deadly Kiss
- Little is known about Deadly Kiss from SillySoft [2], as only a few screenshots have surfaced.
[edit] Weapons
- Katana and Fists of Fury (slot 1) - the primary fire mode is many players' favorite melee weapon. Lo Wang's katana sword has no fear of backlash damage unlike the Fists, and it has the ability to cause the Evil Ninja to be slashed into two pieces. A single slash is 50-80 points of damage, and will always kill the default Brown Evil Ninja with one hit. Lo Wang also tends to speak one-liners when he kills with the sword. The secondary fire mode is a quickly thrown set of punches that are automatic by holding down the attack key. Each punch does 10-40 points of damage to an enemy. The punch can also be used on training dummies and pedestals in Lo Wang's dojo or other locales to restore his health in small, random increments. However, in converse, punching walls will sometimes do a point of damage to Lo Wang himself, and he can even kill himself if his health is too low.
- Shuriken or Throwing Darts (slot 2) - the basic pistol-purposed weapon of Shadow Warrior, the shuriken isn't too strong on its own, each star doing only 5-10 points of damage, but they are thrown in trios. They have the advantage that after a random number of ricochets, sometimes none, they will eventually stick into walls, and the lodged stars can sometimes be pulled out with the Use key to be used again. Three shurikens are needed to fire, and a maximum of 99 can be carried at one time. Ammo pickups, sometimes dropped by dead Evil Ninjas, supply 9 shurikens. The shuriken, due to censorship issues, were replaced with throwing darts in the European version. There is a patch available that reverts them back to shuriken.
- Riot Gun (slot 3) - the shotgun-purposed weapon of Shadow Warrior, is in more ways than one. A single shot expels roughly 7-10 pellets at the foe in a somewhat close-knit line pattern like most shotgun weapons. Each pellet does 4 points of damage, but the secondary mode, which fires off 4 shots in rapid succession, can be used to devastate stronger enemies. After each 4 shots, the riotgun will take a moment to load a new clip of shells. A single direct hit usually takes out the Brown Ninja as well. A maximum of 52 shells can be carried at once.
- Uzi Submachine Gun (slot 4) - this weapon is small and compact, yet possesses potential to be a deadly full-automatic weapon. They fire bullets at a rate of around 15 a second, and each bullet does 5-7 points of damage. Additionally, finding a second Uzi allows the player to wield them akimbo, akin to a John Woo-styled film. Each magazine carries 50 bullets. 200 bullets can be carried at one time.
- Micro Missile Launcher (slot 5) - possessing three separate modes, the Micro Missile Launcher is the basic rocket-launcher of Shadow Warrior. The primary mode shoots a small missile at around 15-60 damage for the main hit and 50-100 points of additional splash damage. The secondary mode is similar to the first, except it shoots a heat-seeking version of the above missile that can home on targets. This mode requires a heat-seeker card, which each allow five missiles to be heat-seeking. The tertiary mode is a nuclear warhead, which has a devastating blast area of 30,000 units and does around 0-800 points in splash damage, in addition to the direct damage, leaving behind a mushroom cloud and radiation clouds which can poison your character or the enemies. This requires the discovery of a nuclear warhead. When this mode is selected, the launcher will voice a countdown, after which it can be fired or put away and later brought back out in a quickly-needed situation.
- Grenade Launcher (slot 6) - this weapon launches out a 40mm explosive shell that will bounce 3 times, then explode. It is ideal for hard-to-reach places like ledges, or around corners. It has a very large radius area of damage, implying the character can still be affected by the blast even at a fairly good distance, so beware.
- Sticky Bombs (slot 7) - perhaps the sneakiest weapon in Lo Wang's arsenal, this is a small explosive device surrounded by sharp spikes, which will allow it to 'stick' to nearly any surface. Once attached to a floor, wall, ceiling, or even an enemy, there is a 3-second priming timer. Once this timer is set, the bomb will detonate when its motion detectors sense something near.
- Rail Gun (slot 8) - a top secret weapon and still classified, the Rail Gun will propel a rod of metal at near-light speed, projected from a magnetic field. This weapon will penetrate multiple enemies, making it powerful and very useful in certain situations.
- Guardian Head (slot 9) - this head is randomly collected from the ogre-like Guardian. Using this weapon is achieved by inserting fingers into different holes in the back of its fractured skull, and applying pressure to specific parts of the creature's brain. Each hole corresponds to a different attack. The primary attack is a stream of fireballs that will immolate their target quickly. The second mode will project a ring of fireballs that orbit the player, incinerating anyone they touch. These magical fireballs can penetrate walls, making it ideal for circumventing a small layer of cover in multiplayer, among similar uses in single player. The third attack mode will project forwards a wave of fire explosion, devastating nearly anything in its path.
- Ripper Heart (slot 0) - this weapon is acquired from the ape-like Ripper (both normal and giant sizes). 'Firing' this weapon consists of the player squeezing the heart, which in turn creates an autonomous, sickly-colored, warped version of your character for a short time. This 'Shadow Warrior' will then engage and destroy nearby enemies with a Rail Gun.
[edit] Enemies
[edit] Regular enemies
- Evil Ninja - the basic enemies throughout the entire game. They perform all the same actions the player can (such as swim, jump, crouch, sidestrafe, climb up/down stairs, hide behind obstacles in order to take cover to a limited extent, and so). They will sometimes turn their gun on themselves and commit suicide, implying a lack of honor on their part, if they cannot kill the player. They are divided in 5 different types defined by the color of their pants:
- Brown/Green/Blue - the most common and easiest variety of ninja. They do not sustain much damage before they die. They fire an Uzi and shurikens as their main methods of attack. They are the easiest enemy to dispatch with melee attacks, as one sword slash, or approximately 2-3 punches will kill them. The blue and green variants of the basic ninja are very uncommon, and are actually a design error when setting up the enemies from within the Build engine. The engine uses the color palette assigned to an enemy to determine its strength and abilities, and this is done in such a way that, if an enemy's palette is not one that is specifically associated with special rules and behaviors, it retains the color given to it, but behaves like a default enemy as defined by its base AI.
- Red - they have a significantly higher damage threshold than brown ninjas, shoots an Uzi and powerful missiles.
- Golden - has the same damage threshold as red ninjas, shoots an Uzi and heat-seeking missiles.
- Silver - has the same damage threshold as red and golden ninjas, shoots high-explosive Grenades and a single Uzi. Can be killed with 2-3 sword slashes usually.
- Shadow - the rarest and most dangerous variety of ninja. They are more durable than all other colors of ninja, project two types of powerful fire magic and wield an Uzi, though they rarely use it. They are partially invisible, appearing a faint black color, can deploy flash bombs to blind the player, and move extremely fast and much more accurately, compared to the other ninjas.
- Coolie - these rotted-skin Rayden-appearing ghouls wear a straw hat and carry around a box of fireworks, which explodes when the coolie is heavily hurt, or is detonated by the coolie itself if the player ventures too close. The explosion radius is fairly large, but does affect other nearby enemies, so Coolies can be used as an impromptu weapon in some situations. The Coolies also frequently leave their spirits behind when they die, making them one of the most notoriously dreaded enemies in the game.
- Coolie Ghost - often, when a Coolie explodes, its soul emerges from its corpse to further assail the player. They spit a red projectile of blood at the player as their means of attack. The Coolie Ghost floats at about eye level and can vanish from sight at will, making them quite difficult to track. Coolie Ghosts take a good deal of effort to dispatch.
- Ripper - a grey/brown creature resembling a gorilla and a bear, these agile creatures pose a significant threat to the player. Their hooked claws allow them to cling to walls and ceilings, often allowing them to ambush an unsuspecting player. Their heart can sometimes be salvaged as a weapon if the player kills them in a manner which destroys their body, such as an explosion. The Ripper also comes in a larger brown version, the Giant Ripper, which is faster and strong but seen less often than its grey counterpart.
- Baby Ripper - an adolescent Ripper with an appearance that more resembles a black panther, it can produce a green toxic projectile as well as use its thick claws to attack the player. Not fully matured yet, it is weaker, and therefore easier to kill than a regular Ripper. Like the Ripper, there are also brown variants that appear rather rarely (named Giant Baby Ripper) and which are tougher to kill.
- Koi - a hostile fish that likes to bite. They are surprisingly dangerous enemies, as they do a fair amount of damage, move very quickly, and can move both above and below the player underwater. Worse still, they typically appear in small groups, so there are usually many Koi attacking the player at once. They can sustain a very small amount of damage.
- Hornet - a very angry giant hornet that stings.
- Accursed Head - a stationary, rotating red skull that will emerge from the ground and detonate when the player gets too close. These heads either produce caltrops, expel grenades in a radius around the head, explode with great force, or blind the player temporarily.
- Bunny - not an enemy (with the exception of an Easter egg parodying Monty Python and the Holy Grail), but when two rabbits of opposite sexes (as defined by palette colors: beige for male, yellish-white for female) touch, they may begin to mate, producing an offspring that quickly grows to adult size.
- Killer Bunny - this special rabbit is an enemy. If the player enters its territory, noted by the bones scatter around, it will rush the player, attempting to bite him fiercely. Unlike other rabbits, the Killer Bunny has silver-white fur and blood-red eyes. It is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- Guardian - a green humanoid monster resembling an orc, it has a sharp sword and emits fire from its eyes. Their head can sometimes be salvaged as weapon if the player kills them in a manner which destroys their body, such as an explosion.
- Female Warrior - probably the only kind of female people unwanted by the perverted Lo Wang, they fire a crossbow at the player and often use Sticky Bombs. Not easy to kill.
- Sumo - these overweighted monsters attack with nasty scent gas, destructive foot-stomping and palm-clapping shockwaves. They can also throw fire napalm and summon Accursed Heads. They are tough to eliminate.
[edit] Bosses
- Serpent God - a four-armed, upright snake that likes fire. The Serpent God can slash with its 4 swords, fire green flame blasts and even summon explosive Accursed Heads to protect itself.
- Giant Sumo - giant version of the Sumo enemies. Uses the same attacks of its human-sized version (but much more powerful), plus gas and a Rail-Gun-type attack.
- Zilla - a samurai-like giant robot controlled by demonic Master Zilla himself. Uses a Rail Gun-type attack, Missiles, and Grenades.
[edit] Leaked BETA
- Beta Compiled: April 4, 1997 (1.0 released on May 13, 1997)
-Shadow Warrior was leaked by a tech support employee who wanted to play a modem game with his friend. Unfortunately, the game spread farther than his friend, and this employee was fired. One difference in this version is you begin the first level in a completely different location. There are also quite a few unreleased maps included in this version, which can be selected through the user levels. The BETA is floating around the Internet. It's in ZIP format and is exactly 16.7MB.
[edit] External links
- Official Shadow Warrior Website
- Icculus.org Linux Port
- JonoF's Shadow Warrior Windows/Linux Port (JFSW)
- Category at ODP
- Wang's Dojo
- Shadow Warrior at MobyGames
- Windows port by ProAsm based on JonoF's JFSW
- Shadow Warrior Central the most complete up-to-date resource site for this game
