Shadwen

Shadwen is the kind of game that has the recipe to succeed. The use of time manipulation in a stealth game may make this a title that's intended for those just coming into the genre, but the approach is interesting enough to warrant a look. Bland level design and presentation along with a poor AI system for the guards makes the experience too rudimentary, and the lack of enemy variety can make things feel repetitive rather quickly. Ultimately, Shadwen has potential — but not in this incarnation.

One big escort mission where toying with laughable AI becomes a game in a game. [08/2016, p.68]

The quality and your enjoyment of the game varies greatly during its running time, as Shadwen occasionally offers moments of gameplay brilliance while most of the time it just falls flat. If you do manage to endure it, you do get rewarded, but it is too high of a demand when playing the game feels more like a chore.

Shadwen begins with promise, but has neither the depth nor the variety needed to fulfill it.

With more time to flesh out the world and, most importantly, a more creative progression of challenges to match your skill, this could have been a special game. Instead, just as its titular character is trapped in time by default, Shadwen is a stealth game forever trapped in a state of adolescence.

Nevertheless, a satisfying game in doses, Shadwen does enough to warrant repeat returns and while it lacks visibility beyond the central pillar that is its gameplay, it’s said gameplay that keeps the game from fading completely out of sight.

Shawden is influenced by great games, such as Thief, Prince of Persia and Superhot, but the mixture is not correctly done, so this new game by Frozenbyte has some issues that affect its value.

Shadwen is capable of the best and worst. Frozenbyte has created an interesting stealth and assassination game with some unique gameplay mechanics, but an awful AI and a rather limited action ruins a potentially promising premise.

After the failure of Trine 3 Frozenbyte was in urgent need for a new hit but Shadwen with its clumsy flirtation with stealth and obsolete technologies clearly can’t claim the status. [Issue#210, p.81]

Acrobatics on medieval galleries has its charm, but is far from perfection. The stealth game is more action than tactical and it leads to stereotype that authors even feed with many technical and conceptual mistakes.

Shadwen, unfortunately, has proved to be a messy bunch of ideas, unable to involve the player in its narrative context, which could be interesting, but has been developed too superficially. Same goes for the gameplay mechanics, made of concepts taken from other games and put together almost with no consistency.