Shadwen

A fun game for a more than fair price from Frozenbyte, and one that definitely will scratch that stealth-action narrative itch.

Shadwen is a decent action stealth game, but some features could have been implemented more carefully.

Shadwen is an enjoyable game that can be finished quickly by killing everyone, or spread out over weeks as you perfect each level as stealthily as possible and I know there will be some of you reading this who will relish such an opportunity, but for me something just didn’t quite hit the mark.

Shadwen is a competent and somewhat enjoyable stealth game, but not exactly memorable. While the core experience and some of its mechanics, such as the time manipulation mechanics, are quite well done, the game suffers from a general lack of polish.

Shadwen has a novel idea behind it, but doesn't quite live up to its promise. Dodgy AI and mechanics make this game a bit of a chore to play, especially once you figure out the optimal path that can be applied to each level.

Shadwen is a competent and somewhat enjoyable stealth game, but not exactly memorable. While the core experience and some of its mechanics, such as the time manipulation mechanics, are quite well done, the game suffers from a general lack of polish, an average last-gen presentation and a rather limited amount of content. When Shadwen works, however, it works well, so Frozenbyte definitely has a good starting point for a potential sequel.

Shadwen could have been something truly special but unfortunately it fails to reach the lofty expectations built up around its ambitious central premise.

Shadwen makes a lot of smart decisions, and I’ll definitely miss its rewind system in other stealth games, but it never fully comes together as a whole. There’s just not enough enemy variety, and the 15-level campaign grows tiresome as the end nears. Throw in one of the most anticlimactic endings in recent memory, and a lot of the initial goodwill is used up. While far from perfect, there’s still enough ambition here for stealth fans to appreciate, but Shadwen isn’t Agent 47.

An interesting project cursed by a huge amount of bugs, and an incongruent plot.

Shadwen is not a bad game, but it is completely in the middle of the road for me. There are some issues that really drag down the gameplay, but at the same time, I really enjoyed the time mechanics.

After the great adventures Frozenbyte has offered us, we were expecting much more from them. Unfortunately, Shadwen is a nice idea behind a really poor execution.

Unfortunately the game’s a bit of a mess, with baffling AI at times (especially from your partner, who loves getting herself in trouble), and the freeze time mechanic having the habit of failing in the heat of something significant going on. The plot also ends up being a bit of a fizzer, making this a noble, though ultimately futile, effort in the stealth genre.

Shadwen has a lot of good ideas that never really delivers on their promises and the game ends up feeling like a half-finished product.

Shadwen is a game that I so badly wanted to love but even with all its quirks and interesting mechanics, I couldn’t get past its bland levels, disappointing story and odd gameplay hiccups. A shame, really, as it could’ve been something special. Instead it’s nothing more than average, at best. The interesting gameplay mechanics found in Shadwen do little to hide the fact that the game is pretty boring and has a story that hardly amounts to anything.

A mediocre third-person stealth effort revolving around a singular gimmick that is both intriguing and also damning to its ambitions, Shadwen is nowhere near the lofty standard that we would expect from the house that Trine built.

Frozenbyte tries to deliver a stealth game with some unique gameplay dynamics, but it falls tremendously short: the AI is awful, the controls are inaccurate and awkward. The main gameplay feature, i.e. the idea of the time moving only when the player moves, simply doesn't work. A real missed opportunity.

Even though Shadwen introduce a clever basic idea it does nothing to expand on it. Every aspect of both the gameplay and the level design is so poor and repeated that it will make you feel like you play the same clumsy level for four hours.

A disappointing stealth title that could have been so much more, giving you little more than a few hours of enjoyment before everything begins to grate on you.

Repetitive, buggy, and hamstrung by underbaked design, Shadwen feels like an unfinished product. [July 2016, p.79]

Overall, I think Shadwen could be a good game, but for whatever reason I was unable to play it as the developer intended.

There's no reason to recommend Shadwen to anybody other than prospective game developers looking for a lesson in what not to do.

Lots of interestingly odd ideas but although the basic stealth action more or less works the escort element and poor AI ruins a potentially promising premise.