Shadwen

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
51

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 24
  3. Negative: 11 out of 24
  1. Brash Games
    May 29, 2016
    70
    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.
  2. XGN
    May 25, 2016
    70
    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.
  3. Gaming Nexus
    Jun 14, 2016
    65
    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.
  5. Wccftech
    May 17, 2016
    64
    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.
  6. Impulsegamer
    May 29, 2016
    62
    Shadwen could have been something truly special but unfortunately it fails to reach the lofty expectations built up around its ambitious central premise.
  7. PlayStation LifeStyle
    May 17, 2016
    60
    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.
  8. IGN Spain
    May 20, 2016
    57
    An interesting project cursed by a huge amount of bugs, and an incongruent plot.
  9. ZTGD
    May 26, 2016
    55
    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.
  10. Vandal
    May 23, 2016
    55
    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.
  11. Digitally Downloaded
    May 31, 2016
    50
    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.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 17
  3. Negative: 6 out of 17
  1. EliteGames
    May 17, 2016
    8
    Shadwen is a true GEM and a bargain to boot. In today's gaming industry you can often feel cheated in the sense of a lack of value for theShadwen is a true GEM and a bargain to boot. In today's gaming industry you can often feel cheated in the sense of a lack of value for the cost of the game; especially in todays ever expanding world of DLC. That is not the case here as Shadwen is an absolute value and overall well polished game. Its a stealth game with the twist of deciding to kill those in your way or let them live and avoid conflict. It's honestly done very well and I've found the game to be really entertaining. The time element is very cool as its based on your movement or lack of movement as to whether time is moving. My one complaint would be that the environments can begin to blend together and look very similar and things can feel somewhat repetitive. At this price point though these are easy concessions to accept and feel hardly worth mentioning. If you are a gamer on a budget or just craving a game of stealth, then Shadwen is for you!… Full Review »
  2. SuperkenGaming
    May 21, 2016
    6
    Shadwen
    A superhot version of assassins creed
    Shadwen is a stealth platforming game staring 2 characters, shadwen, and lily They meet after    Shadwen
    A superhot version of assassins creed
    Shadwen is a stealth platforming game staring 2 characters, shadwen, and lily
    They meet after lily steals an apple, you help her from the guards and she joins you on your journey to help you through cracks and pull levers
    Unfortunately, what starts as an amazing and challenging stealth game, turns into a frustrating babysitting game.
    You do get to play as both characters in the beginning 2 chapters, but the rest of the game you play as just shadwen, it’s up to you to distract guards or take them out to help lily advance through each hiding spot…
    There are various tools you can craft with materials from chests to take out or distract guards as well as use your grappling hook to pool items and swing from beams...
    here’s the catch though…
    The different endings…
    Killing enemies effects how lily portrays you… so how you approach every level will affect your story…
    During my first play through I went through the more challenging no kills run... playing this game stealthily is when the frustrations of this game will be highlighted…
    Lily is AI controlled.. And unfortunately this AI isn’t very intelligent….
    Lily would constantly run from her current hiding spot back to a hiding spot we already snuck past...
    in a kill run this isn’t a problem… but in a stealth run this is a problem because you are trying to set up distractions to advance her to the next spot, meanwhile she’s running back, completely wasting your time and effort…
    You can somewhat control her by ringing a bell telling her where to go, but she will hardly ever obey your command... refusing to move from the spot she’s in that she can clearly pass without detection, or shell get halfway to the spot and freeze up, only to turn back around…
    As much as I hate the idea of moving back and forth between 2 characters, I would’ve taken being able to switch back and forth to control lily myself over relying on ai….
    It wouldn’t be too much of an issue if these levels weren’t so brutal... and they increasingly get harder….
    The guards in this game have the hearing of a dog, if you brush past a bale of hay or even jump, their head turns like the exorcist to detect you and smack you with a game over..
    Their hearing is so advanced that if you pull an object to make it make a noise, rather than inspecting the object making the noise, they will investigate your location 10 feet in the opposite direction, almost like there is some sort or magnet programmed in them... which I’m almost 100% positive there is…
    and even if they don’t detect you, they will search for you until you do..
    You can get away with hiding behind an object, but this is rare as the game throws 4 to 8 pony riding guards on top of you to deal with at all times…
    And no enemy has a programed path to stick to... once they are alerted they go all over the place
    this unpredictability definitely adds challenge, but it also takes away the entire point of the game...
    How are you supposed to solve a problem with ever changing variables…
    turning this more into an electric tabletop football game than a stealth game
    And they won’t go back to what they were doing before if they find nothing.. sometimes they’ll just stand in front of you or circle around you so it’s impossible to progress from your position
    thankfully they took a page out of prince of Persia’s book and you can rewind time to take a new approach….
    They also took a page out of Ludacris’s’ and superhots book, because when you move they move…
    if you stand still time stands still…
    you can hold a button to proceed time though, so you don’t actually have to physically move from your location.
    While Shadwen has greatly designed levels and is a decently challenging stealth game, there are just far too many ai frustrations that ultimately stop it from ever feeling truly satisfying.
    You never feel like you’ve outsmarted the game...
    you feel like you just got lucky that lily kinda did what she was supposed to.
    I give Shadwen a
    6.0/10    … Full Review »
  3. destinyfan1
    May 20, 2017
    5
    shadwen is an ok stealth game but nothing more, infact it feels even bad at moments, the AI is horrible, average graphics and repetitiveshadwen is an ok stealth game but nothing more, infact it feels even bad at moments, the AI is horrible, average graphics and repetitive enviroments.The stealth gameplay is great do.But the game is sometimes to hard when it shouldn't. A game may be hard but this is insane . Even the smallest sound and its as good as game over. The reason I still give a 5 because everything else was ok… Full Review »
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