Back in the early 2000s, we had what was, in my opinion, one of the golden ages of role-playing games. My favourites of the era were Icewind Dale 1 & 2, the Divine Divinity series, Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate to name a few. These games had an isometric viewpoint with massive worlds to explore and were packed full of content. Many secrets to find and h,ours upon hours ofBack in the early 2000s, we had what was, in my opinion, one of the golden ages of role-playing games. My favourites of the era were Icewind Dale 1 & 2, the Divine Divinity series, Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate to name a few. These games had an isometric viewpoint with massive worlds to explore and were packed full of content. Many secrets to find and h,ours upon hours of engaging quests to complete with captivating storylines whether they be a main quest or side missions. This role playing games had a certain feel to the gameplay too in the way the characters moved, the way they felt to play. I am struggling to put it into words but hopefully if you have played any of those games before you will know what I mean. Shadows Awakening feels a lot like those older games and is one of the best action RPGs I have played this generation.
Story
Shadows Awakening takes place in the Heretic Kingdoms universe created by developers The Game Farm. Players assume the role of The Devourer, a hulking demon-like entity that can consume and control the souls of fallen heroes which the game refers to as “puppets”. These heroes have typical RPG classes such as Evia the mage and Urshak who is a small impish like character who is an archer. Players can switch between characters at any time while playing by tapping the left or right bumper buttons. You can combine their abilities in combat and in puzzle solving in order to progress. The story revolves around a secret council known as the Penta Nera who were assassinated and consumed by other Devourers. The Devourers are now controlling their bodies to gain the power of the council over the people of the Heretic Kingdoms so it is up to you to stop them. You will meet many NPCs on your journey each being fully voiced as well as text dialogue. When you talk to them you will have a number of dialogue options. Each of the heroes and The Devourer are fully voiced as well and will have different lines depending on who you are currently playing as when talking to NPCs. The story is very good and I enjoyed all of the dialogue. There is also collectable lore further fleshing out the back story of the game world.
Gameplay
As I have mentioned you play as The Devourer and can control up to 3 heroes as well. You can switch between them whenever you want during gameplay. The Devourer lives in the Shadow Realm and the heroes in the Mortal Realm. So you have to switch between them as often times there may be a wall in the Mortal Realm that doesn’t exist in the Shadow Realm for example so you can pass through it as The Devourer then switch back to one of the mortals. Switching between realms is also used in puzzle solving. For example one area had rotating platforms in the Mortal Realm and by switching to the Shadow Realm I was able to freeze them in place in order to cross them. In combat when switching between the realms you can combine each characters abilities. Like The Devourer’s Frost Chain ability will freeze several enemies in place then you can switch to a hero to attack them. There are times where you enemies have two health bars. One you have to attack them as The Devourer then switch to a hero to deplete the other health bar and kill them.
Most enemies can only be damaged by the heroes and The Devourer supports with magic like the Frost Chain ability I mentioned. There are also spirits wondering the Shadow Realm who will attack The Devourer but do not exist in the Mortal Realm. The game also has Diablo style loot with lots of chests containing Silver, the game’s currency, and random weapon and armour drops. With different rarity levels common, uncommon, rare & epic. Like many other games of this type. The Devourer has his own chests containing random loot called Shadow Crystals which can only be accessed when playing as him in the Shadow Realm. Controls are very simple and easy to get to grips with. Your normal attacks are performed with the A button and you can assign 3 abilities to X, Y & B from the inventory menu as you like. When you begin the game you will choose your first hero from a warrior, a mage and an archer. Each character has his or her own back story which you will hear when you first encounter them and can read more about them from the menu.
You have to collect special powerups to heal which can be used at any time with the left trigger but are a pretty finite resource so making good use of your abilities and avoiding taking damage in combat is necessary. The game has 4 difficulty levels Easy, Normal, Hard & Extreme. I played it on the default Normal difficulty and I found it to be challenging enough that I wasn’t breezing through fights without being overly difficult. But people looking for a meatier challenge the options are there for you and likewise if you want it to be less taxing then you can put it on Easy. Accessibility is very good then with simple controls and a good range of diffi… Expand
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