![]() ![]() Well… I say “partnership” but it’s more akin to a hostage situation since Lily hates killing and I ran through each level like a genocidal maniac, leaving no guard standing, which I got scolded for in each loading screen. And seeing as these are medieval times, frisking means something else ladies and gentlemen!Īnyway, after saving Lily, Shadwen decides to take her along for the ride since Lily is hungry enough to tell the guards about Shadwen in exchange for an apple, and so the unlikely partnership is formed!įor when you really need your annual Assassin’s Creed fix. That’s the last time I save a little girl from a guard who’s threatening to frisk her. This prompted a “Lily will remember that” kind of text box that disappeared WAY too quick for me to read, but I’m guessing that the basic gist was that Lily saw you murder someone and thusly resents you. As I also graduated from the school of “Leave No Stone Unturned and No Guard Alive”, I took the logical route and stabbed the guard in the neck. So either you distract the guard, or you outright kill him. As opposed to saying you have a moral choice, the game just lets you do whatever you want. Then, we get something rather interesting. Then we finally take control of our assassin as we delve into the more advanced mechanics, which takes us all the way up to where Lily is. She’s used to guide you through the tutorial and teach you the mechanics (more on that later) up until she gets caught stealing apples. In Shadwen, you play the titular character who is introduced in a rather nice motion-comic style cutscene where she murders the king in front of a young girl, after which she asks said girl “Now what to do with you…”Īs I’m of the “Leave no witnesses” school of assassinating, my choice in that matter would be crystal clear.Īnyways, after the cutscene, flash back a couple of hours and take control of the girl, named Lily. ![]() Now… Don’t judge a book by its cover or a game by its name because if you do… You probably end up like me and get surprised. It's not that these mechanics don't all work together, but added together, the total is a rather generic and familiar experience that has been done better elsewhere before.In a time where Assassin’s Creed is more about the glitches than the assassinations and stealth comes a little game from the makers of Trine called “Shadwen”. The manipulation of time is used to either do that or lie in wait for guards on patrol to move past you, which is also a familiar application of this kind of game mechanic. It's nothing new, but since time only moves when you do, you'll often find you need to scrub further back by five minutes or more to try everything you did before in a more streamlined fashion. It always feels a tad unfair to discount how a game adheres to its genre, though the cycle of killing guards and stashing their bodies in piles of hay or leaves while avoiding detection is a familiar theme in video games. It's tempting to go over and see what's there, but it remains out of touch: Your focus lies on guards, castle walls, crypts, and muddy fields, and you fumble through them over and over. Everything is dark, brown, and gray - which is disappointing given the deep purples and blues you see over the horizon in the starry night sky on each level. The stillness and expanse of each map works together to make progressing through the game clunky and uncertain - you're constantly unsure of where to go and will sink a lot of time heading in wrong directions or even going backward due to the sameness of the maps. Until then, you're left to flail around and wonder why things like jumping and swinging around with a grappling hook are so frustratingly hard. This is intended to enhance and play up the strategic element of everything happening around you (what were you not aware of until it was too late?), but this isn't explained until you're considerably into the game. For example, there's a big learning curve in Shadwen because time only moves when you do. This action-stealth adventure tries to break new ground, but all the features are handled in a way that doesn't really improve the gameplay at all. ![]()
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