Shadow Warrior brings a sword to old-school FPS gunfights

Bringing Shadow Warrior forth from 1997 is a unique challenge for Hard Reset developer Flying Wild Hogs and publishing label Devolver Digital. The 3D Realms shooter is known about as well for its low-brow Asian jokes and cultural misappropriations as it is for its intense combat and exotic arsenal.

"The original game had some questionable humor that we're walking away from, but we're keeping that sense of razor wit that Lo Wang, the main character, has," Devolver Digital VP of Marketing Nigel Lowrie told us.

Lo Wang will have guns-a-plenty, but the real star of the show is the katana. This is no one-hit knife kill: each slash is negotiated individually, with different moves done through fancy footwork and upgradeable combos. Lead writer Jan Bartkowicz said Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was a major inspiration for some of Shadow Warrior's sword-swinging controls.

It's a good thing, since Lo Wang will have plenty of slicing and dicing to do. Armies of demons (and some unfriendly Yakuza) bear down on him relentlessly. But there's no cover system here, just a lot of targets that need killing fast. Targets that will--in a loving nod to the gorey original--sever and explode into gobs of giblets based on how they're cut down or shot up.

Shadow Warrior will make a playable appearance at E3, and you can get some Wang for yourself this fall on PC. It's also slated for next-gen consoles in 2014.

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