Shadow Man

aka: Shadow Man: Rette deine Seele
Moby ID: 385
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

You're the Shadow Man, a person who can switch between the world of the dead and of the living. In Shadow Man your mission is to prevent five serial killers from bringing the total Armageddon. In the world of the living, you're mortal and have conventional weapons. When you die, you are transported to the world of the dead and you become Shadow Man once again. Which means you're not really mortal. In the world of the dead you can't use normal weapons, your gun shoots ghosts which kill the zombies and the other ugly creatures which live there. You also have different voodoo powers and weapons. And you're carrying a large inventory around.

Spellings

  • Тень - Russian spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

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Game Design
Story
Level Design
Project Managers
Additional Design
Lead Programmer
Vista 3D Engine
AI Programming
Additional AI Programming
Special FX & Weapons Programming
Adventure Programming
Programming
Programmers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 49 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 85 ratings with 2 reviews)

Resident Mario

The Good
Shadow Man has a wonderfully creepy atmosphere. It starts on a great note with a very well-acted introduction and keeps this up through the whole game. Everything from the art direction to the the excellent music fits together perfectly. It also has a great feature where you can go back and watch any cutscene you've seen.

The game is also far longer than I expected. Most licensed based action games are lucky to get to twelve hours. This will quite likely take in the realm of forty your first time through, at least if you try to find all the dark souls.

The Bad
Despite it's many good points, no one would mistake Shadow Man for anything but a port from a previous-generation system. While the textures were largely upgraded from its PlayStation roots, the animation and models weren't, so the characters look a bit like blocky puppets in many of the cutscenes. The controls are also a bit kludgy, having clearly been designed for a system with more buttons. Many actions are mapped to the d-pad, for instance.

My main complaint is the combat. It isn't at all challenging, so it become rather tedious to have to clear out the levels each time you're searching them for that last soul or last couple cadeaux. The puzzle challenge is about right, though. I manged to find everything except for 13 cadeux and I think i could do that and get that last piece of life with a little more work.

The Bottom Line
Think of an M-rated Super Mario 64. This game is all about collecting Dark Souls, which don't seem very different from the stars in Mario in practice. You gather a certain number of souls, then you can open up the next area. You also gain ability upgrades to access new areas. Gameplay is mainly of the platforming/navigation puzzle variety, again, like Mario. It's a matter of finding the dark souls and figuring out how to get to them.

Dreamcast · by Ace of Sevens (4479) · 2006

A creepy but cool game

The Good
The different kinds of weapons you have or can pick up. And the best thing is you can die and still live in another dimension, how cool is that!

The Bad
My little brother thought it was WAY too scary for him. So I recommend to everybody out there, if you have younger siblings, don't show this game to them.

The Bottom Line
Two words: KICK ASS!

Dreamcast · by Exodia85 (2145) · 2003

Trivia

German version

There are a number of changes to the German version: * All blood was recoloured green * Dogs and dog-like enemies can't be killed. * In the prison level, the guards and inmates have guns. * Corpses and body parts which are part of the level design were removed or replaced with zombies.

A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

Inspiration

Shadow Man is based on the Valiant/Acclaim comics title of the same name.

Spencer Fearon

The body double used for the game is Spencer 'The Spirit' Fearon, then a professional boxer but now more famous as a promoter, cornerman and pundit within the sport.

Awards

  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/2000 – Best Action-Adventure in 1999
    • Issue 02/2000 – Best Sound in 1999
  • Total! (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2000 – Best N64 Action-Adventure in 1999

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  • MobyGames ID: 385
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Macintosh added by Cavalary. Dreamcast, PlayStation, Nintendo 64 added by Grant McLellan.

Additional contributors: Rebound Boy, Guy Chapman, tarmo888, Martin Smith, DarkDante, Klaster_1, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 5, 1999. Last modified January 23, 2024.