It's been sixteen years since the release of Shadow Warrior on PC but Devolver Digital and developer Flying Wild Hog in collaboration with 3D Realms will reinvent the series for next generation consoles and PC.
Players will again step in the shoes of protagonist Lo Wang, a corporate shogun tasked by employer Zill Enterprise to track a legendary blade. Once Wang finds it, another dimension called the shadow realm is opened and an accompanying demonic invasion ensures. This leads him to find out why it happened and stop the invasion. Aiding Wang is banished spirt named Hoji who will act as a guide and grant different magical abilities.
A single player only title, Shadow Warrior will feature series mainstays like lopping off heads of demons and ripping hearts out of enemies for weapon usage. In keeping up with its transition to modern era of gaming, Wang's katana combat has changed from simple swipes. Expect various combo moves and special attacks that can also target specific parts of the body. New weapons announced include revolvers, explosive-tipped crossbows and more.
When released in 1997, Shadow Warrior was 3D Realms follow-up to the mega popular Duke Nukem 3D. It was praised for gameplay that seemed as a natural evolution to the game that made a certain ultra macho hero so popular but had one thing that held it back, an overtly racist tone.
Shadow Warrior was suppose to be a spoof of East Asian action movies but became a vehicle for racial stereotypes. This is something lead writer of the reboot, Jan Barkowicz, said would be axed in speaking with Joystiq.
"But one thing we did take out was a lot of the cheap jokes that had a lot of racial stereotyping and kind of sexist jokes," said Barkowicz.
The Shadow Warrior reboot will see a PC release this year and next-gen consoles will be released in 2014. Expect to see more of this title at E3 next month.
Watch Shadow Warrior's teaser trailer below.
