Shadow Man

Overview

Shadow Man is an action adventure with platforming elements based on the comic book series of the same name. It was developed and published by Acclaim, well know at the time for the Turok series, which also was a comic adaptation.

Story

In the game, players take on the role of Michael LeRoi, a voodoo warrior with supernatural powers. His objective is to stop Legion, a demon from Deadside (where all dead souls go). A demon who asked a serial killer in the 1800 to design a castle in Deadside called Asylum, a place where all killers, thieves, rapists and evil souls could reside. Legion intends to use this structure to build his armies and invade Liveside, the land of the living.

In order for Legion to get this serial killer to help, he had to convince him to commit suicide so he could follow him to Deadside. The game takes place in 1999. Many years after the first serial killer was recruited by Legion. By this time, 4 more serial killers have been recruited, and are know as The Five. The Five are Milton Pike, Marco Cruz, Avery Marx, John G. Pierce/Jack The Ripper (who was the architect of Asylum), and Victor Batrachian, who is acting as the leader of The five.

Gameplay

As Shadow Man, players can travel between Liveside and Deadside. They do so obviously by using a teddy bear as a medium that connects Michael LeRoi to his little brother's dead soul that, of course, is in Deadside. Later on in the game players can use the teddy bear to teleport to places they have already been.

The game has LeRoi explore different worlds in search of 120 dark souls. These are needed by Legion to create an immortal army, thus, Shadow Man's objective becomes to get them before Legion does and to stop his plan of invading Liveside, eliminating The Five in the process. As players gain more souls, LeRoi becomes more powerful and can access new areas, meaning the game requires players to do some backtracking.

Shadow Man faces different monsters throughout the game and in order defeat them, players will have to make use different weapons. Normal weapons from Liveside like shotguns and handguns, and Deadside weapons like the Shadowgun.

Other than different weapons and items, LeRoi also finds reports about the serial killers and other game related events that expand the story beyond what you see in the cutscences. These can then accessed from the item menu.

Shadow Man gives players the option to face The Five in any order they want and allows them to go the different worlds (if the players has enough souls) in any order without affecting the story.

A Playstation 2 exclusive sequel called Shadow Man: 2econd Coming was released in 2002.