Not many are aware that Shadow warrior was in development even before Duke3D. From its relatively primitive starting point, the final release of Shadow Warrior took the build engine to its limits and today, has even been enhanced with OpenGL support and a high resolution pack project in the pipeline.
So what made SW so great? It was essentially Duke of Japan or Asia, starring another one of 3DRealm's kickass characters, the wacky ninja Lo Wang, pardon the errors in geography with respect to naming. No other game boasts of such a character who makes every moment of this game unique and replayable.
On the techie front, SW did have some excellent levels and some crappy ones as well. The artwork is well done but the character artwork could have been better. The weapons and items were very enjoyable to use. Wang Bang, the multiplayer mode, was also much more fun than Duke's multiplayer.
So what made SW so great? It was essentially Duke of Japan or Asia, starring another one of 3DRealm's kickass characters, the wacky ninja Lo Wang, pardon the errors in geography with respect to naming. No other game boasts of such a character who makes every moment of this game unique and replayable.
On the techie front, SW did have some excellent levels and some crappy ones as well. The artwork is well done but the character artwork could have been better. The weapons and items were very enjoyable to use. Wang Bang, the multiplayer mode, was also much more fun than Duke's multiplayer.