I saw possibilities, but I couldn't execute on them, so I asked a developer to play for me.
Then again, I wasn't any good at the game when I played it. That seemed strange at first, but as I saw and played it at GDC 2016, I couldn't deny that it congealed into something I couldn't dismiss. I'd seen all of what Shadwen has to offer before, elsewhere, sometimes in wholly unrelated games. It encourages it by mitigating the risk of failure.Īt first - and, sure, maybe second or third glance - this could be mistaken for something silly.
And it doesn't just make experimentation possible. We try again and again until we get it right. But before that can happen, there's almost always a pause, a reload, a journey back to a checkpoint. Think of the possibilities, my fellow stealth game dorks! We dream of the perfect unseen route through a level, where everything goes according to plan and our enemies fall only vaguely aware that something went wrong. If this sounds like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time or Super Meat Boy, give yourself a gold star. Rewind for up to two minutes and try again. Say your rope didn't connect with the beam, and you leapt to your death from your perch high atop the city streets. At the press of a button, you can rewind time. Shadwen's next big departure is the real game-changer: You have a built-in ability to control time in reverse. If this sounds like Superhot, go to the head of the class. Then the whole world pauses again as you swing the camera around, looking for a place to hide the evidence. In Shadwen, the normal course of events is more like ascending a Victorian house with a rope, leaping into the air over a courtyard, pausing time, whipping your rope at a wooden support beam while in suspended animation, swinging like Tarzan until you let go, and landing on top of your enemy as you bury your dagger in his neck. Though you can press a button to make time move forward without your bodily movement, that's that aberration, not the norm. Stand in one place, and the game world freezes around you like a diorama. The setting, the constant companion, the narrative split at the heart of every decision are all appropriations, but Shadwen isn't done.įirst, time's passage is almost entirely dependent on your movement. If this sounds something like Assassin's Creed or Dishonored or Thief or BioShock Infinite, then you're picturing the right games. Succeed in your clandestine mission, clear the streets, and Lily will follow you, whether she likes you or not. Murder, and the child, Lilly, will judge you. Get spotted, and it's an instant game over. Then you hide their bodies in foliage, behind walls or maybe in haystacks. You play as the woman, leaping, grabbing, stabbing or using your ever-present rope to murder or subdue the royal guards spread across the city like a virus. The beginning of Shadwen follows two women - a ruthless assassin and a frightened little girl - through the underbelly and streets of a Victorian-era city. Despite my hunch that this should work about as well as mixing orange juice and toothpaste, Frozenbyte has created something really intriguing - something that, despite itself, feels new. Shadwen's discordant mix of borrowed mechanics hails from some of the best and most innovative games in recent memory. In fact, based on what we saw at GDC 2016, it might be the opposite of that kind of game.īut here's the thing: That's no problem at all. Shadwen, developer Frozenbyte's upcoming action stealth title, is not that kind of game.
Still, every once in a great while, a game comes along that forces you to rethink assumptions that had been obvious moments ago. It's a rare occurrence, that tectonic shift in worldview. The first game that gobsmacked me as an adult was Metal Gear Solid, because it turned the basic idea of video games - confront and kill every enemy - on its head.
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