Red Storm has achieved critical acclaim with their first-person
tactical combat series Rainbow Six. They've even indulged in the
real-time strategy market with Force 21, a game that asked the
question, "What if World War III broke out?" The next venue for
Red Storm appears to be the turn-based strategy genre, with the
release of Shadow Watch. There's a fine line between a good idea
and a good game though. It's called delivery and it's something
that Shadow Watch fails miserably to achieve.
Shadow Watch is a turn-based strategy game with comic book
overtones. It boasts a graphic style that is as unique as it's
randomized gameplay, but neither feature seems to deliver the
goods. The storyline revolves around a secret organization of
operatives sent to uncover a nefarious plot to stop humanity's
advancement to the stars. You've been selected to lead this elite
crack team and through your various travels you'll be required to
interrogate contacts, rescue hostages, plant surveillance devices
and assault enemy strongholds as you uncover a red tape plot that
is as confusing as it is dull.
One of the highlights of Shadow Watch is its dynamic campaign
generation. The game plays out over three separate cities, Rio de
Janeiro, Baikonnur and Hong Kong. There are five missions per
city with the climatic finale at a special locale. Within each city
there are a number of possible subplots. Shadow Watch boasts 162
unique campaign possibilities with your particular path
determined via interaction with particular contacts. Conversations
with those specific contacts determine which missions will unfold
and in which order. The problem is that this randomization ends
up creating confusion in terms of the illogical and ever-changing
subplots. Just when it seems like the army is behind the whole
shindig, another contact will suddenly reveal a different subplot.
What results is a series of subplots that just don't string together
well to form a coherent story. By the time you reach the ending,
the whole ordeal is as confusing as a David Conenberg film.
The other highlight of Shadow Watch is the comic book style
graphics approach. Once again, this concept works only on a basic
level. When you play the game through, you realize that the visual
design is as boring as the developing plot. Some gamers will
certainly find the graphics to be very primitive. Those who are
able to enjoy such a unique style of graphics will most certainly
find that the colours are absolutely terrible. Many levels are
saturated with the same colors and many a time I had a hard time
distinguishing certain objects and even doors because the colour
scheme impaired my vision. The fact the resolution is stuck at
640x480 certainly doesn't aid the cause either.
The audio department is one of the few areas where Shadow
Watch excels. The musical score, in particular, is fantastic. Each
city has it's own score and appropriate music at that. For example,
Rio de Janeiro's musical score offers a beautiful Latin flavour and
Hong Kong's tunes show an Asian influence. Unfortunately, the
sound, environmental and voice effects are less than stellar,
perhaps average at best. You'll hear the usual gun fire and
dialogue during battles, but the only highlight in this package is
the little quips that your character spurts out when he's wounded.
Shadow Watch fails miserably in many
other categories as well. Enemy intelligence is laughable. There are three
difficulty settings; easy, normal and hard. The difference between
each setting is simply the number of baddies around each level
and how alert each of the guards are. The enemies are kind
enough to walk one behind another in a straight line, making it
easy to pick them off with sniper rifles. Control is also rather
limiting in that tactical controls consist solely of crouch, cover, run,
walk and firing. There is relatively no control in terms of
sequencing your squad, so the tactical component is taken out
completely. It basically seems like you're trying to decipher the
order of events that will result in success, rather than looking for
solutions to single problems. In other words, there's really only one
way to complete each level.
Finally, the last destructive point in Shadow Watch is the size of
the maps within each mission. Many of the environments are
extremely petite and only feature one level. That's right, there are
no stairs or elevators leading to other floors, everything takes
place on one level. If you've played such turn-based strategy titles
as Jagged Alliance and the X-Com series, you'll find that the
missions in Shadow Watch are extremely small and simplistic.
Shadow Watch is a good idea gone wrong. I'm a fan of the
turn-based tactical strategy format but Shadow Watch fell short of
expectations, well short. The unique elements that were
implemented into the game just don't work at all. The bottom line:
Shadow Watch isn't worth your gaming time.
Ratings:
[ 08/20 ] Graphics
[ 11/15 ] Sound
[ 14/30 ] Gameplay
[ 09/20 ] Fun Factor
[ 02/05 ] Storyline
[ 05/10 ] Overall Impression