Game Info Box Art N/A Platform PS4 Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment Developer Heavy Spectrum Release Date May 17, 2016

Do you have fond memories of Shadow of the Beast? No, not Altered Beast, that retro grave was already desecrated in Europe and Japan in 2005. We're talking about Shadow of the Beast. Let's say you do, in fact, have a soft spot for the 1989 cult classic from Reflections and Psygnosis. Despite the lengthy development time (the remake was announced way back in 2013) you're eagerly waiting to see how demonic warrior Aarbron has made the leap to modern platforms. If that describes you, then you ... you had better sit down. There is much wrong with Shadow of the Beast Shadow of the Beast was a standout when it was originally released on Amiga computers, largely for the parallax scrolling graphics that put so many of its contemporaries to shame. It also had one heck of a cool score. The remake of Shadow of the Beast being released in 2016 by Heavy Spectrum has neither of these advantages to lean on. It's got some interesting art choices and a decent soundtrack, but neither are radical enough to stand on. No, this new Shadow of the Beast has to live or die by its mechanics and ... well, it certainly does one of those things. Spare me a paragraph to sum up the story: Aarbron is a magic baby turned into a mindless demon warrior by an evil wizard named Maletoth. But when Maletoth charges him with tracking down another magic baby (greedy), Aarbron also kills the baby's human guardian ... who just happens to be his own human father. The unintentional patricide reminds him what he once was, and sets him on a quest for vengeance against Maletoth.

Shadow of the Beast is, like its predecessor, a two-dimensional brawler that, unlike its predecessor conflates hyper-violence with modernity (Aarbron's hands are two big murder prongs for crying out loud). Sadly, in the pursuit of stylishly violent combat animation, Heavy Spectrum has sacrificed fluidity and fun. There is much wrong with Shadow of the Beast, but most of it daisy chains back to this: It's sluggish. Button presses feel less like commands and more like suggestions. I lost count of how many times I got hit with a cheap shot from behind because I was performing some stylish attack animation on the monster in front of me. Every fight feels like it's being conducted in a vat of half-congealed Jello. Aarbron has some special moves, like an attack that siphons health or one that ups the experience points he's awarded for each fight. But the demonic warrior controlled so poorly, I was almost always rewarded for my flashiness by getting sucker punched. I learned to stick with the basic dodge-punch-repeat-forever combo. I can't imagine a game good enough to claw its way out of a core gameplay loop of perfectly blended boredom and frustration. Shadow of the Beast doesn't even come close. For starters, the sluggishness bleeds into the platforming segments that surround the combat. Every jump is granted an added layer of tension when it's anyone's guess as to when Aarbron will decide to leave the ground after the "X" button is pressed. The platforming feels terrible, and it makes it discouraging to unearth secrets hidden throughout each level when getting around feels so bad. Here's the hitch: If you don't seek those secrets out, you probably won't have any clue what's happening in the story. Baffling as it may sound, the actually surprisingly decent tale of Aarbron's vengeance must be unlocked piecemeal via hidden collectibles. Actually collecting those spheres requires you to waste one of Aarbron's extremely powerful screen-clearing special attacks. I have no idea why. There's a lot I'm in the dark about regarding Shadow of the Beast, so poorly did it communicate with me. I got stuck for a full hour because I couldn't find a mission-critical item better hidden than any of the game's secret collectibles. Shadow of the Beast actually works itself up to a few half-decent puzzles, but they were only admirable after I stumbled into a solution, because in the moment they hovered between baffling and infuriating.