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Shadow Man Remastered from Nightdive Studios

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
This is releasing on April 15th.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
This will be out later today:



https://www.pcgamer.com/shadow-man-remastered-is-out-today-so-heres-a-weird-launch-trailer/

Shadow Man: Remastered is out today, so enjoy this weird launch trailer
I don’t know what’s going on in this video, but I’m definitely curious.

Shadow Man was originally released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, and PC. I didn't play it back then, and the excited reaction to last year's PC Gaming Show announcement that Nightdive is bringing it back caught me a little by surprise. But after watching today's Shadow Man: Remastered launch trailer, I am intrigued.

Shadow Man—the man, not the game—is Michael LeRoi, the latest in a long line of possessed voodoo warriors who protect the world of the living from threats crossing over from the land of the dead. That means exploring crime scenes in Louisiana swamplands, a New York tenement building, a prison in Texas, and other locations in the worlds of the living and the dead, using both guns and supernatural powers to send evil back to the darkness from whence it came.

Of course, it won’t be quite that simple—especially after a voodoo priestess shares a prophetic dream of the apocalypse, driven by the five Dark Souls (no, not that one) and a man named Legion.

The remastered edition includes technological updates such as support for 4K resolution, improved lighting, anti-aliasing and ambient occlusion options, and improved AI. It will also feature content cut from the original release, along with bonus material including free digital comic books, the soundtrack, a map, and a 162-page digital strategy guide.

But my favorite thing about it is that it's so damn weird. "As a god, I step forth upon the writhing, suppurating surface of the Deadside Serpent," our narrator, the titular Shadow Man, intones. "What sleep is here, what dreams there are in the unctuous coilings of the snake's mortal shuffling. Weapon in my hand—my hand, the arcing deathblow at the end of all things. The horror. The horror. I embrace it."

OK, what?

"Shadow Man is the perfect franchise for the remaster team at Nightdive Studios," Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick said. "It has a dark, unique setting and is a cult-classic with a significant fan base. We’re extremely pleased with how the remaster turned out and can’t wait for players to jump back into the world of Michael LeRoi, joining his fight to keep Deadside at bay—this time in glorious 4K."

Shadow Man: Remastered is available now on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store at a launch-week discount of 25 percent off its regular $20 price.
 
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Nifft Batuff

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I don't care less about 4k resolution for a game with textures and polygon count from 1999, but I remember the music being particularly good, although in 1999 they used a low quality format to save space in the original cd. Has the music been remastered in HQ?
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
mystery.png
Read the Steam page:

New Audio (from the original games composer, Tim Haywood):
  • Remastered music and SFX
  • New music and SFX for the restored levels
  • Restored cut/unused voice dialog in levels
 

lightbane

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Is there a discount option for those who have the OG game? It doesn't seem so for GOG at least, or I haven't seen it yet.
 

502

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Gave a quick glance at the Steam discussions. The game has negative mouse acceleration, and it's choppy at 144Hz (more precisely, if your refresh rate isn't a multiple of 60).
 
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Is there a market for these bottom-of-the-barrel releases of shitty N64 platformer collectathons from the late 90s?
 

Jack Of Owls

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I played the original when it first came out on PC but quit because those all-important power-pillar thingies all looked the same and I lost my bearings and started feeling the frustration wandering around with little progression so I quit. It was okay otherwise. But yeah, I have to agree - the new remaster almost literally looks like the original N64 game but upscaled to 4X or 5X on some kind of emulator. Pass.
 

Nifft Batuff

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I played the PC version and remember playing it to the end. The game was huge. The atmosphere was memorable and very scary in some levels.
 

Ravielsk

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Lets put it this way. I am glad that even such a "obscure gem" is getting some attention and the restored content is more than welcome but I seriously have to question the price tag. 16,79 € for a 22 year old game even with the added content seems to me like a bit of an over-reach, especially since the OG version already ran fairly fine on modern systems.
I already bought the game once on GoG and somehow I am not really feeling the need to rebuy it at this price point.
 

Owl

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Great deep dive video on the development of the remaster, also comparing it to the original pc and console versions.
(I didn't kow the PS1 version was so terrible, it runs at 10 fps and looks like shit)

 
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Bad Sector

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah that was a very interesting video, especially the part about the Blender-based editor and how the triggers, paths, etc worked (it is obvious they basically remade the game almost from scratch while using existing assets - and even then they made new hires textures anyway - so i guess that explains the price). I do question the wisdom of using Blender with a custom addon as an editor though, Blender is notorious for breaking addon APIs between versions. Then again i guess it being free and open source, you do not really have to use the latest version of Blender anyway.

I do have the original version of Shadowman from GOG so i'm not that interested in the remake - i'll probably buy it at some point in the future at a ~-75% discount for the sake of collecting it, but it isn't exactly a game that grabbed me the first time i tried to play it.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://www.shacknews.com/article/123989/nightdive-studios-ceo-on-shadow-man-remastering-n64-games

Nightdive Studios CEO on Shadow Man & Remastering N64 games
We spoke with the CEO of Nightdive Studios to learn more about the studio's upcoming projects.

Nightdive Studios has become known for its revitalization of defunct game properties. One of its upcoming projects is Shadow Man, a remaster of the 1999 Nintendo 64 game. We spoke with the CEO of Nightdive Studios about Shadow Man, as well as the studio’s work breathing new life into older franchises.

Shacknews’ Head of Video Greg Burke caught up with Stephen Kick, the CEO of Nightdive Studios in order to learn more about the company’s work. The video can be viewed using the embed below. During the interview, the two talk about Nightdive’s latest game, Shadow Man, as well as their work as a whole reviving older gaming properties.

The first couple of Shadow Man games released in the late 90s and early 2000s to moderate success. However, the studio behind them went into bankruptcy, and the rights to the series were scattered about. The Shadow Man franchise sat dormant for roughly a decade until the team at Nightdive began reaching out in 2013 to gauge interest in a series revival.

The Shadow Man remaster is being developed using unused source code from the game’s original release. This will allow the developers to get the game to run properly on modern operating systems. There’s also new lighting and programming techniques being used in combination with the classic Shadow Man assets.

“For this particular remaster, we aren’t changing anything dramatically, so nothing is being remade from scratch.,” Kick said. Shadow Man’s upgraded textures and resolution will allow the game to run in 4K quality. Nightdive Studios has also included content that was scrapped from the game’s original release.

The full interview with Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick can be found on the GamerHubtTV YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe there and to Shacknews for more exclusive developer interviews.
 
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n64 games were either immortal masterpieces or the worst shit i've ever seen, no middle ground. guess which will be chosen.
 

Nifft Batuff

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Has anyone bought this? I've speculatively wishlisted it, but not sure if I can really be arsed.
It's difficult to answer. I consider it a classic, but I have also nostalgia because it was one of the first 3D games I have played. For today standards the the game looks ancient, even in its remastered version, and the gameplay is simplistic. It is also a huge time sink. But, if you like metroidvaina-like exploration and creepy Bosch-esque hellish settings, it's worth a try. The soundtrack is very good (take a look: https://open.spotify.com/album/6BPnCXLL4JWX3evC6eCZxp)
 

Razor

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They added new levels:
  • "Summer Camp, Florida" (Day and Night)
  • "Salvage Yard, Mojave Desert" (Day and Night)
  • "Asylum Station 2 - Experimentation Rooms"
The first one is the Vietnam vet lair
The second one is the DJ killer lair

Together with the original levels this now gives all of the five killers their own respective maps. The Hannibal Lecter in supermax, the home improvement goblin in New York abandoned projects and of course, Jack the Ripper in Londons subways. The Asylum experimentation rooms I recall seeing concept art about it in the book you got at the very, VERY end of this extremely long game.

Basically they restored cut content.

Also WTF does this mean?
  • Levels rearranged as originally intended
It was a kick ass title even back in its day. One of the few games where a negro protagonist does not feel like its showed down your throat or tacked on but is organic to the setting and its themes. Granted this was well before the days of ultra WOKE AS FUCK. You could never do anything like this today with the Voodoo blood magic and disturbing serial killer centric storylines.
 
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Razor

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So I took the bait and played through it. Took some screens for reference.

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So, my thoughts:

PRO-s:

a) improved, crispy textures including new assets like new enemies and mini bosses.
b) new tracks that I dont remember from the original. My favourites:


c) improved controls, way better then I remember from the original. Granted I was playing with a xbox controller and originally I played with a keyboard. In addition it now has a quick access wheel. It might seem a small improvement but it flows so much better with the gameplay as you can quickly change your offhand weapons on the fly compared to the original when you had to go into the inventory page.
d) I forgot just how dark and violent the game is in general atmosphere and setting despite the blocky graphics. You can see glimpses of that in the pics posted, specially the asylum parts with its twisted victorian, industrial look and feel.
e) improved lighting and dynamic shadows. This is a pure fluff piece but in certain scenes it goes a way to build atmosphere. As seen the shadows in the pics move along the room.
f) Three new levels. Like I suspected all the five serial killers now have their respective levels. They are all comparable in size and length to each other with different settings and themes. The third level is a extra one in the Asylum and thematically it fleshes out how the Asylum operates and is supposed to be its R&D apartment. Now as a bonus, if you finish the level 100% you get early access to the Violator, the machine gun seen on the last pic on the left slot. Originally you had to visit at least three serial killer levels to get access to it which meant it was constrained to the last fourth of the game. I take that as a big bonus since I like the look, the sound and the feel of the weapon- so brutal, you can almost feel it rip n' tearing. This and the m-75 guardian heavy machinegun from Soldier of Fortune 1 are one my favourite weapons in game to ever use. Anyway, to balance that you get relatively quickly access to it they constrained the max ammo capacity to 500, compared to 999 of the original. No biggy, I ran out of ammo for it maybe once or twice.

Neutral:
a) there are more enemies, they hit harder, their projectiles travel faster, stay around longer and they have more health. At least it feels that way compared to the original although its been 20 years since I played that. If its true it makes sense if you consider the improved control scheme. You can feel this specially in early games when your guns are weak and health pool is lower.
b) backtracking- there is a lot of backtracking and level exploring involved. If you are the kind who has a bad sense of room/scale and direction you are going to be running around in circles in certain levels.
c) The levels are ordered still exactly like they originally were, expect for the three new levels they inserted. Not sure what those release notes were about.

Bad:
a) I forgot how much I hate platforming, no matter the perspective. Thankfully you get access to the tattoos that make you immune to the various forms of fire so at the end you can pretty much walk past most of it. Also most of the insta death pit platforming is constrained into the wasteland temple sections "to prove your worth" which you will be visiting fairly rarely. Most of the game is centered around the Asylum.
b) Bosses consist of running around in circles and hiding behind objects while spamming both hands. Standard from 20 years ago but with things like Dark Souls/Path of Exile have spoiled me on boss dynamics.

So, is it worth it? IMO yes. Between the improved textures, including costume artwork and new assets, new levels, new mini bosses, new audio, lighting, shadows and most importantly, the way better controls and quick access wheel there is more then enough in here to justify a nostalgic revisit to this title. At least it kept me entertained long enough to actually complete this thing with all of 120 dark souls gathered and all weapons unlocked.
 
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