REVIEW – Frozenbyte is back again with a game. Hasn’t it been just months since Trine 3? I can’t remember! Too bad that Shadwen wasn’t able to bring the devs back to the spotlight that they managed to get into with the first two Trine games.

First impression? I am crouch walking to be stealthy. I see a tent in the early moments of the game – I decide to go under it. I ended up seeing Lily (the name of the little girl, one of the main characters) clipping into the tent. Her head went through the tent. LOL – is this game seriously developed by Frozenbyte? I cannot believe that. I thought that Trine going into 3D was already a bad sign… and it’s sad that Shadwen isn’t any better either.

Push

If Shadwen only had the gameplay mechanic of getting from point A to point B, it would have been outdated by two, three console generations. Thankfully, we can do a few other things, allowing interaction with a few – but not all! – things in the environment. Push this box here, make some sound with the bottles on the floor, hide in the hay. Meanwhile, my finger is always on the R1 button.

Let’s talk about the gameplay: we can stop the time, and we can rewind too if we get a Game Over (you get that text if seen – it’s not an arcade game, it should have said something else like „You have been spotted!”). Pressing/holding R1 makes time go, which would only happen otherwise if we keep moving. You have to use R1 a lot to make that guard walk out of your way. I need to mention that Game Over again, though. The term itself isn’t fitting – seeing how you can rewind without limitation, I’d rather call this Notgameover. This issue completely throws out the challenge. I didn’t expect THIS from the devs of Trine!

Shadwen, the titular character, can use a grappling hook to get through some obstacles easier. It wouldn’t be that terrible, but the way the camera moves around when I use it is disturbing. I hope Dishonored 2’s Emily won’t pull the same puke inducing camera movement off. Also, Shadwen can get rid of guards. Let me ask a question.

How can a guard get killed by an object that fell for less than a meter? It might not have been that much either – pushing things on guards kill them immediately. LOL! Of course, you can’t do it all the time without penalty: you must hide the guards’ bodies, so if you can’t find a place to put them, it will come back to bite you in the ample posterior. The – terrible – AI will spot them, go to hit the alarm, and then you get the Notgameover. (Make sure to keep track of their vision.)

AIling

The AI is dumb… so why should I bother crafting better traps? After a while, I even stopped making those poison darts that you can put on walls because the AI can be quite ridiculous at some points. While the guards can kill Shadwen immediately (don’t even try frontal attacks!), Lily seems to be a tough nut for the AI to crack.

They weren’t able to catch the little girl on multiple occasions. This breaks both the gameplay and the ambiance. Not only we have an easy game due to Game Overs not having any significant effect, but we also have to see Lily breaking the „don’t be seen” promise. This is not a joke

Moral?

Story? I don’t even remember why Shadwen had to get rid of the king. Perhaps Frozenbyte should have fixed the gameplay first to have more than zero challenge. There’s also the moral system regarding Lily’s innocence (you shouldn’t kill guards right in front of her, etc.), but after hearing that even the audio is average, I kind of lost interest altogether.

The guards’ voices weren’t that good, effectively making the audio part of the game an awkward mixture. To say a positive thing about Shadwen (it only took me 3700 characters to get here!), I liked its art style. Not the best looking, but I enjoyed what I saw.

No.

This game is far from the things we have previously seen from Frozenbyte. Trine’s first two installments are further and further away. I can’t recommend playing this game. If it ends up as a free PS Plus title, only then I’d say give it a try if you have a few free hours – playing through the game would still possibly be out of the question.

-V-

Publisher: Frozenbyte

Developer: Frozenbyte

Genre: Stealth

Release date: May 17, 2016 (PC, PS4)