Graphics and Sound

Lookin' Good

Shadow Man uses a 3D engine called VISTA (Virtually Integrated Scenic TerrAin), which allows you to see the as far as the horizon without a need for obscuring fog. It also apparently incorporates a 'softskin' system for depicting characters within the game. While the characters do look pretty good, especially in cutscenes, they're pretty standard fare for a current 3D game (and really, what isn't?). You can rotate your camera around Shadow Man, which is handy, and the game runs quite well, which is extra handy. On our testbed system (Celeron 400 w/TNT2 16M), we ran the game in 1024x768x32 with Trilinear Filtering and all options set to high quality, and experienced no slowdown whatsoever.

So, while the in-game graphics were nice, the coolest looking graphics related to Shadow Man that we've seen are actually some concept sketches we got our hands on. Check these out:

Brutal Killer

Serial Killer

Shadow Man's true form

Soundin' Better

While graphics in Shadow Man may be run-of-the mill, sound is anything but. Plenty of attention was paid to the detail in the sound in order to immerse you in the realm of Deadside. Walking on wood makes a different noise than walking on stone. Zombie souls moan in torment as they lie undead, and then scream in agony as your shadow gun tears their souls apart.

Indeed, Shadow Man's sound effects definitely won't let you down, but where the game really shines (if anything in the game can be said to shine) is ambient sounds. One of the creepiest parts of the game is a section of the Asylum (the evil realm designed by Jack the Ripper) known as The Playrooms. Within its dark corridors and bloodstained walls, you will hear things like the gurgling and laughter of young children - followed, sporadically, by spine-tingling screams. You never really see any children; instead, you often walk into a room where large bloody ghouls are savagely attacking a large, unmoving clump of meat.

A puzzler of a room?

Hang on . . .