The actual gameplay of Shadwen manages to compose an appealing amalgamation of realism and cartoonesque visuals – with the areas you stealth your way through adequately setting the scene for your medieval mutiny. Without the visuals to accentuate the delivery of the dialogue – the effectiveness of these scenes are not felt due to the conversations not being engaging enough on their own.

Unfortunately, when subject to the previously mentioned load screens, the dialogue is only accompanied by what appears to be an overhead image of the kingdom. The cutscenes are only slightly animated but the hand drawn/hand painted appearance of these scenes ooze charm and more than compensate for the lack of animation. Eavesdropping on conversations between guards also fleshes out the story by providing further information on the current state of the royal landscape.ĭespite my problems with Shadwen’s overall narrative, the cutscenes feature a wonderfully rustic art style that effectively sets the tone of the game.

The progression of the story is predominantly delivered via dialogue between Shadwen and Lily during load screens with cutscenes acting as bookends for the overall story. It’s an understandable reason for committing some treason but it’s essentially the only thing that is used to define Shadwen as a character. As a result of this, Lily’s characterisation felt like it was ultimately reduced down to a plot device driven mechanic.Īs for Shadwen’s characterisation and motivations for her intended assassination – they don’t seem to extend past wanting to kill the king because of his immoral ways of ruling his kingdom. Her presence on your journey is one that is quite jarring. As Lily has nobody and nowhere to go – why not instruct her to wait in a safe location until you return from your deadly duty. Despite my actions affecting the story – I found it hard to be immersed in the world because I couldn’t understand why Shadwen would put a young girl in another dangerous situation after rescuing her from one just moments before. If Lily witnesses you kill anyone as you maneuver your way through areas, you are notified that this will affect the overall story. There’s not even a reason given as to why Shadwen cannot open the doors herself.

However, there is nothing remarkable about the doors or the ability in which she opens them. Lily’s accompaniment is unconvincingly justified through a game mechanic in which she is able to open doors that enables you to progress to the next area. After rescuing her from a dangerous situation and for reasons that are never fully explained – Shadwen bizarrely allows (begrudgingly) Lily to accompany her on what’s sure to be a child friendly journey of assassination. If you make a mistake or are caught in the act, you can rewind time to amend your mistakes because hey, no assassin’s perfect!īefore your blade gets a chance to meet the king’s neck – you have a chance encounter with an orphaned girl called Lily. Besides the throat slitting and trap setting of your everyday assassin – time progresses when Shadwen is in motion. However, Shadwen is a stealth-action game with a twist. Frozenbyte Inc’s (creators of Trine) latest effort puts you in the stealthy shoes of a female assassin called Shadwen who’s on a quest to commit treason of the highest order.

Shadwen loading screen