RPGWatch @ Gamescom - Shadows: Awakening

When Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms was released, it was not the game the developers wanted to release. As a result book 2 of the game was promised, but in the end coul dnot be delivered. Now Shadows: Awakening promises to be an improved version of its predecessor combined with the missing book 2.

Shadows: Awakening is an isometric real time tactical action RPG that combines both Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms book 1 and book 2 into one new game, with enhanced graphics (using Unity), enhanced gameplay and a better performance. And indeed the game does look a lot better from their previous game which was made using the Ogre 3D engine.

The road to this game has been challenging. The developers from Games Farm released together with publisher bitcomposer, Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms ahead of its time. This created quite a debate amongst the fans, but the intention was that the missing parts of the game, book 2, would follow shortly after that. That didn't happen. Bitcomposer went out of business and Games Farm was unable to complete the rest of the game as they did not have the license. Now that those licensing issues have been solved, Kalypso Media is bringing this new game to the market. Those players who were promised to get book 2 for free, will indeed get Shadows: Awakening for free.

More information.

Here is what I have been told about Shadows: Awakening.

I enjoyed the original game quite a bit, so I'm looking forward to this. It will certainly be nice to finally be able to finish the story.

I'm not sure I see the 'tactical' element of this game? The video makes it seems like a regular diabloesque hak and slash (I know nothing about the first game).

Played the first game, wanted to like it, liked the character choices but the gameplay was slow and boring

Originally Posted by booboo
I'm not sure I see the 'tactical' element of this game? The video makes it seems like a regular diabloesque hak and slash (I know nothing about the first game).

The video certainly makes it look like a Diablo clone, but there's a little more to it than that. You have to use the Shadow Realm, sort of an alternate dimension, to solve problems and gain resources and things like that. It's been a while since I played, so my memory may be off a bit. The combat is pretty hack and slash, but the game is a little more involved than would be typical. Calling it a tactical game may be stretching a bit, though; unless the new game is going to emphasize that aspect more.