Shade: Wrath of Angels is a chilling, cutting edge, 3D, action-horror title that will. DEVELOPER: Bohemia Interactive; RELEASE DATE: November 2, 2004. Going into 2004, a tremendous amount of new additions came to the genre, with the original Fable, Half Life 2 and Second Sight hitting store shelves. It was easy to get lost in the midst of all of these releases, and unfortunately that is exactly what happened to the game I am reviewing today – Shade: Wrath of Angels.
Shade: Wrath of Angels is a 3rd person perspective action, horror, adventure game where intrigue grips the player as our hero begins to unravel the mystery surrounding his brothers’ disappearance.Our hero receives a strange and ominous letter from his brother asking him to travel to a small mountain town. Together with the letter the envelope contains a strange item, roughly resembling some type of key. Puzzled, our hero surmises that his brother is in serious trouble and without hesitation hurries to rescue him.As the story unfolds, our Hero embarks an intrepid adventure across 4 alternative words; the Present Day, Middle Ages, Ancient Egypt and The Shadow Land where nothing is what it seems as you solve puzzles and battle Demons, Angels, Zombies, Mummies, Rats, Shadows and much, much worse.The aim is like no other: Find an Angel and collect their Torn Souls at the end of each world experience.
Failure is not an option, if you want to see your brother alive.Black Element Software has created their own very impressive 3D engine with vast environments creating the most unforgettable horror experience for the PC in Autumn 2004.Key features:# More than 30 levels# Thrilling atmosphere# More than 20 scary enemies# Graphics of the very highest quality# Cinematic storytelling# Spell casting# Close Combat# Traveling through time and dimensions.
Action/Adventure is a pretty broad term when it comes to video game genres. In fact, you’ll struggle to find a game which doesn’t fit this category in today’s climate.
Whilst the definition was a little clearer in the mid-2000’s, it was unfortunately a genre that was losing traction due to a never-ending slew of disappointments and generic rip-offs. Even the Queen of the genre had taken a bad turn in 2003 when Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness finally dropped, and it seemed as though the crown was up for grabs. Going into 2004, a tremendous amount of new additions came to the genre, with the original Fable, Half Life 2 and Second Sight hitting store shelves. It was easy to get lost in the midst of all of these releases, and unfortunately that is exactly what happened to the game I am reviewing today – Shade: Wrath of Angels.Originally titled Nefandus, Shade was the first game developed by Italian studio Black Element Software, who would go on to make two more titles before being acquired by Bohemia Interactive. The studio has never really garnered much success, both when alone and when under Bohemia’s umbrella, and it’s not hard to see why. Shade was published by Polish publishing house, CENEGA, who don’t even have an English Wikipedia entry.
Their marketing efforts were heavily aimed towards Central Europe, and although the game was fully playable in English, the company failed to market their game at all in UK or US markets. The developers second title, Alpha Prime was published by Meridian4 and IDEA Games, who are also both absent from Wikipedia. It seems like the company was cursed with poor marketing and no-name publishers from the get-go, which is a real shame as there is a lot of talent among the team at Black Element, and Shade displays a lot of potential and some great ideas.Shade was met with negative reviews upon release, and IGN, PC Gamer and GameSpy all slated the game for a myriad of reasons, accumulatively resulting in a 50/100 score on MetaCritic.
The reasons ranged from the game’s control scheme to the supposed lack of originality and polish. The user reviews tell a very different story, with several positive reviews leading the charge in the battle against the overly-critical MetaScore.
Wrath of Angels puts you in the shoes of a true American badass intent on finding his missing brother through any means necessary. The beginning of the game features our protagonist on a train to see his brother, an archaeologist on the verge of a huge discovery.
This discovery leads to the town being abandoned, and the player must follow the orders of a mysterious spectre in order to save his brother, and the world, from eternal damnation. The player is bestowed with the ability to transform into a powerful demon and is handed a divine sword to use on his journey. Along his journey he must collect the hearts of four angels and restore order to the realms. Each heart is divided into three pieces, and each piece inhabits a new level, with the game boasting 30 hours of gameplay, though realistically this can be breezed through in around 10. Each of the games 4 overarching chapters are set within different realms, initially the player is thrust into the medieval world, in which they must battle skeletons, zombies and knights – the environments here are reminiscent of some of the early levels in Painkiller, and the latter chapters in the Egyptian realm and the Shadowlands are closer to Serious Sam and Silent Hill respectively. The enemy types change throughout these chapters, which helps the game feel varied and small puzzles litter the levels and keep you thinking as you mow down enemy after enemy in Shade’s fantastic combat.The majority of the combat in Shade involves engaging in swordfights. Enemies block well and you must really think before striking, or risk sustaining a hefty amount of damage.
You need to wait for an opening whilst blocking and dodging, and then choosing where to hit your enemy is key. The combat in Wrath of Angels is what kept me entertained throughout, when the story got a little convoluted and complicated, I knew that the combat would keep me on my toes and keep me pushing through to get to the end, and I never got bored of it. When you use your divine sword, your magic meter decreases with each hit, but luckily, Shade manages to mix up the combat further by allowing you to pick up the weapons of your fallen foes and use them at no cost. This gives you access to maces and halberds and other weapons that aren’t too popular in gaming.
Lots of games allow the player to use a sword, but when was the last time you caved a sphinx’s head in with a Morningstar?In addition to this, you can transform into a demon and impale your enemies with your sizable claws. The demon also has access to a variety of magical attacks that can be purchased from the game’s store with orbs you find littered on the battlefields. There’s a huge choice available and fireballs and telekinesis are just the tip of the iceberg. The demon also has the ability to move large blocks to assist with one of the game’s weaker elements, the platforming. Platforming is almost synonymous with the action-adventure genre at this point, and I feel like most players don’t’ want it to be. Camera angles were notoriously bad in hack & slash games of the time and Shade is no exception here. 90% of my deaths were related to mis-calculated jumps and dives, and a large chunk of the game relied on platforming sections.
This really left me feeling taken out of the action as the amount of times I had to reload my last checkpoint, just to kill the same enemies on my way to the same platforming section and falling to my death at the same jump was monotonous at best.Although these segments are weak and frustrating, they were not enough to mar the entire experience for me. I have no doubt that Shade: Wrath of Angels is a game I will revisit in the future and that to me speaks wonders.
No, you won’t get the described 30 hours of gameplay out of it, but who has the time to invest 30 hours into an obscure Italian action game published by an obscure Polish developer nowadays? Do yourself a favour and take Shade out for a spin. Tracking down a copy might prove a little difficult, but if you don’t enjoy the combat enough to make it worth it I will personally apologise to you over a friendly breakfast.3.5/5ProsIn-Depth Combat MechanicsVariety of Enemies, Weapons and EnvironmentsConsShoddy Platforming SegmentsConvoluted Storyline.