Shadow Blade: Reload Review

Although I was disheartened at first to find I was reviewing another speedrun game, I shouldn’t have been. Sure it was about a ninja, but it was single timed levels. I shouldn’t have worried, even with this Early Access game.

Taking control of a ninja with no backstory, you must get through the fifty levels as quickly as possible, murdering innocent thugs and avoiding deadly spikes in a 2D setting. Upon completing the level you get scored on your time and how many people you killed, using your katana or shuriken.

You can slice your way through the level, but some of the enemies have guns - others have homing missile-launchers. So although you could run over and stab that guy, you might get shot in the time it takes to reach him - throw a shuriken. Some take multiple shuriken to kill, so you can throw three in a row - then must wait while they each recharge. Using your sword you can drop down on enemies to kill them, or dash at them. However it’s always easier to sneak up on them from behind.

The levels are laid out very well, with some hidden collectables like glowing green Kanji (Japanese words). They add to your points, so the best thing to do is run as fast as you can and collect everything - a ninja only kills when necessary. Unless you’re playing Tenchu - then you kill because it’s hilarious.

Your points are important thanks to the recent update of leaderboards. Due to them being brand new, I actually reached the top of for a few levels. Because nobody else had played them yet…

There are several worlds so far, with more levels in active development. There are also three difficulties for each level, changing the layout in various ways. It’s quite fun, instead of the lazy way of just adding ten enemies instead of one, they have put in more walls and a ton more spikes, for instance.

The graphics are nice and moody, the kill animations nice and smooth and backgrounds well designed. Depending on where you are when you press the attack button, it will do a different attack, which always look impressive. Each enemy looks distinct, so you know when you will have to avoid gunfire or rockets. The music also fits the modern-ninja look with a nice fast beat.

Each level is well designed and you’re never left feeling cheated by a death. It helps that the only thing dying does is return you to the last checkpoint you passed - though it doesn’t reset your time. You can wall-jump and double-jump, as well as dash in mid-air, so there are plenty of chances to avoid all but the most persistent of heat-seeking missiles.

Apart from the campaign, there is a Race mode, however I was unable to test it as it requires other players. There is also a Dojo Builder which you can use to build you own levels, however there isn't yet a facility to share them. It is very easy to use to create anything from a small room to a larger level. Every enemy and platform type is available to use, so you can create anything from literally impossible levels to milk runs. You can save them though, so presumably you will soon be able to share them.

It’s an enjoyable game which doesn’t really have any flaws. The only things that let it down are things that aren't implemented already. Given it's in Early Access, it will probably gain them over the coming weeks. It may only have fifty levels, but those are the normal difficulty with more on their way. There are a number of levels to play on other difficulties, so there will be at the very least 150 levels by the time it comes out of Early Access - and likely a lot more to come

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEkfFaEPuCA