Serpentaurs, for example, can divide into multiple enemies, while the doglike 'Fang' creatures can lasso you with their tongues and yank you into their gaping maws. It's entirely possible to create a rocket launcher that fires toxic shells, or a bow that shoots scattering arrows that explode upon impact.Д®nemies, too, come in many shapes and sizes. What's more, all weapons can be customised through a range of generated upgrades. Yet unlike the incremental randomness of Borderlands, each is distinct enough to warrant investigation. Not every weapon is unique, with many move-sets and reload animations repeated. Melee weapons such as plasma spitting shortswords and Wolverine-like claws are devilishly enjoyable too, although with larger enemies it can feel like you're flailing your weapons in front of them, rather than actually striking them. The nailguns are excellent and the gauss cannons extraordinary. But it's the more bizarre inclusions that are often the most fun. The weapon roster is truly huge, including a small army's worth of FPS staples like pistols, revolvers, shotguns, auto-shotguns, machineguns, grenade launchers and rocket launchers.

Only Wang's katana retains its lethality, its charged stab and 'vortex' power attacks carrying a satisfying heft.ДЄfter 30 minutes or so, however, Shadow Warrior 2 reveals its strongest asset - diversity. The revolver and the shotgun lack punch, while the machine-pistol puffs with all the force of an e-cigarette. The introductory weapons are depressingly underpowered. As for the shooting itself, I must admit at first I was concerned that the developers had cocked it up. Shadow Warrior 2 certainly doesn't shortchange you on the action, boasting amongst its features a dynamic dismemberment system that evokes conflicting memories of Soldier of Fortune's GHOUL technology. Shadow Warrior 2's levels are procedurally generated. Also, most of the time you're too busy painting the landscape in gushing scarlet to pay much attention to the finer details. Each level is a jumbled lump of theme, and apart from, say, the time of day or the weather conditions, there's nothing to make a specific mission stand out in the way that a planet in No Man's Sky might. The algorithm never puts out anything particularly memorable. While each environment-type is visually striking and attractive, the fact they're procedurally generated makes little impact upon the act of play. Meanwhile, the centre of the map is dominated by cramped Japanese townscapes with meandering roads and twisting alleyways, and fractured countryside undercut by cave systems and sprinkled with Buddhist temples. In the Northeast for example, is Zilla City, a towering, neon-soaked metropolis patrolled by cyborg ninjas and ED-209 like mechs (clearly the developers have been to Newcastle). The location of the mission on the map roughly determines what the level will look like and the kinds of enemies that Wang will face. Missions are acquired in a small hub-like area named Dragon Mountain, where Lo Wang can also buy weapons and upgrades, and hang out in his 'Wang Cave.' These missions are then accessed via a map, at which point Wang automatically teleports to that location. Instead, we're presented with a semi-open world arrangement where both story and side missions take place in procedurally generated level layouts. Of all the changes made in Lo Wang's latest outing, the most significant is how it eschews the traditional FPS structure of its predecessor entirely. Like a gun made of skulls, Shadow Warrior 2 doesn't work as well as it could, but it's rather fun watching it try. But I also believe that ultimately it's more entertaining. Mechanically it's messier than both those games, perched precariously as it is on a suitcase filled to bursting with different systems.

The result is a shooter that's a little bit Destiny and a little bit Borderlands, all slathered in the gleeful violence and self-deprecatingly scatological humour transposed from the developer's first stab at Shadow Warrior.

The astonishing array of armaments in Shadow Warrior 2 is one of a litany of changes for the sequel to Flying Wild Hog's surprisingly good reboot.

Shadow warrior 2