Shade: Wrath of Angels

After spending no less than three years in development, Cenega’s action adventure game, Shade: Wrath of Angels, is finally looking to hit store shelves this fall. The latest build of the game showcased some fantastic new graphics and an updated storyline. While there are a few tweaks required here and there, the game is shaping up very nicely and should be a survival-horror title to check out this Halloween.

In Shade, you play as a man on a quest to find his brother. This quest will take the player to several exotic locations, like the Middle Ages, ancient Egypt and a mysterious place called the Shadow Lands. Each location boasts several different enemies and weapons unique to each the time period and area, as well as an extra piece of the puzzle concerning your brother’s odd disappearance. The storyline is very intriguing, told through cutscenes and in-game events, such as daydreams or visions that your character has in certain sections.

Your main weapon in Shade is a magical sword that you can upgrade as you progress through your journey. Using the sword, you can perform a variety of different combos in order to defeat your opponents. This can be achieved by charging the sword and pressing a combination of movement buttons. While you do have access to a few ranged weapons (like a gun or a crossbow), the main focus of the combat system is melee combat. There were a few collision detection issues, not just in the combat system but also in the platform jumping, but nothing that can’t be cleaned up before the game goes gold.

One cool feature in the game is the ability to change into a demon for a brief period of time. You receive the demon as a servant from a mysterious being that serves as an advisor to you on your quest. This demon will allow your character to perform special magic attacks and defeat difficult enemies.

Cenega went a long way to update the graphics in Shade, and the results are pretty impressive. The game takes full advantage of DirectX 9 and features great bump mapping, shadows and lighting effects. The spell effects are also pretty good-looking, and the character models and environments are very well done. All in all, the graphical presentation looks great.

The sound effects are shaping up pretty nicely, but there is still work to be done. The musical score adds a lot of atmosphere to the game, and sounds pretty good. However, there is still a lot of sound work, like final voice effects, that has to be done.

While still in the beta stage, Shade is already offering up some really impressive graphics, fun gameplay and an interesting storyline. If the development continues as planned and the necessary tweaks are made, Shade could be a great action adventure game.