As I’m on holiday for a couple of weeks, I generally play video games on a regular basis – most days, in fact. This holiday season, I chose to play Shadow Man: 2econd Coming, which is a game I started once before but never actually finished.
On Saturday (which is when I finished the game), I discovered that I was very close to the end last time I played and it makes me wonder why I didn’t carry on. Perhaps I couldn’t find an essential item. Or maybe work resumed and time became an issue again. I don’t know what the reason was, I’m just glad to be able to report that this time I did finish it.
This game, for me, was extremely difficult in places. I sometimes spent an hour or so attempting one small manoeuvre over and over again. It was frustrating beyond words and I’m ashamed to say that my puppy may have learned that his mummy gets very cranky when she can’t do something almost instantly.
My partner sat watching me play for a while, on several occasions, and he tells me that no matter how frustrating the game might have been for me, it didn’t compare to how frustrated he felt just watching me.
“Oh, have I checked this corner,” he mimicked in a high voice that sounds nothing like me. “Oh, that’s right, I did, but I better check it again…and again…and again.” And then in his own voice, he added, “Just shoot the bastards and move on!”
How rude!
He’s exaggerating, of course, I don’t check the same corner three times…unless I’m lost and don’t realise I’ve checked the corner three times already. And I can’t help checking every corner of every room. I cut my teeth (well, now I’m exaggerating a bit) on Resident Evil and in that game you have to check every inch of every room otherwise you miss something important. That’s been breed into me and I can’t help myself.
Pushing the frustration aside, this is a brilliant game. The graphics aren’t as great as they are these days, but who cares when you’re having fun?! Besides, back in its day they were pretty impressive. Just goes to show how far we’ve come in eight years.
Yes, the game is on PS2, but don’t let a small thing like that stop you from enjoying a great game. Get yourself a console and the game and get started on it today. You won’t be disappointed. I highly recommend this game.
The image is curtesy of Wikipedia.