Shadows: Awakening Preview

Shadows: Awakening, Kalypso Media and Games Farm’s upcoming isometric RPG, can currently be pre-ordered on Steam, which will get you into the closed beta ahead of the projected late summer 2018 release. And if you’d like to know a bit more about this game before purchasing it, you can check out this GameWatcher preview that offers a fairly detailed look at its systems. An excerpt:

Mechanically and in terms of presentation, Shadows: Awakening will inevitably be compared to the Diablo games, and this is understandable. It is an isometric RPG with a control scheme and loot system very similar to Diablo, however there are plenty of differences as well.

Though Awakening has its share of dungeons, they are not the huge, sprawling multi-tier gauntlets Blizzard’s titles became famous for. Instead, Shadows: Awakening opts for a more standard quest structure we see in other RPGs, with various objectives and side-quests being present in each area.

A major element of the game is switching between the Devourer and any of the mortal party members. As the Devourer, you inhabit the shadow realm, which contains different enemies, NPCs, interactable objects and minor changes to the map. While an ancient bridge may have collapsed in the material world, switching to the shadow realm will repair the damage with floaty runed stones allowing you to cross.

Switching between the various characters is what the game is built upon. As you progress and start filling up those slots, you’ll begin encountering nuanced bosses which require the use of the abilities of different puppets, as the game calls them. Early on in the game you’ll already be met with enemies that will need to be damaged both in the shadow realm and in the material world before they can be defeated.