Shadows: Awakening (2018)

Shadows: Awakening will definitely excite you and draw you into the game thanks to its fun gameplay. For over twenty hours of fun, you'll enjoy a vibrant open world full of mystery, monsters, legends, challenges, puzzles and treasure. If you can get past the aforementioned shortcomings, I can happily recommend the title. It's a bit disappointing that the game from the Slovak developer lacks Czech/Slovak localization.

Shadows: Awakening ultimately fails to be the action RPG that fans of the genre need. It has some interesting ideas and decent writing, but the story shifts to the backburner after a while and the side missions and combat aren't enough to maintain interest through the grind it turns into. It's not bad, it's just not particularly inspiring either. If you need a new diablo-like and a lack of polish or a glut of grind doesn't bother you, there are definitely worse options out there.

A cool mechanic and captivating narration isn't enough to lift this from stock to special, but fans of Tom Baker will find additional rewards as they slog through.

Shadows: Awakening is a nice game with an interesting puzzles, plot elements and the mechanics of moving between dimensions. This is not Diablo or Divinity, but fans of the genre, most likely, would be satisfied.

Shadows: Awakening doesn't do much that is new or interesting, but it does achieve a mostly enjoyable ARPG experience that will appeal to diehard fans of the genre.