Shadow Man: Remastered has just arrived on Steam with a 25% launch discount thanks to Nightdive Studios and comic publisher, Valiant Entertainment. This remaster is far more than just a new coat of paint with the ability to run at high resolutions, though. Nightdive has put in the effort to restore the metroidvania adventure to the way the original developers intended. This means several cut levels are now being seen by fans for the first time. The restored content is by no means meager either, as there are three large new maps in this edition of the game:
- “Summer Camp, Florida” (Day and Night)
- “Salvage Yard, Mojave Desert” (Day and Night)
- “Asylum Station 2 – Experimentation Rooms”
Some of these levels had to be rebuilt from scratch, but there are many other improvements, too. Some dark souls were moved into the new levels, as there are still a total of 120 of them to collect in all. Nightdive has also added three new weapons in this remaster, as well as some new enemies that did not make it into the original game. The Steam page (linked above) also says the remaster includes all secrets from the N64/Dreamcast/PC versions of the original, and some new ones thanks to the newly restored cut content.
In addition to that, the soundtrack has been improved to have much better sound quality. Some cut and/or unused voice dialog has also been restored in Shadow Man: Remastered. You also have the option to switch to the original low-res textures for a more authentic old school experience if you wish.
I should also note here that there is a little bit of content still on the way. The developers created a pinned message in the game’s Steam discussion forums that says a couple of things weren’t ready in time for launch. As a result, they will arrive with the first major update sometime soon.
Shadow Man: Remastered also adds some other new features as well. You can switch equipped weapons much more quickly via the new weapon wheel or use the inventory screen. The pause screen now has a new Cadeaux counter. This very welcome feature lets you see how many you are missing in the current map. Thanks to the three new levels, there are now 666 of them in total, compared to the original game’s 512. The gameplay controls have been improved over the original, and over 30 achievements have been added in the remaster. There is also new lighting and shadows, post processing effects, and tons of fixes, too.
