Somewhat gothic zombie and 1st and 3rd person demon hack and slash
In the patch notes, it said that the sword speed was increased and more save points included. That's good news, as the stock version Shade sword was much too slow and seemed like you'd be interrupted everytime you went to swing at an enemy.
So, I dug out the cd case, reinstalled the game, updated with the patch and played it, this time completely through. Ah, much less frustrating, I must say.
That said, there are still some points about the game which are rather dissapointing. First, the plot-- it's entirely transparent. The cutscene interactions between the hero and his quest giver are poorly done, reveal too much before the ending, and the voice acting is a real cringer. Sound effects are also poorly done... for example, the protagonist's footsteps sound the same whether he's on soil or stone blocks.
Other than the flimsy plot and poor sound, the mechanics of the game are rather fun. You swing your sword, you block and parry, you move around, you swing again. The combat system is entirely up to you. Your timing and your movements make all the difference. This is a refreshing change of pace from D&D based games in which the combat is generally automatically done.
Your character doesn't really grow any stronger in Shade: he doesn't gain any new health bonus or the like, instead, you have the option of upgrading your sword or demon as the game progresses.
The demon is what you summon to cast spells and push and pull things around, ala tomb raider. Other than pushing and pulling things around and perhaps a few first hits on a particularly strong enemy, the demon is basically worthless. You can only summon him for a few breif seconds and his spells are dissapointing, to say the least.
I saved up 200 tears for the ultimate apocolype spell and it couldn't even kill a single enemy. Not only that, his spells take time to cast. Generally, when you summon him, it's because you're in mortal peril and you need assistance asap. Under those circumstances, what he's used for is basically to pummel the enemy with his claws. You can't cast spells while he's being hit, which rather defeats the purpose of having them to begin with. So, in order to cast that 200 tear apocolypse spell, you have to summon him up prior to combat and edge forward toward the enemy and then wait till you you think it will be in range, cast it and hope it completes casting prior to the enemy closing the distance and hitting you. Probably, the only useful spell you should get for him is Immortality. That's very useful and casts very fast, other than that, forget it. For this reason, If I played it again, I'd likely chose the sword upgrades instead of the demon ones.
In sum, Shade is decent gothic twitch-based hack and slash which if you play it just for the hack and slash fun, it's decent. Don't expect amazing graphics, sound and plot, like Half Life 2 or anything. :)
Alz