Could have been better
For those unfamiliar to the series, Shadow Man is a man that's given the power to cross freely between the world of the living and the dead, only one exist at a time and their duty is keeping a balance in both worlds. The present Shadow man is Mike LeRoi, a failed english litrature turned hitman turned voodoo warrior.
The first thing that fans of the previous game will notice is the graphical update, the characters and levels looked way better way better than the original, with plenty to look at and levels to explore. For newcomers however, will find the visuals plain and unimpressive compared to other games available on the PS2.
The gameplay is as follows; you start out in Mike's bar beating the local thugs and exploring the city streets. In daytime you play as Mike and are limited to human weapons such as guns and shotguns, but when nighttime strikes you'll transform to Shadow Man and be able to use a wider arsenal of voodoo based weapons that'll allow to to dispose of enemies faster. Eventually you'll come across Mama Netie, a voodoo priestess that'll tell you that the big demos are up to no good again. Eventually you'll be able to travel to deadside and that's where you'll do most of the exploring, liveside, the deadside worlds are huge and change drastically depending on what part you're in. That's alot where you'll do the heavy fighting, as deadside is filled with a large variety of demons
As weird as it may sound, the item that allows to freely travel between both world and any other area you reached is a Teddy bear. Every time you "die" you'll be given the choice to transport back to any check point, while this is a convenient means of transportation it also provides on of the biggest flaws with the game mainly because (given the small fact that you cant die) you'll simply continue right where you left off. You can even do this when fighting the game's various bosses, a shame really because it takes a lot of the challenge out of the game.
My biggest disappointment with the game is that, while still being a great horror game in it's own right, it's nowhere near as dark as the previous game. But that's a small problem that only old fans might have a problem with.
If you're looking for a dark adventure game with plenty to explore and collect, than Shadow Man: 2econd Coming will not disappoint.