You lose yourself in the after life, the creepiest game I ever played.
this game is designed so that you get sucked into a depressing world of shadows, an afterlife where only hell exists and all souls suffer, lost in shadows and rotten flesh and searing flames, only madness and despair await the dead and you are the shadow man keeper of the gateways between life and death, you are a conduit of spiritual energy, your mission is to gather the dark souls, spirits of god like power that "legion" is also looking for, legion is, for a lack of a better term, the embodiment of evil, he is the concentrated dark energy of every evil begin that has ever died or is still alive.
as you gather this cocoon like entities you grow in power, and along the way you gather voodoo weapons in the land of the dead, and also real weapons (in the land of the living), the levels are amazing to say the least, and they will creep the willies out of you, the monsters are eerie and back in the days when this was released they scared me to death.
Legion also has "champions" who are 5 of the worst criminals that have ever existed, one of them is jack the ripper, and yes you have to kill them, and yes they will freak you out if you ever reach their hide outs.
also you will find artifacts that will grant you entry to new parts of the world, and they are very creative.
also since your little brother died before you became the shadow man, legion will try to use him to get to you and physic you out, and it worked on me because imagining a little boy lost in that hell depressed me to no ends.
anyways the seamless "leveling", and amazing varied environments, and intertwined story will suck you in, you will feel more powerful every time you gather a dark soul, and the ending will blow your mind.
this game will make you FEAR death, because if the land of the dead is anything like what we see in the shadow man then I want to live forever.
play it and enjoy the almost 100 hours long campaign :)