I really liked Shadow Warrior 2 so I decided to give its predecessor a try. I like the game's linear approach - not necessarily better than SW2, just different and more in line with your normal FPS. Unfortunately that's about all I liked. I think there are too many problems with this game's controls, combat, level design, and pacing to make it worth a recommendation.

The problems start with the enemies. You get a bunch of easily killed fodder that runs up to you and swipes at you, and a bunch of very strong enemies with way too many hit points. For example, there's a shaman enemy that raises the fodder from the dead that take forever to kill. The encounters end up revolving around your ability to back away from the zombie enemies while trying to hit the shaman. It takes forever and becomes very tedious very quickly. It's just not very fun or very engaging. The game will then do things like throw multiple strong enemies which becomes a source of frustration. The combat encounters in general feel haphazard, and for a reboot of an old-school game, this is a dealbreaker.

As such the weapons don't end up feeling very strong or powerful. The katana doesn't feel particularly good slashing against enemies, and the strong ones (like this giant bull MFer) have massive AOE attacks that really make melee a poor option. Yes, there are a number of different special powers but they use awkward key/button combos that don't really fit into the flow of combat, nor is it easy to keep them all straight in the heat of combat. The other weapons don't feel particularly punchy either, even after upgrades. There's also a serious dearth of ammo in general, and I often had to spend my money on ammo in tough situations. Later levels tend to stack encounters really tightly without an opportunity to recharge/refill, and it hurts the game. All this combines to feel like a game I am not in control off, which is a serious problem for a FPS. The good thing is that the devs redeemed themselves nicely with the sequel which is an excellent game that nails encounters, weapon feel, and variety.