Developed as the second instalment in the Shadow Fight series by Nekki, Shadow Fight 2 was first soft-launched in October 2013, Almost a year before it was fully released worldwide in May 2014. The video game is a role fighting game that allows you to see your player character and their attacking enemies as 2D silhouettes.

This sequel to the famous Facebook smash hit with over 35 million users is a nail-biting mix of RPG and classical Fighting. It is a game that keeps you in your seat and on your toes, enduring that you have a great time while playing it.

Storyline

Shadow Fight 2 offers you a thrilling experience with a compelling storyline that chronicles your character’s journey through the Shadow World. Your character is a male fighter named Shadow. Shadow is a man who has lost his face and identity after he opened the Gates of Shadow, the pathway to the mysterious Silhouette realm called the Shadow World, searching for a worthy opponent to fight. 

After opening the gates, six menacing demons were able to somehow escape from their long-standing captivity while your player was exposed to a stripping force in the realm known as Shadow Energy. Shadow Energy reduces your player’s identity to a faceless silhouette. Unable to live like this, Shadow embarks on a mission to recover his lost identity and restore his physical form.  To do this, he must go out into the world and search for those six demons that escaped from the Shadow World when he opened the Gates of Shadow. Upon finding them, he must battle them in combat and retrieve the six seals that each of them carries to close the Shadow World and restore the world to order once again. 

In his quest to undo his terrible mistake, Shadow is accompanied by his former Sensei, May, and along the line, they are joined by another man, a con artist named Sly. Together, the group travels across the world, stopping in various regions, hoping to find, fight, and defeat the demons. After retrieving the seals, Shadow still faces resistance from the demons when he returns to the gates. While fighting them off, he is attacked by the ruler of the Shadow World, Titan, and in the heat of battle, May is captured just before the Gates finally close. This leaves Shadow, who is still a silhouette, to find a way to reopen the gates. He returns to find those same demons again so he can break their seals and reopen the gates. Shadow returns to the Shadow World to fight his way through and rescue his friend and former teacher in yet another unexpected turn.

How to Play the Game

Being a 2D fighting game with RPG elements, you are set up in a winning system in which you have to win the best of three matches against computer-controlled opponents. You start the game without any armour, but the RPG elements allow you to unlock and upgrade more advanced weapons, skills, magical abilities, armours, and helms as you level up. 

Despite being a game of silhouette characters, Shadow Fight is entirely built on realistic animations and graphics. As you play, you can increase your weapon buying power by earning gold while playing. The state of their “energy also restricts your characters.” This means that you can only enter five fights before your character’s energy runs down, and you have to wait for a replenishment. (Replenishment may come in several forms, including waiting for an energy refill, paying real money, or watching a particular number of ads). While you will get rewards for completing the story and fulfilling the major plot, you will also be rewarded for completing certain side tasks.

Modes of Shadow Fight 2

In the campaign mode, you get to play as the main character, Shadow, only. The fighting system is still relatively the same as the second mode, but everything in the game strictly adheres to RPG formats in the campaign mode. While fighting your enemy demons, you are first faced with their minions or bodyguards, some of which may require you to enter side quests to get more money for weapons.

You can either play against a bit or another human in the versus mode, be it a friend playing with you or otherwise. For this mode, when you level up, you acquire more skills and combat moves, while in the campaign mode, you are rewarded with the ability to buy more weapons and armour.

Major Strengths of the Game

There are many fighting games around that easily have a place at the top of any list. However, I would argue that not many of them present a fighting system like Shadow Fight 2. Platform games, racing games, and even a couple of RPGs have proven that they can start up on iOS and Android, as Shadow Fight 2 did, and end up being very good platform titles with excellent physical control schemes. 

Seeing as fighting games rarely ever thrive in the mobile space, Shadow Fight 2 has set out to prove that there is plenty to be done in this space and with great success too. Not only are the aesthetics worth praising, but the storyline itself is captivating and interesting. The characters and the graphics are large and fluid, allowing you almost to forget that you’re playing a 2D game of silhouettes.

Most of the player’s fighting is fine with some basic kicks and weapon slashing combos, but I didn’t mind this too much because everything else covered it nicely. The array of weapons provided is also pretty impressive as you can find just about anything from small knives to a larger sickle, from a chain to staff and even a katana. Bland weapons are hardly a problem that Shadow Fight 2 knows.

Flaws Spotted in the Game

As earlier explained, Your characters run based on the level of their energy. In the first instalment of the series, I recall the energy bar being a scale of ten, but Shadow Fight 2 has an energy bar of 5. This means your character is more easily fatigued and worn out, forcing you to face one of the fates: waiting, paying money, or watching ads.

While monetisation is quite alright with this game, I found that it would be less tedious to avoid the barrage of ads and waiting periods that strike mid-game. 

Final Verdict

For a gaming platform that already has great fighting games lined up, Shadow Fight 2 is a wonderful surprise and addition that proves that improvements can and will be made. The game is fun, entertaining, and engaging and does great with both a fantastic plot and graphics. You can’t go wrong with trying out this game.