The Underworld

Lore & Background

Lo Wang is a bodyguard and enforcer for Zilla Enterprises, a powerful conglomerate that controls every major industry in a futuristic Japan. Although he is aware of the unchecked corruption and crime that has resulted from Zilla Enterprises' dominance, Lo Wang is too content with his well-paid position to challenge his employers. This changes when Master Zilla, the company president who desires even more power and wealth, embarks on a plan to conquer Japan using creatures from the 'dark side', having formed an alliance with the ancient deities that rule over them. When he discovers this, Lo Wang finds he can no longer stomach Zilla's evil and quits his job. Master Zilla soon realizes the threat that Lo Wang poses and orders the creatures to kill him. Forced to fight for his life, Lo Wang manages to slaughter dozens of Zilla's minions until he discovers that Zilla also had his old mentor, Master Leep, murdered. Following his mentor's dying words, Lo swears to put an end to Zilla's schemes. The game ends with Lo Wang defeating Master Zilla, who tries and fails to kill him while piloting a massive war mech styled after a samurai. However, Zilla is able to escape, and informs his old bodyguard that they will meet again someday.

In Their Own Story

The air was thick with sulfur, and the ground trembled beneath Duke's boots—a deep, rhythmic thud like a giant's heartbeat. He had blasted his way through alien hordes, from the streets of L.A. to the cold void of space, but this place was different. The Underworld stretched before him, a nightmare of flesh and stone, where rivers of lava cast an eerie glow on twisted pillars that looked like petrified screams. Somewhere in this abyss, the Cycloid Emperor waited, its single eye burning with malice. Duke cracked his knuckles and checked his shotgun. 'Time to send these bastards back to hell,' he muttered, stepping into the fire, the heat licking at his boots like a hungry dog.

Reader's Guide

Shadow Warrior is a first-person shooter similar to Duke Nukem 3D and using the same Build engine. Players navigate the protagonist, Lo Wang, through three-dimensional environments or 'levels'. Throughout levels are enemies that attack Lo Wang, which can be killed by the player using weapons such as a katana. Shadow Warrior also features puzzles that must be solved to progress in various levels. Lo Wang's arsenal of weaponry includes Japanese-themed weapons such as shurikens and a katana, and marked the first appearance of a sticky bomb in an FPS. It also includes guns such as Uzis, a riot gun that fires shotgun shells, and the Eraser-inspired railgun. In addition, the head and heart of certain enemies can be used as weapons. The game features turrets and various vehicles (such as tanks) that the player can drive around freely in, climbable ladders, and multiple firing modes for various weapons.

Did You Know?

• Shadow Warrior was developed using Ken Silverman's Build engine and improved on 3D Realms' previous Build engine game, Duke Nukem 3D.
• The game's improvements included introduction of true room-over-room situations, the use of 3D voxels instead of 2D sprites for weapons and usable inventory items, transparent water, climbable ladders, and assorted vehic
• A combination of Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition was published by GT Interactive in March 1998, titled East Meets West.
• In 2005, 3D Realms released the source code for Shadow Warrior under the GPL-2.0-or-later license, which resulted in the first source port a day later on April 2, 2005.
• A reboot, also titled Shadow Warrior, was developed by Flying Wild Hog and published by Devolver Digital, launched on September 26, 2013.