Running Shadow (PC) Review

This mix between the runner and RPG genre, Running Shadow, offers an interesting take on something that is usually stale and repetitive. With its different and creative goals, it offers a new and fresh experience. The mix between story and side missions creates an interesting concept of playing the main story while levelling up in the ever changing side-quests. However, while Running Shadow is a fresh take on an old concept, it is also not without the same flaws of the style of titles it has taken its inspiration from.

The premise for looks great on paper: a typical runner title with combat and a level-up and gearing system. However, the harsh reality pretty quickly catches up. The main issue here is the RPG aspects taken, namely the grinding…lots of grinding.

While this is to be expected from a free-to-play title, the harsh grinding in this case is in a league of its own. It is not uncommon to have to run the same stage an extreme number of times just to save up enough currency and levels to be able to get the sword needed to kill of the enemies found in the story mode. The mindless grinding that is required is not made any more appealing by making the stages slowly more and more difficult, which prevents quickly earned currency and experience, and makes it very easy to be overwhelmed by the difficulty with no way to go back, creating a situation is annoying and unnecessary.

All of this is just there to force the player to spend more money than they can earn. Something that gets painfully obvious early on and the game will taunt the player to buy that DLC sword or more currency to get extra lives. This creates a very user-unfriendly experience that might very quickly turn people off.

Without the ridiculous grinding and enforced progression that prevents grinding on easier stages, Running Shadow would be pretty enjoyable. However, in the end, it turns into a perfect example of how pay-to-win mechanics can seriously ruin a great game. The mix between slow progression and forced difficulty increasing creates an experience that pretty quickly turns into a game about pushing the player to buy more currency.