Forgotten Gems: "Shadowman" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jack would have to kill himself in order to build the cathedral.

Apart from simply building a cathedral, Legion wanted to erect an army powered exclusively by the power of the dark souls. With the dark souls within them, the army would be invincible and utterly destroy the world of the living. When the player first saw the cathedral in the game, it was no less amazing knowing it was only a video game locale.

It was large, heavily fortified, and extremely disturbing in some parts.

Answer: Michael LeRoi

Michael LeRoi had what one might call a troubled life. He lost his entire family in a car-collision caused by gang-members. Among his most troubling losses was that of his younger brother, Luke. Their bonds were so close that Mike used Luke's bloodied teddy bear in order to travel between Livseide and Deadside.

The five bringers of the apocalypse were all serial murderers, something which Legion looked highly upon.

Answer: Giant bones

Jaunty was another character of mixed motivations enslaved by Nettie to guard the Marrow Gates. The Marrow Gates were made out of the ribs of some giant creature. Jaunty was clearly of Irish descent and not a fighter like the Shadowman. According to the game's manual, Jaunty was murdered by people involved in the occult and he was given a chance to avoid eternal hellfire by guarding the gates to Deadside.

Answer: Shadowman's shadow-gun

According to the voodoo priestess, none of the greatest voodoo priests could open the containers housing the souls. Michael LeRoi's shadow-gun could open the containers by literally shredding them apart. Thus, the Shadowman could take the dark souls unto him.

There were 120 souls to collect, some easier than others to collect. A minor glitch could result in the player getting more souls than 120. I personally found 121 out of the 120 souls.

Answer: In a prison

The first time the player traveled through the portals, they most likely ended up at Gardell County Penitentiary, a fictional institution located in the game. There, three of the five men were located. One was an Vietnam War veteran who had some issues. Among them were homicidal instincts and the urge to videotape his murders.

He was called the "Video-Nasty Killer". The other was a repo-man by trade who killed people and the final one was a fictional doctor named Victor Batrachian who committed euthanasia on his patients after they signed over large sums of money to him.

He was called the "Lizard King". All three men were on death-row, but the dark souls they took in, thanks to Legion, gave them invincibility to human weaponry. Thus, they killed everyone in the prison without remorse and took it over for themselves. If the player had not yet initiated night-time in Liveside, killing the men would have been impossible. Only the shadow-gun could kill them and extract the dark souls.

Answer: Jack the Ripper

After killing himself, Jack the Ripper received one of the dark souls, acquiring extraordinary power in the process. Jack could kill the Shadowman with one strike of his sword, and he could climb walls and disappear into the darkness of his London sewers.

The killer in New York was disturbing in his own way. He spoke in a high-pitched voice and clearly had a split personality, referring to himself by a multitude of other names. After killing the five, only one enemy remained.

Answer: He was Legion using Luke's appearance as a disguise.

Luke was indeed dead, but Luke had made it to the heavenly plain of Deadside. Mike did not know that, so he followed the other Luke throughout Deadside until reaching the game's final chamber. There, Mike gave the other Luke his teddy bear, thereby preventing any possible escape for himself. Luke gave a disturbing speech and turned into Legion. Legion informed the Shadowman that it was never Luke, just some insurance to get him there quicker.

After the spine-tingling speech, the final battle began.

Answer: He was stabbed by Legion and the power of his dark souls reactivated the dark engine and destroyed Liveside.

If the player did beat Legion, the primary cinematic occurred. Legion, half-stuck in his human form and his monster form laid on the ground and Shadowman gave him all the dark-souls he could handle. The power of the dark souls destroyed Legion and brought peace to the plains of the living and the dead. Really few things in gaming were ever as satisfying as beating this juggernaut of a game.

Answer: By walking over special trigger points located throughout the game world.

Collecting all dark souls would have been an easy requirement, but since when do players get cheats simply handed to them? To unlock the cheats, the trigger points were hidden throughout the map. They were impossible to recognize by simply looking around as they had to be walked over directly to unlock.

They were easy to recognize because when the player walked over them, a big shadowy blot would cover the screen and read "Cheat Activated". The cheats themselves were useless: only new skins for the player.

They were pretty fun though. One of my favorite new skins was that of a Rottweiler dog standing on his hind legs. Few things compared to the comedy of blasting demons as a dog.

Answer: Yes

Despite the relatively disappointing sales of "Shadowman", a very mediocre sequel was released for the Playstation 2 called "Shadowman: 2econd Coming". It had potential but failed to deliver on anything the first game offered. The first game was like a mature-rated "Ocarina of Time" with guns. It was long, literally over 100 hours if the player wanted to find everything. It was difficult, especially the beginning where the player had no powers and their weapon was severely underpowered. It was scary: I even jumped several times when I tried it again in 2009, ten years after the game was released. It also had a very engaging story and convincing voice-acting. It really made the player feel like a part of the battle of good and evil.

If you are a gamer, have an N64, a PS1, or a Dreamcast and enjoy games like "Ocarina of Time", you owe yourself the privilege of checking this one out. Allow this gem the glory it deserves. It truly is, in my opinion, one of the greatest games ever released. It made me feel that much worse when the sequel failed to deliver. Thanks for playing!