Every Shadow Warrior game, ranked
All 2 Shadow Warrior games we hold, spanning 2013 to 2016: 2 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 54,896 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Shadow Warrior (GamingPickz Score 7.8), the highest-rated entry we can score.
The Shadow Warrior games on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe same 2 games, plotted rather than listed. The two axes below are the ones the ranking is built from, so a game sitting high and right is a game the formula placed near the top. Change either axis to see the field a different way. Where we hold a publisher wordmark, the game is drawn as its mark rather than a dot.
2 games have both
Axes are fitted to these 2 games rather than the full 0 to 100 scale, because a filtered list shares a narrow band and would otherwise sit in one corner. End values are marked. A point on the left edge is the lowest of thesegames, not a low score.
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- PC
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
2 best Shadow Warrior games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Shadow Warrior
Best for: Handheld play, small install and Deck verified
7.8GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceShadow Warrior at a glance Released 2013 Studio Flying Wild Hog Player sentiment 92% positive of 26,723 Critics 74/100 Price $29.99 Steam Deck verified Install size 15 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 92% shrinks to 91.9 on 26,723 reviews, then blends with the 74 critic aggregate, giving 7.8.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 92 against 74. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- 2
Shadow Warrior 2
Best for: Handheld play, small install and Deck verified
7.6GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceShadow Warrior 2 at a glance Released 2016 Studio Flying Wild Hog Player sentiment 87% positive of 28,173 Critics 78/100 Price $29.99 Steam Deck verified Install size 14 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 87% shrinks to 87.0 on 28,173 reviews, then blends with the 78 critic aggregate, giving 7.6.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
- Small install at 14 GB.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Shadow Warrior game we can score is Shadow Warrior at 7.8. The lowest is Shadow Warrior 2 at 7.6, a 0.2-point spread across the series. The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: Shadow Warrior at $29.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Shadow Warrior, the most GamingPickz Score per dollar in the series at its current price.
On a Steam Deck
Valve's own Deck compatibility rating for the Shadow Warrior entries on Steam:
- Verified: Shadow Warrior, Shadow Warrior 2
Platforms across the series
Where the 2 Shadow Warrior games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 2 of 2 |
The Shadow Warrior series, game by game
Every Shadow Warrior game we hold, in release order. Each description is the game's own, from Steam where it has a listing and Wikipedia for the older entries, never ours.
- 2013
Shadow Warrior is a bold reimagining of the classic 3D Realms’ shooter from independent developer Flying Wild Hog (Hard Reset) starring the legendary and quick-witted warrior Lo Wang. (Steam)
- 2016
Shadow Warrior 2 is the stunning evolution of Flying Wild Hog’s offbeat first-person shooter starring the brash warrior Lo Wang, who must again wield a devastating combination of guns, blades, magic and wit to strike down the demonic legions overwhelming the world. (Steam)
Plot
Lo Wang is given a task from the Yakuza to retrieve an ancient trinket from the Temple of Longing. Wang accepts the task, and travels to the temple where he retrieves the artifact. After speaking to Mamushi, the second in command of the Yakuza, he is given a new task to rescue Kamiko, the daughter of the Yakuza's leader, from Zilla's labs. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Shadow Warrior 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, while the PS4 version received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . Zack Furniss's score of 7/10 on Destructoid described the game as: "Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun. (Wikipedia)
Shadow Warrior, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Shadow Warrior vs other series
How Shadow Warrior stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Shadow Warrior vs Borderlands, Shadow Warrior vs Crysis, Shadow Warrior vs Dead Island, Shadow Warrior vs Dishonored, Shadow Warrior vs Max Payne, Shadow Warrior vs Red Faction, Shadow Warrior vs Sniper Elite, Shadow Warrior vs Sniper Ghost Warrior, Shadow Warrior vs Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Shadow Warrior vs America's Army, Shadow Warrior vs Bright Memory, Shadow Warrior vs Homefront, Shadow Warrior vs Metal Gear, Shadow Warrior vs POSTAL, Shadow Warrior vs RAGE, Shadow Warrior vs Red Dead Redemption, Shadow Warrior vs Sea of Thieves, Shadow Warrior vs Slime Rancher, Shadow Warrior vs Sniper, Shadow Warrior vs Squad, Shadow Warrior vs Thief, Shadow Warrior vs Z1 Battle Royale, Shadow Warrior vs Zombie Army
Common questions
How many Shadow Warrior games are there?
We hold 2 Shadow Warrior games in the catalogue, released between 2013 and 2016. 2 of them carry enough Steam data to rank; the rest are listed in release order below, including console-only entries with no Steam listing.
Which Shadow Warrior game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Shadow Warrior rates highest at 7.8. That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, computed the same way for every game, not our opinion. The full ranking is above.
What order should I play the Shadow Warrior games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2013 to 2016. For most series that is also story order, but we list dates rather than telling you a canon; the timeline is read from Wikidata.
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