Shu

Shu PC Review

Shu is a refreshing 2.5D action platformer where you play as Shu, who is tasked with locating a motley crew of friends across the levels and traversing with them to safety, all while keeping out of the reach of the dark menacing cloud monster chasing them.

This game is reminiscent of older platformers like Rayman: Origins where you’re jumping between platforms, some moving. Timing those jumps to then overcame various traps to move ever closer to the end of the level. The refreshing part of this game comes with it’s fantastic mix of 2D and 3D graphics, the overall polish of the game and the music which fits perfectly with this genre.

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Controlling Shu and his comrades isn’t complicated and the controls feel smooth when played on either a controller or keyboard. The simple bindings help keep you emerged in the game with having to think too hard about what key to hit next. I tested the game with an Xbox One controller via the PC and found it equally as responsive as the keyboard. The game looks great and will even play fantastically on CPU’s with inbuilt GFX capabilities and doesn’t require a workhorse to get the best out of it. The mix of 2D background and 3D foreground really is great and everything feels like something could be hiding being it. I cannot fault the artwork and I believe they have done a fantastic job here.

Musically this game is superb and I love it when the developer puts as much though into to a game’s music as they do with the actual gameplay. The music really does fit in with the wonderfully hand drawn characters and backdrops you see them running through. A change in pace is orchestrated well when running for your life form the cloud monster which is triggered on a few of the levels.

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Overall the game is not too challenging but that is the beauty of it. It’s great to play and would be great for children who have mastered other platformers. The game picks up pace nicely when you are being chased and requires you to traverse the level much faster leaving less room for errors. This helps keep the gameplay moving along and stops it from feel stagnated. If you do loose a life don’t worry you only have to get to the next checkpoint and voila your back to five.

Many aspects of Shu including checkpoints, obstacles and platforms are spaced perfectly and really do shine through as well thought out. You know when things are about to get a little harder as the checkpoints start to show up a little more and you’ll be thankful for it too. Once you completed a level you unlock time trials which again adds a nice new challenge to a game that once completed wouldn’t offer many reasons to replay. Each level has multiple little chicks in eggs to find as well as hidden artefacts that are quiet challenging to find. The great thing is you can go back and hunt for those elusive little chicks and artefacts if you’re a perfectionist.

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Shu is perfectly executed and I would recommend everyone go pick this up now even if you’re not into platforms it’s fun and really does feel refreshing to play. I must say the developer has done a fantastic job here everything just seems to fit perfectly in the game from the music to the artwork and gameplay. Kudos.

10 out of 10