[The Commander]

 The Commander, on 29 July 2014 - 05:17 PM, said:

The thread title really should be changed...

[Dukie]

 Micky C, on 08 November 2014 - 06:25 PM, said:

Are the fights any good?

Yes, they are fun, but like the majority of the game, the fights are a bit too easy. Zilla tries to heal his health back once you get him down to about 20% health, but at this point you can just rush in for the kill, hacking wildly at him until it spawns the same cutscene that occurs in the PC version where you cut his arm off and he escapes in the helicopter.

This game would have worked better if the enemies dished out 35% to 50% of the damage they currently do and there was finite health rather than regen health. This would mean that you would still be tense during the 'mopping up' phase of each fight, since if there were no more medikits lying around, you could still die even with one or two enemies left, whereas with the healing spell and/or Aswang Hunger, you are never really in any danger so long as you are careful. A missed opportunity really, as this game could have been an all-time great.

[Duke of Hazzard]

I'm playing through this game and, while I'm enjoying it, I'm quite disappointed that the guns seem to be peashooters in comparison with the katana. Killing a Warlord is riskier, but easier, with the katana than with ranged weapons. The shotgun is a disappointment... It has good damage but zero range. And there's not enough ammo for all the weapons once they start getting varied. I think you're supposed to buy ammo but for now I'm spending money exclusively on upgrades.

[Dukie]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 10 November 2014 - 03:38 PM, said:

I'm playing through this game and, while I'm enjoying it, I'm quite disappointed that the guns seem to be peashooters in comparison with the katana. Killing a Warlord is riskier, but easier, with the katana than with ranged weapons. The shotgun is a disappointment... It has good damage but zero range. And there's not enough ammo for all the weapons once they start getting varied. I think you're supposed to buy ammo but for now I'm spending money exclusively on upgrades.

Finite health would make weapons feel more useful, since you'd have life force that you care about and need to preserve, which is easier to do with ranged weapons; but infinite health means you can just charge in slashing with gay abandon.

[Duke of Hazzard]

 Dukie, on 11 November 2014 - 04:19 PM, said:

Finite health would make weapons feel more useful, since you'd have life force that you care about and need to preserve, which is easier to do with ranged weapons; but infinite health means you can just charge in slashing with gay abandon.

I think PDW should've been more powerful. Problem is you don't get much ammo for weapons as early as midgame, because new weapons are introduced and there's ammo distribution between them. Also the fact that ammo cases seem to be completely random (unlike in classic FPS). I think the player is supposed to buy ammo but there's not enough money for upgrades if you decide to buy ammo.

I really thought Ki would be finite when I first played the game. It makes sense, after all. When I found out it was unlimited, I started spamming Ki attacks a lot more.

[Micky C]

IMO if the guns were more powerful the game would have more replay value. But as it stands you're more or less forced to use the katana.

Or have some people managed to do a more or less gun-only playthrough?

[Dukie]

 Micky C, on 11 November 2014 - 06:27 PM, said:

IMO if the guns were more powerful the game would have more replay value. But as it stands you're more or less forced to use the katana.

Or have some people managed to do a more or less gun-only playthrough?

There's nowhere near enough ammo to be able to complete the game using guns alone.

Nor should there be, since this game's unique aspect is the katana + guns experience, and theoretically the developer gets the balance ok IF you were to use up all of the ammo that the game gives you in the chests. The problem is in practice you don't switch to the guns much to use up all of the ammo, and often I find myself using the guns only for the sake of it, just to mix a bit of variety into proceedings, and not because I feel I need to be using them to survive; plus it's a bit disheartening to keep coming across ammo box after ammo box and not being able to pick up the loot due to being full up with ammunition already as you haven't been using the guns, so emptying a few random clips here and there helps to avoid that issue.

You only really 100% need the guns for the drawn out boss fights.

The rocket launcher is slightly handy for the final arena fight in chapter 16, (so long as random a*seholes aren't teleporting in front of your face during the moment when you press fire), plus some of the other guns are ok to use to take out those green exploding enemies or the flying enemies from afar, and finally using guns on the weakspot of the charging blue demons seems a bit more reliable than using the divider of heavens attack which doesn't always seem to register a clear, firm hit due to the angle that you have to strike from as the greater demons are taller than you.

Other than those occasions, the weapons are pretty much just there to 'spice' things up slightly, which is disappointing, and something that Flying Wild Hog messed up pretty badly in my opinion.

[Dukie]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 11 November 2014 - 06:16 PM, said:

I think PDW should've been more powerful. Problem is you don't get much ammo for weapons as early as midgame, because new weapons are introduced and there's ammo distribution between them. Also the fact that ammo cases seem to be completely random (unlike in classic FPS). I think the player is supposed to buy ammo but there's not enough money for upgrades if you decide to buy ammo.

I really thought Ki would be finite when I first played the game. It makes sense, after all. When I found out it was unlimited, I started spamming Ki attacks a lot more.

Yeah, this is another thing that I don't like in this game, (and other games). Random item spawning in crates/boxes etc.

It always feels like the game spawns ammo for the guns that you happen to be low on in that particular moment, like it's giving you too much help. Not only that but it also gives you the impression that it doesn't really matter what items the box contains, almost as if the game itself knows that the player could complete it easily with whatever ammo it decides to give you, so your ammo pick-ups don't feel crucial at all, and this detracts from the experience in my opinion. Games should always contain meaningful loot that you are desperate to find, and not just loot for looting's sake.

For future campaigns, please give every player the same set amount of ammo and health to complete the game with.

[Micky C]

I distinctly remember a SW trailer advertising the fact that you can have a playstyle based on either sword or guns. If you have to use both all the time, then it reduces the reply value as opposed to being able to use one or the other most of the time.

[Dukie]

 Micky C, on 12 November 2014 - 12:08 AM, said:

I distinctly remember a SW trailer advertising the fact that you can have a playstyle based on either sword or guns. If you have to use both all the time, then it reduces the reply value as opposed to being able to use one or the other most of the time.

In that case, FWH must have realised that they had got the balance completely wrong between guns and katana, so rather than starting over again, they released a trailer that made it seem like this 'freedom' of gameplay was intentional.

This is clear to me, since it is literally impossible to complete the game using just guns or just the katana, and not only that, but the balance that they do actually strike feels unsatisfying, (weak guns and other points mentioned above).

In addition, even during sections of the game where someone is purely using the katana, FWH still got it wrong, since the Wing of Crane attack rarely gets used and it's just for variety really, and the same for Circle of Iron. You mainly are just using Divider of Heavens on everyone, (since it is the most damaging attack by far and doesn't leave you that vulnerable to a counter attack), plus occasional quick slashing when you don't have time to charge up Divider of Heavens. There is supposedly a heavy slash attack, (using the left joypad trigger or right mouse button), but this doesn't seem to dish out more damage, it just feels exactly the same as the quick slashing.

[Duke of Hazzard]

 Dukie, on 12 November 2014 - 05:55 AM, said:

In that case, FWH must have realised that they had got the balance completely wrong between guns and katana, so rather than starting over again, they released a trailer that made it seem like this 'freedom' of gameplay was intentional.

This is clear to me, since it is literally impossible to complete the game using just guns or just the katana, and not only that, but the balance that they do actually strike feels unsatisfying, (weak guns and other points mentioned above).

In addition, even during sections of the game where someone is purely using the katana, FWH still got it wrong, since the Wing of Crane attack rarely gets used and it's just for variety really, and the same for Circle of Iron. You mainly are just using Divider of Heavens on everyone, (since it is the most damaging attack by far and doesn't leave you that vulnerable to a counter attack), plus occasional quick slashing when you don't have time to charge up Divider of Heavens. There is supposedly a heavy slash attack, (using the left joypad trigger or right mouse button), but this doesn't seem to dish out more damage, it just feels exactly the same as the quick slashing.

The problem is using purely guns isn't possible, because they don't give enough money for both ammo and upgrades. And yes, it's impossible to use just the katana since it doesn't work on the Chapter 6 boss.

Wing of Crane is useful to take down multiple flyers at once, but aiming this attack is awkward and leaves you open. Circle of Iron I've found to be useless, it doesn't have much range and charging it will leave you open as well.

[Dukie]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 12 November 2014 - 11:36 AM, said:

The problem is using purely guns isn't possible, because they don't give enough money for both ammo and upgrades. And yes, it's impossible to use just the katana since it doesn't work on the Chapter 6 boss.

Wing of Crane is useful to take down multiple flyers at once, but aiming this attack is awkward and leaves you open. Circle of Iron I've found to be useless, it doesn't have much range and charging it will leave you open as well.

Exactly, which makes this a poorly designed game in my opinion.

It's also annoying that the hardest difficulty level is not playable from the start.

For a campaign, these two features always apply:

(i) The initial playthrough is the most enjoyable, and subsequent playthroughs are nowhere near as much fun, since you've 'been there, done that' before.

(ii) Playing on the hardest difficult is the most rewarding and satisfying, since you usually have to really exploit the gameplay mechanics to the fullest extent in order to succeed.

Many games these days don't allow you to have both features in play for an optimally enjoyable campaign experience. You often have to trundle through the campaign on a lower difficulty that doesn't really test you, which ruins that 'first time through' experience in the process. Games really need to stop doing this.

[Duke of Hazzard]

 Dukie, on 12 November 2014 - 11:45 AM, said:

Exactly, which makes this a poorly designed game in my opinion.

It's also annoying that the hardest difficulty level is not playable from the start.

For a campaign, these two features always apply:

(i) The initial playthrough is the most enjoyable, and subsequent playthroughs are nowhere near as much fun, since you've 'been there, done that' before.

(ii) Playing on the hardest difficult is the most rewarding and satisfying, since you usually have to really exploit the gameplay mechanics to the fullest extent in order to succeed.

Many games these days don't allow you to have both features in play for an optimally enjoyable campaign experience. You often have to trundle through the campaign on a lower difficulty that doesn't really test you, which ruins that 'first time through' experience in the process. Games really need to stop doing this.

One thing I found very annoying is how I was trying to shoot Mezu's wings with the shotgun and it did zero damage. Why? Because the thing doesn't have enough damn range! So a weapon that should theoretically be better than the PDW for that specific part of the fight (because the beast's wings are huge) is useless because modern FPSes have the "short-ranged shotgun disease". To show the difference, in Doom 2 the super shotgun was one of the best weapons against bosses because it had enough range for all pellets to hit and had high pain chance (unlike the rocket launcher).

[Dukie]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 12 November 2014 - 02:38 PM, said:

One thing I found very annoying is how I was trying to shoot Mezu's wings with the shotgun and it did zero damage. Why? Because the thing doesn't have enough damn range! So a weapon that should theoretically be better than the PDW for that specific part of the fight (because the beast's wings are huge) is useless because modern FPSes have the "short-ranged shotgun disease". To show the difference, in Doom 2 the super shotgun was one of the best weapons against bosses because it had enough range for all pellets to hit and had high pain chance (unlike the rocket launcher).

I found that only the rocket launcher did decent damage to that boss's wings and crystals, and the crossbow did decent damage to his armour plates. Initially I tried using the revolver and PDW on him, but the fight would have taken about 3 hours on Insane if I'd only used those, since they do virtually no damage to his crystals, and the crystals only expose themselves for about 5 seconds each time.

[Duke of Hazzard]

 Dukie, on 13 November 2014 - 07:18 AM, said:

I found that only the rocket launcher did decent damage to that boss's wings and crystals, and the crossbow did decent damage to his armour plates. Initially I tried using the revolver and PDW on him, but the fight would have taken about 3 hours on Insane if I'd only used those, since they do virtually no damage to his crystals, and the crystals only expose themselves for about 5 seconds each time.

Oh well, on Normal the PDW is enough.

I watched a Heroic playthrough of Chapter 13 and it definitely shows how poorly balanced the game is. The guy just spammed Divider of Heavens through the entire chapter. Maybe the highest difficulty isn't supposed to be balanced after all?

Either way, I'd never play Heroic. The levels are fucking long and having to redo them with a single death is as difficult as it is a fucking chore.

The bosses could be harder, btw. Hardest bit of the game is that fucking army Zilla throws at you at the end of Chapter 16. The game even saves after each wave!

I have a lot of trouble with the blue demons that charge at you. They take a shitload of damage to kill. I've tried Divider of Heavens, shotgun, rocket launcher, but nothing seems to take them down fast.

[Player Lin]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 13 November 2014 - 03:45 PM, said:

I have a lot of trouble with the blue demons that charge at you. They take a shitload of damage to kill. I've tried Divider of Heavens, shotgun, rocket launcher, but nothing seems to take them down fast.

This is the reason why I never try to play the Heroic mode, even in insane difficulty with all weapons/skills upgrades(it's my 3rd EX mode run), the last battles in Chapter 16 really pissed me off and rage quit some times until I finally got passed there(again, shitloads of saving&loading)...and I sucked at katana play...

Too easy to "One missed, and then you're dead, even with 170 HP" if you're bad luck or something...yeah, I agree those battles needed some tactics but deal with 2 of blue demons and 2 demon shamans (and all other shit with them) in the same time...that's not fair if you ask me...

[HulkNukem]

I thought Dead to Rights Retribution had a good melee to gun ratio. Guns were typically low on ammo (with very small max ammo counts) but you could headshot everyone pretty easily if you took the time and different guns were always somewhere on the level. Melee was also fun because you could send guys flying with a few combos.
Warhammer Space Marine is also pretty good in its balance, you could use guns most the time or use melee most the time; the only thing is you only gain health through melee executions.

[Duke of Hazzard]

 Player Lin, on 14 November 2014 - 10:14 PM, said:

This is the reason why I never try to play the Heroic mode, even in insane difficulty with all weapons/skills upgrades(it's my 3rd EX mode run), the last battles in Chapter 16 really pissed me off and rage quit some times until I finally got passed there(again, shitloads of saving&loading)...and I sucked at katana play... :wallbash:Too easy to "One missed, and then you're dead, even with 170 HP" if you're bad luck or something...yeah, I agree those battles needed some tactics but deal with 2 of blue demons and 2 demon shamans (and all other shit with them) in the same time...that's not fair if you ask me...

When some levels take upwards of 40 minutes to beat, I find Heroic mode to be pointless and really only for masters of the game.

 HulkNukem, on 15 November 2014 - 11:01 AM, said:

I thought Dead to Rights Retribution had a good melee to gun ratio. Guns were typically low on ammo (with very small max ammo counts) but you could headshot everyone pretty easily if you took the time and different guns were always somewhere on the level. Melee was also fun because you could send guys flying with a few combos.Warhammer Space Marine is also pretty good in its balance, you could use guns most the time or use melee most the time; the only thing is you only gain health through melee executions.

The problem in Shadow Warrior is that karma thing which gives way more karma for katana kills than gun kills. If you try to gun your way through the game, you'll not earn enough karma for a lot of things (important in Heroic which forces you to start without upgrades).

[Dukie]

 HulkNukem, on 15 November 2014 - 11:01 AM, said:

I thought Dead to Rights Retribution had a good melee to gun ratio. Guns were typically low on ammo (with very small max ammo counts) but you could headshot everyone pretty easily if you took the time and different guns were always somewhere on the level. Melee was also fun because you could send guys flying with a few combos.
Warhammer Space Marine is also pretty good in its balance, you could use guns most the time or use melee most the time; the only thing is you only gain health through melee executions.

Both games are fun, but the health systems are poor in each one.

In Space Marine there is still a regen shield which ruins things, as well as infinite ammo with your pistol, (which turns into a massively overpowered weapon once you upgrade it halfway through).

Dead to Rights Retribution has regen health too, so virtually all the enemies are not a threat unless you are playing on hard and rush in too deep as then you get surrounded by four or five goons. It's easy to adapt; if you keep your discipline, stay back and don't rush in then any semblance of challenge falls apart. I agree that the balance between guns and melee was good though.

[Duke of Hazzard]

Do you guys have a preferred upgrade order? I upgraded the katana and healing skills first and didn't bother with stamina until late into the game.

Also, it seems you earn LESS money the further you are into the game, which is counter-intuitive since upgrades for weapons like the rocket launcher cost way more.

[Micky C]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 15 November 2014 - 04:06 PM, said:

Do you guys have a preferred upgrade order? I upgraded the katana and healing skills first and didn't bother with stamina until late into the game.

Also, it seems you earn LESS money the further you are into the game, which is counter-intuitive since upgrades for weapons like the rocket launcher cost way more.

I'm with you on both those points.

[The Commander]

snip

[Player Lin]

I guess there are too many of "hidden" money on later chapters, and they're not too easy to find and easy to missed...but yes, they're LESS in total on later levels...(but you can found more ammo in cabinets/chests/everywhere in later levels)

Maybe FWH too focused on katana's gameplay and make it too awesome(or overpowered?), and make the gun's one just a little shitty...maybe that's why they made EX mode, after the first time I completed EX mode run(as my 2nd run of the game), I have all my weapons fully upgraded(and I still missed many of money piles, FWH's level designers are good at hiding them...), and on 3 times of EX mode, I have shitload of money can buy ammo, so well, I'm still feel OK...just hate those unfair fights...

[Dukie]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 15 November 2014 - 04:06 PM, said:

Do you guys have a preferred upgrade order? I upgraded the katana and healing skills first and didn't bother with stamina until late into the game.

Also, it seems you earn LESS money the further you are into the game, which is counter-intuitive since upgrades for weapons like the rocket launcher cost way more.

I tried to play through by upgrading all the rubbish stuff first and not upgrading any of the super upgrades such as Aswang Hunger. This was to make things harder in a 'genuine' way, (rather than Heroic mode where the main challenge of that mode is the disabling of checkpoints so that gameplay becomes repetitive, dull and laborious rather than the individual fights being more difficult; although I believe the enemy HP and damage output is also slightly tougher than Insane too, but not by much).

[Duke of Hazzard]

 Player Lin, on 16 November 2014 - 02:35 AM, said:

I guess there are too many of "hidden" money on later chapters, and they're not too easy to find and easy to missed...but yes, they're LESS in total on later levels...(but you can found more ammo in cabinets/chests/everywhere in later levels)

Maybe FWH too focused on katana's gameplay and make it too awesome(or overpowered?), and make the gun's one just a little shitty...maybe that's why they made EX mode, after the first time I completed EX mode run(as my 2nd run of the game), I have all my weapons fully upgraded(and I still missed many of money piles, FWH's level designers are good at hiding them...), and on 3 times of EX mode, I have shitload of money can buy ammo, so well, I'm still feel OK...just hate those unfair fights...

I meant the actual money pickups give you less in later levels. And I really don't know why. If they gave more I would've been able to buy more upgrades.

You really are supposed to play Ex to fully upgrade Lo Wang, though. You can't upgrade all the powers in a single playthrough, for example, because there aren't enough ki crystals.

[Micky C]

Yeah the individual pickups give less which is annoying.

I had everything upgraded pretty early on for my second play through. I have to say... the guns are still weak as shit. The upgrades barely help at all. For example, the rocket launcher upgrade that loads 3 rockets into the barrel loads them so damn slowly that there's hardly any point to it.

IMO I don't they want you to be able to upgrade everything on the first play through in order increase the replay value (try it again with different upgrades). The problem is that the game relies entirely on the upgrade system for weapons progression. So if you do EX mode and have all the upgrades, then suddenly the game becomes more dull in that you're no longer progressing up anymore. Or if you start a new game from scratch, the acquiring of guns and upgrades happens so slowly that it becomes tedious as well.

I remember a flying wild hog employee saying that the ideal FPS has RPG elements. I say any FPS that needs RPG elements to make it interesting is a fail. Duke 3D is perfectly fun without them. Obviously they're doing something wrong.

[Player Lin]

Ok, I get it, individual pickup give less for sure, they buffed that in later patches but I'm not sure...

 Micky C, on 16 November 2014 - 07:34 PM, said:

I remember a flying wild hog employee saying that the ideal FPS has RPG elements. I say any FPS that needs RPG elements to make it interesting is a fail. Duke 3D is perfectly fun without them. Obviously they're doing something wrong.

I don't think the that would be fail in every FPS with RPG elements, but FWH doing something wrong in SW 2013 for sure.

Just looks at Fallout 3/Fallout New Vegas...except they have shitload of bugs and too TES-like(I'm fine with this).

[Dukie]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 16 November 2014 - 06:40 PM, said:

I meant the actual money pickups give you less in later levels. And I really don't know why. If they gave more I would've been able to buy more upgrades.

You really are supposed to play Ex to fully upgrade Lo Wang, though. You can't upgrade all the powers in a single playthrough, for example, because there aren't enough ki crystals.

For starters, we don't know that they give you less in the later levels, perhaps they decided late on in development to add more money to the early pick-ups, which has the consequence of making the later pick-ups feel like less.

Anyway, it's easy to answer as to why they would do this, and it's due to the uneven weapon distribution in the game. In the first three chapters you pick up a new gun in each, (meaning lots of upgrades available from very early on). Then there are no new weapons until chapter 7, and then one more in chapter 9 and then a final gun in chapter 10. Considering there are 17 chapters overall, there probably should have been more weapons in total, (the riot gun anyone?), and they should have been staggered more evenly throughout the campaign. Because they were all bunched at the start, FWH decided to give people lots of cash at the start so as to keep the gameplay fresh, then they needed to reign the cash pick-ups in a bit later on since they weren't giving you enough new weapons towards the end to justify the player getting tonnes of cash.

The different attacks available to you dry up very early on in the game anyhow. By the end of chapter 3/start of chapter 4, you probably have unlocked all three of the different Ki Strikes, and you have three of the six guns already, meaning the only 'damage-dealing' variation in the final 14 chapters, (or final 82% of the campaign), is a fairly weak shotgun, a flamethrower with a useless primary fire, and a reasonably handy rocket launcher. Shadow Warrior unleashes most of it's tricks way too soon, and there aren't enough different tricks to sustain a 15 hour campaign in any case, unfortunately.

Also, for those people wondering why they can't upgrade everything in one playthrough, first try getting ALL of the secrets and then you will find that pretty much everything is affordable, (especially if you don't buy the pointless extended magazine crossbow upgrade). If people could fully buy all of the upgrades in one playthough without finding all the secrets, then this would make the secrets less important to collect.

[Duke of Hazzard]

 Dukie, on 17 November 2014 - 11:46 AM, said:

For starters, we don't know that they give you less in the later levels, perhaps they decided late on in development to add more money to the early pick-ups, which has the consequence of making the later pick-ups feel like less.

Anyway, it's easy to answer as to why they would do this, and it's due to the uneven weapon distribution in the game. In the first three chapters you pick up a new gun in each, (meaning lots of upgrades available from very early on). Then there are no new weapons until chapter 7, and then one more in chapter 9 and then a final gun in chapter 10. Considering there are 17 chapters overall, there probably should have been more weapons in total, (the riot gun anyone?), and they should have been staggered more evenly throughout the campaign. Because they were all bunched at the start, FWH decided to give people lots of cash at the start so as to keep the gameplay fresh, then they needed to reign the cash pick-ups in a bit later on since they weren't giving you enough new weapons towards the end to justify the player getting tonnes of cash.

The different attacks available to you dry up very early on in the game anyhow. By the end of chapter 3/start of chapter 4, you probably have unlocked all three of the different Ki Strikes, and you have three of the six guns already, meaning the only 'damage-dealing' variation in the final 14 chapters, (or final 82% of the campaign), is a fairly weak shotgun, a flamethrower with a useless primary fire, and a reasonably handy rocket launcher. Shadow Warrior unleashes most of it's tricks way too soon, and there aren't enough different tricks to sustain a 15 hour campaign in any case, unfortunately.

Also, for those people wondering why they can't upgrade everything in one playthrough, first try getting ALL of the secrets and then you will find that pretty much everything is affordable, (especially if you don't buy the pointless extended magazine crossbow upgrade). If people could fully buy all of the upgrades in one playthough without finding all the secrets, then this would make the secrets less important to collect.

I guess you're right. But keep in mind the upgrades for the later weapons are much more expensive, too.

I got that upgrade because I thought you had to get them in order.

[Dukie]

 Duke of Hazzard, on 17 November 2014 - 01:30 PM, said:

I guess you're right. But keep in mind the upgrades for the later weapons are much more expensive, too.

I got that upgrade because I thought you had to get them in order.

To be honest, I think most of the weapons have at least one pointless upgrade, which is terrible from FWH really.

The revolver upgrades:

Faster fire rate: Slightly useful
Extended barrel: Not that useful
Cowboy special: Good

PDW

20% extra damage: Good
Laser site: Pointless
Akimbo: Good

Crossbow

Charged shot: Very useful
Extended mag: Pointless
Sticky bombs: Good

Shotgun

Quicker reload: Not that useful
Firestorm: Good
Quad barrel: Good

Flamethrower

Larger fuel tank: Pointless
25% extra damage: Good
Fire bombs: Good

Rocket Launcher

Bigger blast radius: Good
Triple stack: Not that useful
Laser Guidance: Pointless

So out of 18 upgrades, I would say only 10 of them are good or very useful, and these are all easily affordable with minimum secret-finding and that's without the Richman 1 and Richman 2 upgrades too. So really it doesn't matter in the slightest if you can't upgrade everything since almost half the upgrades are cr*p.

Also, as previous posters have pointed out, the weapons are weak as sh*t, and yet STILL the game is too easy despite this element. It doesn't actually make the game hard having the guns weak, so imagine how easy this game would become if the weapons were actually stronger...

Shadow Warrior isn't really anywhere near as good as I hoped it would be, which is a shame. I wouldn't even say the story is anything to write home about. The early levels are cool, and Zilla's shipyard is just about believable which is fine; but the final section of the game, Zilla's fortress location is so ridiculous and implausible, it almost feels like you're entirely in the shadow realm from chapter 14 onwards. Urgh.