It’s always tempting to get excited about a new game when a stunning trailer just sort of pops up out of nowhere. Take the recent gameplay trailer for Shadow of Conspiracy: Section 2 as an example — I mean, it looks friggin’ gorgeous and the gameplay looks buttery smooth. But in the absence of any real context, it ultimately just ends like feeling like a proof of concept more than a full-fledged gaming experience. In the aftermath of games like Cyberpunk 2077, it’s always best to wait until the ink dries to really get behind something.
That said, Shadow of Conspiracy: Section 2 does look really cool, at least based on what the trailer shows us. Being able to switch between first- and third-person is a feature that I always love, but I seldom actually see it (outside of the Hitman series or Bethesda games). And movement does seem really fluid and competent. But the player character also looks like a generic Max Payne, and the bland, robotic-looking enemy soldiers are… well, bland. There isn’t anything to suggest context to the story to even what sort of world these characters inhabit, other than that they all either apparently work at — or just frequent in their spare time — some sort of foundry.
Once the trailer shifts into the third-person flying-car section, seemingly alluding to an open world game that takes place in a futuristic Germany. Although Shadow of Conspiracy: Section 2 looks like it’s very early in development at this point, the latter part of the trailer does suggest a wider scope than just a mixed first/third-person shooting gallery, which takes up a majority of the footage before that point.
There is a lot going on in this trailer, yet at the same time, also very little. I will reserve judgement until the more of the game is shown off, which hopefully will be sooner than later, but after seeing this trailer I am at the very least looking forward to seeing what else this game will have to offer — namely, whether this is a sequel to the movie Shadow Conspiracy, and if so, what happened to section 1? Only time will tell I guess.
You can check out the Shadow of Conspiracy: Section 2 gameplay trailer while we wait for these answers and more.
