Figured we could probably use a thread like this with the semi-release of the new mode (if this is too similar to the feedback thread, please just merge it mods 
). Overall, I like a lot about Shadow Lords, including the variety, presentation, and the bits of lore and story that are present. From my short play last night, here are some of my thoughts.
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The mode seems strangely easy, until it’s not. I was rekting all enemies in all scenarios, and doing a good job managing my health across all characters (shout-outs to the vamprire bat!), and basically hit a point where I was just like “meh, I’ll definitely beat this first try.” Then I got cocky, put a Ram guardian on my Jago (I was feeling too cheap to feed the vampire guardian and equipped a full instinct consumable for healing purposes instead) and went for the biggest reward I could get on day 7 or 8. The computer blocked and shadow countered everything, and basically negated my Ram entirely because the bloody computer doesn’t do combos
It quickly went downhill from there, but basically, the mode’s “Power Levels” seem to serve a useful primary purpose of forcing you to expend items in the war room to buff your defense and damage, as you simply die to stray hits otherwise. -
I’m actually really enjoying the story cutscenes they’ve included. Was pretty sad to see most characters only have one of those specific to them, as they’re pretty well done.
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The dossier items are cool as well. Only thing is I’m pretty sure I’ll never see them all - you collect them from fighting that mimic, and there are a TON of dossiers to collect across the cast. Getting them all seems like it would take a while because…
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Shadow Lords is kind of a slow mode. The amount of fights per hour that you can have isn’t super high, just due to all the crafting, menu selections, and load times in between everything (at least on X1).
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The pre and post-mission choice things are a lot of fun. I’m finding that exercising generally good judgment (no, I don’t want to eat the strange plant growing out of purple soil) with a dash of daring (yes, I will play dice with the skeletal captain of a ghost ship) makes for generally positive results. I’m having fun with these, and look forward to that little window popping up
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I know the ultimate wish/goal is to integrate shadow AI’s into the mode, and I just want to say that I think this is the BIGGEST improvement the mode could possibly make. Even if the shadow AI’s can’t properly make use of every buff that exists in the mode, it would be a VAST improvement to the way the mode plays. The Killer Instinct AI is just, not good for the most part. There are some things the AI always blocks, some things the AI never blocks, and aside from Omen, almost every single enemy seems to drop any combo they manage to start (challenging difficulty). My Ram guardian is functionally useless, because the CPU just drops all its combos after opener anyway, and even when I lose it’s more because of insane first hit damage wracking up. The sooner the team manages to integrate shadow AI into Shadow Lords, the better. The modifiers and lore and random choices are all fantastic, but if the fights themselves aren’t fun, then what’s the point?
So those are my initial impressions of Shadow Lords, after about 2 hours or so of play. True to their word, I certainly did not beat Gargos on my first attempt, and in fact couldn’t even get past Omen due to my miserly hoarding of consumables 
Definitely seeing the potential for the mode in terms of replayability though, and if they can find a way to incorporate shadow AI’s into the mode in a timely fashion I could actually see myself putting some significant time into it. Without shadow AI’s though, I don’t think I’ll do more than grind my way to some of the story content that I’m particularly interested in.
All in all, good job IG. Looking forward to making it to Gargos today and (hopefully) beating him, and seeing what the future holds for this mode. 
