PLATFORM: PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Series protagonist Lo Wang is having a bit of a rough time of things when we first join him at the start of Shadow Warrior 3. He’s accidentally released an ancient dragon from its prison and the apocalypse may well be nigh (again), and he may well be the only person able to track down the beast and avert the end of the world. Along with his nemesis-turned-mentor Orichi Zilla, Wang must now venture forth through a neo-feudal Japan, fighting all manner of yokai-themed enemies en route to a final showdown with the dragon itself. It’s a simple set-up that might be unlikely to blow anyone’s mind but certainly serves its purpose, and feels like it’s come straight from the pages of a graphic novel, with the brightly-coloured bold and crisp visuals making the game as a whole feel very much like a comic come to life.
The 6-8 hour campaign mostly consists of moving through linear levels using a few simple platforming abilities (mainly swinging across gaps with your grappling hook and running up and/or along walls), stopping at a succession of combat arenas along the way. Here, you’re bombarded by enemies which you deal with by shooting them with your range of fancy guns, slicing them into meaty chunks of flesh with with your katana and occasionally using enemies’ own “gore weapons” against them by triggering a finishing move. Each type of enemy has their own unique weapon and associated effects, and choosing which enemies to prioritise in order to get the most effective weapons to deal with the remaining foes (acquiring an ice bomb from one enemy to freeze a fast-moving group in place, for example) becomes almost essential later in the game. Combat takes a fair few pages from Doom‘s playbook in terms of its fast-paced action and weighty firepower, but Shadow Warrior 3 has a tendency to overdo things a bit – waves of enemies often keep spawning for much longer than it seems like they ought to, making a lot of fights feel more exhausting than enjoyable.
Shadow Warrior 3‘s humour might be another unexpected test of endurance, with Wang’s constant gags and one-liners being very much of the puerile variety (as you might expect from a game where the main character’s name is a reference to a man’s winkle). Wang happily quips his way from one soundbite to the next, but many of them fall flat and there’s a lot of repetition (you’ll hear the same lines repeated several times even within a single level) which may well have you reaching for the volume control. Between that and the relatively simple story and gameplay, Shadow Warrior 3 feels a bit like a throwback to another era. There’s a time and a place for everything, of course, but you’ll need to make sure you’re in the mood for it.
