Shadow Warrior 3 Review
Played on PlayStation 4 (base)
Developed by Flying Wild Hog
Released 1st March 2022
Shadow Warrior 3 is the continuation of the reboot series of the original: 1997-released Shadow Warrior. In an attempt to reinvent the series by modernising and maturing Lo Wang's humour and introducing a new form of vertical mobility, Flying Wild Hog had to sacrifice elements from their previous works such as the co-op play and vast upgradeable combat efficiency. This redesign accumulated into a streamlined, linear FPS (First Person Shooter) that borrows more than it innovates.
Story
The story strays very far from perfection or anything that can be considered amazing, yet it offers a great thrill ride if you're looking for an absurdly wild, action-packed story. Taking place shortly after the events of Shadow Warrior 2, this game follows Lo Wang (the series' protagonist) on a quest to kill the world-eating dragon he previously unleashed, by allying himself with his nemeses such as Orochi Zilla. The 7-hour experience the game offers is of an entertaining narrative that is super badass to even think about. Slaying a gigantic, world-ending dragon could not get any cooler. It only aims to provide a fun time and succeeds in that without going the extra mile of having an impactful or memorable story. The main problem I had with this game was that the ending was just plain bad. It wasn't too campy or too out of place, it was just bad.
Gameplay
The gameplay is a fun, linear bullet-hell shooter. When Shadow Warrior came out in 1997, it was referred to as another title that emulates the shooter formula of Doom and Duke Nukem. 25 years later, the case is very much the same. This time, however, Shadow Warrior 3 feels like it used the success of Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal, and tried to replicate that success within its own core. What I'm trying to say is that this game is an enjoyable arena shooter, akin to Doom.
This is most evident in the incorporations of executions and with a greater focus on mobility. Most of the movement that Flying Wild Hog delivers in this instalment is fast, reactive, and exactly what's needed for a chaotic game of this calibre. They also added a grappling hook to try to elevate this velocity, but unfortunately, they failed in doing so. The grappling hook is one of the worst parts of the game as it's so sluggish and unsatisfying to use that it feels like a death sentence in the action-packed arenas and a momentum killer in the parkour sections. The new executions are pretty awesome though. Once you fill your Finisher Gauge with the yellow orbs of power, you can go to any enemy in this game and perform a gnarly execution, which rewards you with a certain type of Gore Weapon that's specialised for every enemy. This inclusion is fantastic as it makes the player more aware of their enemies and how to take care of them best. You can bash them with an Equalizer hammer or crowd control with the Hungry Hungry Heart if you're feeling overwhelmed. The animations for these may be slick and spectacular but some felt useless given the difficult circumstances.
Some people would say that this ramped-up difficulty is frustrating, however, I would say it's a welcome challenge. Because of this, it truly felt like my shooter abilities were being tested to the upper limit as I had to utilise all of my weapons, abilities and knowledge of the arena layout and enemy spawns. However, that is where my main problem lies within the game: the enemy spawns. It has some of the most infuriating and repetitive enemy spawns that do nothing but act as padding for this short game, and only add to the unfair difficulty spikes, especially considering most enemies can two-shot you on Hard. There is a great variety in the demons you slaughter but not enough to justify and redeem these overused spawns.
One last gripe I had with this game is the upgrades. They all felt so meaningless and shallow compared to the diversity that this game's predecessors offered. The most interesting upgrade was making my SMGs shoot electric rounds, but in previous games, I could not only apply that to all weapons but also change their elemental speciality, making this game's upgrade system quite hollow and unfulfilling.
Bossfights
Shadow Warrior 3 contains only two main bosses, and they're not that bad. The first is the Ancient Cock which serves as nothing but a dick joke, and the second is the Guardian of the Heart, which is the final boss of the game. Both bosses are anything but innovative, yet they're not monotonous. They don't tread the same lines as every other basic boss there is, but they also don't deliver a new palette for the player. Ancient Cock is a decent fight that has three phases. The fight remains a pretty cool duel as you end up fighting the legs and torso as two separate entities, but it, unfortunately, becomes an anti-climactic platformer for the final phase.
The Guardian of the Heart is an epic battle. The shapeshifting creature is as ferocious in battle as it is bland in design. As the fight continues, it begins to unleash a variety of attack combinations with its tentacles that make the player effectively use all the tools at their disposal. The arena isn't anything immaculate: instead, it's just a flat open area, but the intense music and fun challenge it offers make up for it. I should mention that while I did enjoy the difficulty it threw at me, the game could very much be a little too punishing for some players.
Characters
The characters were sub-par, to say the least. Lo Wang is back, this time with some mediocre jokes and more quick wit, but whose humour this time feels very forced. It's as if the developers misunderstood his immaturity for arrogance. Although, while some jokes didn't stick with me, others really did. His funniest moments would have to be when he's poking fun at reality and providing some meta-commentary. Amidst the gameplay chaos, Lo would mostly say some weak one-liners but the ones whenever he sang the Spider-Man theme, It's Raining Men by The Weather Girls or even used the Flintstone's catchphrase, made me chuckle the most. The side characters weren't nearly as impactful as I would've hoped for, but Hoji is as loveable as he is mischievous, Orochi Zilla was the definition of "OK", and Motoko was so flavourless that her mute pet raccoon was more interesting as a character.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere was a great presentation, let down by the technical performance. On the positive side, this game is visually great. One moment you're on the back of a dragon, the next you're in a jungle, before ending up inside the humongous dragon, where its blood cells are immensely bigger than you. Audibly, its service is up to standards. Every shot and slash sounds slick and crisp and when there's no unbearable action occurring, you can sit back and enjoy the stylish fusion between hip-hop and traditional Chinese and Vietnamese music.
Technically, the game runs poorly. There were countless problems I encountered other than it being buggy: textures wouldn't load or finish loading, the framerate dropped below 30 on several occasions, and lip-synching and audio-synching to half of the cutscenes made this 7-hour journey miserable to watch. For a game that is attempting to be a treat to the eyes, a hectic, focus-needed shooter and a linear, narrative experience, it sure does mess up in many departments.
Story - 7/10
Gameplay - 7.5/10
Bossfights - 7/10
Characters - 5/10
Atmosphere - 7/10
Mediocre
An enjoyable shooter that shouldn't be anywhere near the top of any "must-play" lists. It's fun, but all it did was make me want to replay the previous two games more than finish it.
