Shadow Warrior huh? One of those series I think most of us have heard of, but not as many have actually played. Starting back in 1997 as a Wolfenstein clone with more rap and a bunch of Asian influences, the series has been revamped and comes to us now with a third title, obviously named Shadow Warrior 3, and this isn’t the only thing that is obvious about this game.
Taking the role of Lo Wang once more, you find yourself in a world ruined by a giant blue dragon that Wang accidentally released at the end of the last game. Living alone in his ruined old home, Lo Wang is pulled out of his funk by previous series baddie Zilla who suggests there is a way to kill said dragon. Lo immediately jumps at the chance and so we start out on our adventure.
Not much has changed between games as Lo Wang still handles fairly well, bouncing about levels with speed and finesse, letting you swap rapidly between ranged weapons and his trusty sword. Alongside the weapons are a knockback ‘chi blast’ which launches enemies a fair distance and can be upgraded to have a wider area of effect, though not much change to the distance enemies are thrown. Weapons vary wildly too with Wang starting the game with a revolver and shotgun/rifle style weapon but you’ll quickly find a railgun, sawblade crossbow and a pair of rapid firing SMGs. A decent selection!
Like most violent FPS games of today, Shadow Warrior 3 comes with that lovely mechanic of uber violent finishers. When prompted and with enough energy in the tank, pressing both shoulder buttons will see Wang brutally kill his enemy and then use whatever part of their body he can as a weapon for himself. This is probably the highlight of the game and I had plenty of fun taking down each enemy I found to see what weapon I could pull from them!
Wang’s apparently been training in the interim between games since he now has the ability to climb up and wall run along specific surfaces marked by ivy. Not to be outdone by basically every game ever since 2010, Wang also gets hold of a grappling hook. All of this makes traversal a breeze and many times more satisfying than the last two games as you can use these new movement methods to get yourself out of dodge. Although, often I didn’t want Wang to avoid death…
Yes, I said it, Lo Wang is annoying. Loud-mouthed and not funny is a dangerous combination for a leading character and unfortunately this is Wang all over. He constantly spouts quips like he’s auditioning for a Marvel film and at no point has he made me laugh. It eventually got to a point where I was playing the game muted just to get through it! Luckily even without sound, this game looks wonderful enough to compensate. While maybe not the most visually impressive with its graphics, the colours and environments of the world more than make up for it. That said, it was hard to not get lost in the game world now and then in the breaks between battles.
All in all, Shadow Warrior 3 is definitely not re-inventing the wheel. It’s a fast-paced FPS title with a chatty protagonist and copious violence. There is nothing about it that’s fresh or exciting, but also nothing that makes it terrible either. Maybe rather than re-inventing that wheel, it’s just giving it a quick spin to see if it can be made a little bit more exciting and in that it falls flat. Luckily with its incredibly short run time, there isn’t a lot of time for you to get too bored with things so if you’re looking for a quick blast of entertainment this will do the trick. Just remember what I said about muting Lo Wang…