Shadow Warrior 3 review

Sure, Lo Wang is a shadow of his former self, and there’s a bit too much repetition in the game’s final hours, but Shadow Warrior 3‘s blend of thrill-ride navigation and intense gun-and-cleave gameplay is fun for the first few hours. 

As a franchise, Shadow Warrior persistently reinvents itself with each new iteration. Originally released in 1997, the inaugural game was constructed with the Built Engine, which also powered Duke Nukem. Like Apogee Software’s brash protagonist, Warrior’s Lo Wang was an amalgam of action movie clichés. Adept with guns and well as swords, he reduced enemies into heaps of pulpy viscera, all while delivering a string of one-liners. It was wonderfully mindless fun.

Warsaw-based Flying Wild Hog rebooted the property in 2013, favoring blade-based combat over the gunplay of the original. Three years later, the developer seemingly took inspiration from Borderlands, adding open-level design and cooperative play for up to four participants. With Shadow Warrior 3, Lo Wang is back at it again, with an entry that somehow merges parkour-like navigation between sequences of furious arena-based shooting. Sadly, he’s become an insufferable Deadpool-wannabe, likely to divorce the character from racist caricature.

Lo Wang, What Happened?

Shadow Warrior 3 opens right after the events of the previous game, with Lo Wang releasing an ancient dragon. The flying monstrosity has caused unrestrained destruction, forcing the protagonist to team up with recurring villain Orochi Zilla before total annihilation happens. But the game’s opening cinematic of Wang’s manic monologue, with the underwear-clad character offering a synopsis, feels written by a Tarantino-obsessed tenth grader. It’s long-winded, lacks wit, and completely misses the aspiration of showing a hero at rock-bottom, ready for redemption through a steady stream on oni-slaying.  The old Lo Wang would probably ask, “What’s with this bullshit?”

Subsequent cinematics and in-game dialog don’t really improve the quality. Another problem is that Shadow Warrior 3’s cutscenes seem outsourced by a different developer. Beside the persistent sputtering framerate when then play and disrupted audio, lighting and character models don’t mesh with the in-game action.

Wizard of Gore

Once the action starts being interrupted by flashback sequences, Shadow Warrior 3 delivers a good time. Initially, the first-person fighting is intense, as you cleave through lesser foes to replenish ammunition and gun down more robust foes from a less-perilous distance. Defeat enough adversaries to fill a finisher gauge, and Low Wong will earn the ability to plunge his fists through an enemy, pulling out their innards. Reminiscent of the x-ray cam of the Sniper Elite, it’s a cheekily gory sequence with a pay-off. While standard foes might lengthen and refresh your health, other opponents bequeath innards that can freeze adjacent adversaries or temporarily emit a shower of pyrotechnics that home in on enemies. Determining when to deploy this ability on a stage is an insistently tough decision.

In between the arenas and halls that depict an often striking and occasionally on-brand lampooning of neo-feudal Japan, Lo Wang moves with the grace of an intoxicated Spider-Man. Usually, the wall-runs and swings from grappling hook points are well-designed, offering a tense thrill ride as you scan for the proper path forward. Smartly, Shadow Warrior 3 lets you punctuate aerial navigation with a double-jump and a dash, ensuring the protagonist lands on the ground. But occasionally, you’ll miss a waypoint or even fall right over the ledge in an arena. The developers seem to expect this- the penalty for falling is minor.

More Jack In the Box Than a College Student

But Flying Wild Hog grow less forgiving with the amount of opposition tossed into the game’s arenas. While Shadow Warrior 3 is engaging for the first three hours, soon you’ll fight waves of the same stubborn enemies. The drill-headed bastard who emerged from the ground to jump skyward and release a flurry of projectiles is engrossing when fought the first few times. But before long, the hallmark whirling sound of multiple drillers will induce more dread that diversion. While it’s thrilling to activate environmental objects to injury enemies and fling yourself with the grappling hook, steadfast opponent respawns dilute the delight. Far too often, I played defensively, zipping around the arena waiting for a health replenishing object to regrow. I didn’t expect Lo Wang to be a turtler.

As such, the game’s waning hours can’t match the enjoyment of the first few one. Although Shadow Warrior 3 can probably be completed in about five scant hours, there’s the undeniable presence of padding as new foes spawn. As such, the franchise’s latest outing isn’t without some intense moments, but concludes in a wearisome way. Lo Wang isn’t a top-tier hero, and at this rate, he might not realize his potential.

Shadow Warrior 3 was played on PC with
review code provided by the publisher.