Shadow Warrior 3 | PS4 Review
Shadow Warrior 3, the latest instalment in the Shadow Warrior series, is a wacky, fast paced first-person shooter developed by Flying Wild Hog and published by Devolver Digital. It is currently available on Windows PC, PlayStation, and XBox, and for the purpose of my review I was playing the PlayStation 4 version.
Lo Wang and his former nemesis turned sidekick, Orochi Zilla, head out on a mission to recapture an ancient dragon that they accidentally unleashed from an eternal prison. Equipped with an ever growing arsenal of guns and swords, Lo Wang must travel across feudal Japan to track the dark beast and prevent yet another apocalypse. Along the way on your adventures you’ll be treated to a seemingly never ending array of one liners from Lo Wang. Don’t be mistaken by the cartoon art style - Shadow Warrior 3 is not recommended for the younger audience due to the blood and gore and the mature innuendo found in some areas.
Having never had an opportunity to play the first two instalments in the Shadow Warrior series, I had a very pleasant time becoming acquainted with Lo Wang and I quickly began to appreciate him as a character. There were Deadpool vibes throughout from Lo Wang with his sense of humour and within the first twenty or thirty minutes of gameplay I had already had quite a few laughs from all his quips. One thing that Shadow Warrior 3 benefits from greatly is that it simply doesn’t beat around the bush with long drawn out cutscenes and exposition. Instead it throws you right into the thick of it and tosses you into the action without hesitation, which in itself allows the characters shine in and of themselves. It is quite a refreshing change from typical long story dumps and expositional cutscenes that other games have. The main thing about Shadow Warrior 3 is that it isn’t exactly anything new, unique or world changing; however it does a wonderful job of being unashamedly itself without having to reinvent the wheel.
The general gameplay in Shadow Warrior 3 prioritises good movement, speed and wacky combos over precision and tactics, so the fights can become really chaotic very quickly. As you begin to unlock a greater arsenal of weapons you can get quite creative with how you handle fights as you learn to incorporate air dashes, double jumps and wall running. Alongside the guns, you also have Lo Wang's katana as a fall back if you run out of ammo. This does just as much damage as the guns and using melee attacks comes with an added benefit of being able to generate ammo for guns. Lo Wang also has a repertoire of execution moves that refill your health. You could say that Shadow Warrior 3 has a similar frantic playstyle to the 2016 release of Doom but with a far more fun and light hearted environment.
Shadow Warrior 3 was exceedingly fun and despite some visual flaws and the gameplay not being anything revolutionary, I had fun; and with games isn’t that what we look for? However, there’s one aspect where I feel Shadow Warrior 3 suffers and that's the value for money factor. With a price tag of £39.99, I very much question whether I’d recommend it. That being said, I had a blast with Shadow Warrior 3. I was laughing and giggling like I was a kid again and flying around arenas blowing up enemies into a million pieces. It didn’t attempt to change the genre, instead it tried; and succeeded, in being unashamedly itself and for that I appreciated it.
Lj’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
For more information on Shadow Warrior 3 please use the following links...
Flying Wild Hog - Developer | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Devolver Digital - Publisher | Facebook | Twitter | Website
Many thanks to Indigo Pearl for the Review Key.
Shadow Warrior 3 | Windows PC | PlayStation | XBox
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