To the developers and publisher

[MAJEPHTIC]

Hi! From what I can tell with the limited information I have access to, the game is not exactly a commercial success. If I am wrong - great! But it is important to me to let you know one thing:

I really enjoyed the previous games, and the franchise overall. You may be quick to say "Well, this didn't make a lot of money, so, no more Shadow Warrior games in the future."

I hope you don't come to this conclusion. But you need to stop chasing stupid trends and to copy other games. Give Shadow Warrior its own concept and identity. THIS?! This is 5 hour campaign discount Doom Eternal with penis jokes and graphics so messy it burns my eye sockets clean. If I want to play Doom, I play Doom. And I don't want or like modern Doom.

And the price tag of 40 bucks for the given amount of content is a bad joke.

The previous games were both not perfect, but if you go a path between their concepts and make combat more fun, you have something.

The first modern reboot of Shadow Warrior had the problem that the katana was the only viable choice. Guns felt super boring and weak, unbearable even. Other than that, it was quite lovely.

Shadow Warrior 2 was a lot of fun, except the UI was ugly and the aspect of managing all that loot and the upgrade stuff was tedious as hell and ruined the experience a lot. Beautiful environments, combat was fun, it had coop, i even liked the idea of elemental damage types.
Just hated being showered with loot and having to manually sort that crap. Got me out of the action too much.

As much as it pains me to see a fun franchise suffer a flop like this game here, but I think it can be a useful lesson to learn you have to create your own identity instead of chasing trends. I hope your publishers and investors see it that way, too and don't just give up the brand.

[MassSpecFella]

Agreed. All three games are good. The first is my favorite. The second is fun. The third is ok but too short. If they made more I would buy it.

[Razör]

The fired the original VA of Lo Wang because he's not Asian. That says everything about the studio and their decision making.

[Goggled Banana]

Originally posted by Cheeseburger:

The fired the original VA of Lo Wang because he's not Asian. That says everything about the studio and their decision making.

They then hired a Korean guy to do a Chinese character. I'd say that is even more racist because they weren't doing it in a joking manner, they quite literally don't see a difference between Koreans and Chinese.

[Sugam]

The developers and publisher don't give a sht. They have already gloated how they where bought out with a whole lot of china bucks.

With how poorly made, minimized in effort and without soul this outcome is no surprise.
If I was a dev on this game, I would erase this title from my work history. Its an embarrassment and any self respecting human would bleach their brains in hoping to forget ever working on this cancerous addition to SW.

Also, this train wreck is the end of the franchise.

Enjoy!

[MAJEPHTIC]

Originally posted by Sugam:

The developers and publisher don't give a sht. They have already gloated how they where bought out with a whole lot of china bucks.

With how poorly made, minimized in effort and without soul this outcome is no surprise.
If I was a dev on this game, I would erase this title from my work history. Its an embarrassment and any self respecting human would bleach their brains in hoping to forget ever working on this cancerous addition to SW.

Also, this train wreck is the end of the franchise.

Enjoy! :MoonlighterShiny:

You must be fun at parties!

[The Sinless Assassin]

Originally posted by milkyway:

The fired the original VA of Lo Wang because he's not Asian. That says everything about the studio and their decision making.

That's sad snowflake pandering ♥♥♥♥ considering the whole point of Shadow Warrior was to be offensive and not PC lol.

[The Sinless Assassin]

Originally posted by Ketor Myth:

Originally posted by Cheeseburger:

The fired the original VA of Lo Wang because he's not Asian. That says everything about the studio and their decision making.

They then hired a Korean guy to do a Chinese character. I'd say that is even more racist because they weren't doing it in a joking manner, they quite literally don't see a difference between Koreans and Chinese. :hoji_fury:

As an Asian I agree, that is way worse. But I honestly don't care if the actor was white, Asian, or even black. The charm of Lo Wang IS the stereotypical Chinese accent saying the kind of ♥♥♥♥ that he says. As long as the voice actor can deliver the accent and the lines well that's all I care about.

If it's true that the company made that switch for those reasons, that's some very sad pandering on their part.

[JizzJamboree]

I'm all for more Shadow Warrior games in the future, just not from Flying Wild Hog or Devolver.

[Gabriel Angelos]

Every sale this pops up in my feed and reminds me what they did. I loved the first two games but that woke ♥♥♥♥ was a deciding factor in not buying this game. A good VA isnt just something you replace with frivolous reasons.

[LordRIB]

Man I held off buying this for so long because of the reviews. Mostly I was put off by the unusually low play through time. For its launch price Id like a 10 hour campaign. (Id love a 13h campaign) And I was worried the platforming would be too much DOOM ETERNAL irritating clunky climbing and whatnot. (Don't get me wrong DOOM is almost ALL ive cared about since '93) But the platforming's easy as #$@% in SW3 so Its not even a concern.

Is it an obvious DOOM ETERNAL clone? of course it is! Right down to the shoot the target buttons and the green ledge inidicators to keep you on track. The glory kills and the +hook mechanics (that was a reference for the old Quake peeps. You're welcome /wink) And guess what, its fun as hell. Wtf do we care what race the voice actor is, listen to yourselves lol. Thats INSANE. Regardless the voice work is no better or worse than its ever been so its not even on my list either way. As a matter of fact my ONLY complaints are:

A) Its fun so I wish it was longer. If it hadnt been so short I wouldn't have waited so long and bought it for $20. But I DID get 7 hours from one playthrough looking for upgrade orbs so $20 was a freaking STEAL! At $30 or less not buying it is a mistake.
B) I hate the little screaming running enemies they're ripped right out of SERIOUS SAM and thats one of those brand of weak FPS games that I don't like to remember.

And thats all. So heres a shout out to the level designers cause the environmental visuals are amazing. A shout out to the rest for the INSANE and amazing creature design (for the most part)

So DEVOLVER - FWH Make a DLC so I can buy it. Its likely gonna be awhile for more DOOM ETERNAL so im hoping this sale will get more people like me to take a chance cause it was WORTH IT.

P.S. (They fired the original V actor cause he wasnt asian? I dont believe that for a second. "Cheesburger". Quit passing $#%@ like this off like its facts. Your junking up our internet mighty master of all knowledge.)

[Umrite]

I hope they will return RPG elements like in SW2.

[Nihil]

Agree! They always had some sort of identity crisis with Shadow Warrior.
The first one was a perfect reboot. But it was clearly done in a humble and cautious way like every successfull reboot of popular games at that time.

2nd one was awesome too but in a very different way. Some things were better than in the first game, but some were worse. But it clearly wanted to cash in on the success of growing popularity of looter shooters like Borderlands

Now this.......this abbomination which again wanted to cash in on the popularity of fast paced parkour stylish shooters like Doom Eternal. (for me even Doom Eternal is a disgrace. But that's just my opinion)

The devs sadly have no obvious well defined vision what they want to do with this franchise. Which is sad. Okay they experiment. But it would have been much better if that experimentation wasn't that drastical and extreme. Why not take all the good things from the first 2 games and keep them, and just improve a little bit?

[MAJEPHTIC]

I actually really liked Shadow Warrior 1 and 2. The first game had a perfect blend of cheesy humor and a story that was actually interesting enough to follow through. And besides the characters being weird, you could still kinda take them serious. They were not *fully* reduced to... ♥♥♥♥ jokes. The second one had honestly... too much talking. And that possessed girl's voice was annoying. I didn't care about the story at all, but the gameplay made up for it. Absolutely beautiful environments, great movement, this time around, satisfying gunplay and combat variety. And on top of that? Coop. Again, the loot management was tedious and the UI to do that was ugly. But that core gameplay was very enjoyable. And I would want more of that.

To bring the games back on track, return the characters to have a more serious undertone and an actual personality, less ♥♥♥♥ jokes - not removed, but don't do it like every 5 seconds. Reduce the talking and comments overall, it gets annoying and boring fast. Talking can occur during cutscenes. I definitely like the cheeky comments, but I don't need a comment on every damn kill. And make sure these comments don't repeat too often.

Focus on the core gameplay, satisfying weapons, kills, gore, enemy and combat variety, coop, beautiful environments. And please keep the colors and contrast on the screen in a range that doesn't burn your eye sockets out - I LITERALLY can not keep looking at SW3 footage, I just can't read what's going on between burning colors, particles, all kinds of weird monster shapes blending with too surreal environment assets and motion blur. It's a MESS. SW2 was the limit of "pop" I could handle in terms of visual noise. Just... don't even implement motion blur and tone things down slightly. Keep the image readable, guys. That doesn't mean you should opt for stylized comic looks, that wouldn't fit.

Basically? I simply want more SW2 with less loot management and talking and an interesting, more serious story like the first SW reboot. And after that story, I just would like an open end gameplay to simply keep killing stuff with friends in coop. Something like Diablo 3 Adventure mode.

And in terms of the voice actor... whatever happened there, I don't care which one of these two would voice the next game, they both have a nice voice and do great performances. Just treat them fair and respectful. The new guy does a good job, but the constant shouting during combat is one of the reasons I wouldn't buy and endure SW3. It's not about the actor, it's the choice to make him shout cheesy jokes ALL THE TIME. If he would deliver a more serious character with a more balanced amount of talking and jokes, he'd be a great fit. I loved the previous actor's performance as well and wouldn't mind him returning - I have no preference in that matter though.

[PodjeGamen]

IF there is going to be a Shadow Warrior 4, it's not going to be developed by Flying Wild Hog. They have been bought by Embracer, so having another project with Devolver - which holds the Shadow Warrior rights - is pretty unlikely because of this. However, never say never of course.

I feel like Shadow Warrior 3 is the example of rushed development. The studio was juggling 3 projects this year. Evil West, Space Punks and Shadow Warrior 3. Even though they have two studios, that still seems a lot. Perhaps the devs that made the previous two great worked on Evil West instead, would have to cross reference credits for that.

In a way, it felt inevitable that one of the experimental Shadow Warrior games would 'flop' sooner or later. 2013 was very much trying to be a Melee focussed game, SW2 tried the Borderlands formula and after DOOM 2016, the team probably went; Let's do that for SW3!

I would actually applaud the team for trying something different with each game, but the execution of 3 seems off on a lot of ends. The story is a mess, even for something to simple as Shadow Warrior, some characters just get dropped out of nowhere and others brought back because... and yeah.. the humor is kinda cringe.

Personally, I really enjoyed the gameplay... for the first 2,5 hours. It already felt tired after that. The janky movement outside of combat doesn't help (something DOOM Eternal does suprisingly well) and asking this steep price is pretty savage.

I would say, just leave at this for a while. At least until Devolver finds another studio that could make another WangBang Adventure worthy of the franchise.

EDIT: Lol, forgot to mention that Flying Wild Hog was also involved with Trek To Yomi, so that's !!!4!!! projects.

[Mister Torgue Flexington]

Originally posted by The Sinless Assassin:

Originally posted by Ketor Myth:

They then hired a Korean guy to do a Chinese character. I'd say that is even more racist because they weren't doing it in a joking manner, they quite literally don't see a difference between Koreans and Chinese. :hoji_fury:

As an Asian I agree, that is way worse. But I honestly don't care if the actor was white, Asian, or even black. The charm of Lo Wang IS the stereotypical Chinese accent saying the kind of ♥♥♥♥ that he says. As long as the voice actor can deliver the accent and the lines well that's all I care about.

If it's true that the company made that switch for those reasons, that's some very sad pandering on their part.

not to mention, that Jason Liebrecht absolutely nailed the character and made it his own