Is that it?!

I'm a self-admitted Shadow Warrior (2013 remake) fanboy, and found restricted enjoyment in the sequel. After playing this game however, SW2 feels like a pretty great game in retrospect.

The first point everyone seems to bring up is that this game is short- super short. You barely have enough time to establish the story before it's finished. On normal difficulty you will finish in about 5 hours, on hard maybe 6. Talking of difficulties- there is only three. No legendary, no heroic, and no NG+. You can't even level select once you have beaten the game, and I don't particularly feel like replaying to try and scrounge up the last few achievements.

The gameplay here is.... alright I suppose. The combat is a lot more barebones than the previous two games, and due to streamlining, Lo Wang is reduced to a knucklehead with no chi bar or chi powers activated using key combos. No spike generation or self-heal anymore, or anything chi related beyond a push move- which is a shame as chi moves were a staple of the two previous games. Talking of missing content- there arent any directional sword attacks either. No iconic divider of heavens or spinny blade attack. SW2013 had melee combat be a focus of it, and so did SW2, here the katana is relegated to being a glorified *punch enemy when close* attack which you have in any other game. There are 7 guns, all of which only have one firemode so are actually significantly less interesting than those in the remaster or even the procedurally generated weapons in 2.

I complained that SW2 felt too much like the devs wanted to recreate borderlands, but here the comparison is DOOM, which I'm not going to complain about because everyone else has already brought this up.

The gameplay loop is as follows- Lo Wang runs and jumps over floaty land towards a square arena, has to kill a handful of big demons while small ones constantly spawn, he leaves, a cutscene (with poor dubbing) plays and then he runs and jumps again. Very tiring. The combat plays like the Orbs of Masume challenges from SW2- a dodge fest and bullet hell spam.

SW2013 was grounded to a setting that made sense, the maps got a bit bland but keeping it real made the game that much more impactful, here its so absurd and far out its hard to feel any investment in the plot. Yet it still somehow ends up being more shallow and simple to follow than even a childrens book. Big dragon appear. Man want kill fren to kill dragon. Me save fren. Fren want thing different to me. Me kill dragon. Everything is vague and Hoji comes back, Wangs reaction is basically "oh hi bro" and then goes on as normal and Wang working with Zilla is just something that is happening now, I guess, funny epic chill marvel avengers style.

Flying Wild Hog seem to be about 90% level designers and 10% everything else because as usual the game is gorgeous. But, there is no photo mode. Alright then. Performance wise its alright, with tiny bit of stuttering, really strange looking cutscenes that either stuttered or had low frames- not sure, and dialogue has the classic issue of characters cutting each other off when a new topic starts.

The sound design of enemies gets grating very quickly, repeating 2 second noises until you kill them, or being borderline broken like the suicide bombers who scream till you jump somewhere they have to think about how to get to, stop screaming and then immediately start again. The voice acting by Wang's new (yeah dumb) actor is worse than the previous, and half the jokes feel forced and safe. They seem slightly more self aware than SW2 (remember that infamous fart joke?) but they have basically turned Lo Wang into Deadpool, constantly referencing popculture and breaking the 4th wall.

The menus and upgrades just feel very low budget or rushed, which is a shame, and overall the game is lacking any attention to detail or passion the previous two had. No secrets, no easter eggs, no visual changes when you upgrade weapons or Wang's skills.

They got rid of the dynamic gore from the previous game but kept the floaty deaths, making everything feel weightless. And also corpses despawn in about 3 seconds for some reason.

Overall this just feels like a formulaic and soulless game. It's just a straight up downgrade. If it goes on sale for atleast half price and you buy it expecting to play a lower budget copycat version of DOOM, go ahead. But don't expect Shadow Warrior. The original, remake OR two. Its absurd how small scope this one is. It feels like a game that could have come out as a proof of concept between the remaster and 2 honestly.

It has great graphics, good performance , and the gameplay is fun and fast paced, kinda like Doom.

Now to the negatives:
It is waaaaay too short for 45€
Gameplay/Arenafights get very predictable and repetitive. Same goes for the enemies, very repetitive.
After finishing Shadow Warrior 2 I felt like I experienced a real journey. We lost some friends along the way and the ending was just badass. With this game I feel like i was playing a DLC for a Doom clone. It just comepletly lost its soul.
The exploration part in previous games was something I really enjoyed. In this game the devs completly got rid of that part.
Also why did they get rid of the cool swordgameplay wtf??? Such a downgrade in this game.
Honestly I am such a huge SW fan and I really wanted to love this game but its just nowhere near the quality of the first 2 titles and I also think if this game was longer than the 9 hours i played it that i would get bored in longterms. The old games were made with so much more love and detail.

One short example if you reload an already reloaded revoler in SW2 Lo Wang would spin it and show his middlefinger to whoever was watching him xD Its so not necessary but so funny that they put in something like that and they put ♥♥♥♥ like that for a lot of weapons in that game and also other gimmiky stuff that just made you smile. SW3 doesnt have stuff like that, SW3 truely is soulless. I believe the only reason i had kinda fun during this 9hours was bcs of Lo Wang's style.
Buy this if its in sale for like 15€ unless thats not the case i cannot recommend this.

Very sad.

Ps: The new voiceactor is dog**** we want Jason back!!

Good. Really good in fact, but where's the rest?6 years and $50 for 4 hours of game? I cannot abide.Update 24/03/2023: Still unable to recommend after the Definitive Edition launch. Game still has performance issues including pretty common stuttering, content has been added but not in the form of any actual new levels. It's better but not that much.

I want to preface this with this statement, Shadow Warrior 3 isn't a bad game. It's just a terrible Shadow Warrior and spits on the work the previous two games built. If you want an ok doom clone then this is one of those that looks somewhat pretty.

Keep scrolling if you want my real opinion.

I bought the entire SW franchise in a bundle shortly after this game dropped and just recently got through them. I beat the first one on Xbox a while ago and decided to do a playthrough to get back in the mood for SW. Then I played through SW 2 deluxe edition. It was a rocky start but turned out to be an amazing adventure with decent characters, and a story that while not perfect, shone a new light on Lo Wang and the collision's affects on the world.

I was on a roll, and I have to say I was ready to experience the final chapter in Lo Wang's story. I heard the combat was "doom like", but I didn't really care so long as the story is good, and Lo Wang is Wang. Just hope they don't mess with Hoji or his legacy.

Story: The story is short. No getting around it, I beat the game in less than six hours. However brevity isn't necessarily a flaw, especially with how bad it is, and how much changed in an hour. I will cover a few with as few spoilers as reasonable.

Wang in the now defunct wang cave explains how "he ended the world", without explaining how it is no longer on dragon mountain. Nor does wang once mention anyone from the mountain in his list of friends, even in the wangpedia. The dragon being loosed is now solely his fault. Retconning the involvement of Zilla, Xing, Mezu, Wang, Kamiko, Anemone, and countless cultists in the ending of the world. Kamiko just is retconned out of existence now, now he just talks to hoji's mask. Despite wang literally being an unstoppable dumba$$ with an amazing mastery of chi, smithing, and the Wang, he is shown as weak and incompetent throughout the game. The writing is a mess, coherent enough that you understand, but a mess none the less.

Lo Wang: Lo Wang had been given decent character development over the previous games and made into a strong and interesting character who actually cares about what he's doing. In this game he's a bumbling moron who can't go 5 seconds without getting messed up. Oh they also changed his speech manerisims, accents, design and philosophy, in such a jarring way it's not even funny. This is not Lo Wang, "Mr 2 million dollars", this is Jim (Lo) Wong.

HOJI: In the first game the best character was obviously Hoji, and as you progress through the game you learn that Hoji is deeply responsible for nearly everything that led to the collision. Not out of malice, but out of pity, desperation, and love, he causes the goddess Anemone to enter a death like state at his own expense, and screwing Enra. In that game he takes responsibility for the pain he caused everyone and revives Anemone at the cost of his life. In SW 2 he is further painted as someone who was selfish, but ultimately deciding that he'd stand against the realm of chaos.

Anyways they made him a cowardly a$$hole who has nearly no redeeming qualities. Oh he also forgot how to transform into his mask, that he actually had the least chi of his brothers, and was actually f##king PERMANENTLY DEAD according to Kamiko who could be compared to Anemone.

Other bad changes from the last two:
Sword feels weightless, and swordplay feels simultaneously floaty and stiff.
Guns have a very limited ammo pool, even when upgraded.
Lo Wang has hair now and it looks bad. Writers also try to justify it poorly.
There are now 3rd person cutscenes throughout the game, and a lot at that.
The demons. Too hard to explain well.
All of your powers & perks are either removed or significantly downgraded.
Demons are no longer called demons, instead being yokai. Not a great change.
All elusion to chi, it's usage, and tech made using it are pretty much scrubbed; being replaced by the blanket term "Magic"

All in all I don't like to think of this game as a SW, at least not one that takes place after 2 anyways. It feels like they wanted to soft reboot the franchise because either new writers stepped in or different team was made to adapt the rest of the SW draft to the tune of what's popular. This wasn't a pleasant change of pace, this was a soulless meld of popular ideas painted to look like shadow warrior.

Sincerely a SW 1 & 2 fan.

Shadow Warrior was the first FPS I ever played back on DOS. It paved the way to my gaming future and I enjoyed every second of it. I still play it to this day some 25 years later.

When I heard that they were rebooting it, my excitement was overwhelming, but being a gamer and watching companies today butcher beloved games from the past, I was worried. The reboot hit and I was amazed. I loved the remake and to see Lo Wang when he was young was refreshing. The mechanics were there and all bright and shiny. I was in heaven.

Then they brought out number 2, was a bit disappointed, I felt they were leaning a little away from what made old school shooters good and more towards a Boarderlands style game. (love borderlands fyi). Butttttttt, I played through it, enjoyed it as much as I could, Lo Wangs sas and humor kept me going through it. number 2 was ok in its own right.

Then they announced number 3.... will this be the one that ties the new games to the old one, will we see Lo Wang become the master he is destined to become, will this bridge the gap....

short answer..... F@#$ No
long asnwer...... F#$!#$#!#%!#!#$!@# No

I am so disappointed with this 3rd one that I actually had to check if it was the same company that did the first two.
This is up there with Sacred 3 and every time Maxis brought out a new sims franchise that was lacking in everything the previous one gave in expansions.

Shadow Warrior was my game, and this number 3 has left a bitter taste in my mouth.
1) There are hardly any weapons worth anything
2) Swordplay is lacking compared to the previous ones in my opinion
3) Lack of weapon upgrades that mean anything
4) Difficulty is annoying not challenging (10.1 hours on Hard)
5) Monsters are like the weapons, lacking in variety
6) Story I useless in the grand scheme of things
7) game play is like, Parkour, Parkour, Parkour, Kill everything in a circle, Parkour, Parkour, Parkour, kill everything in a circle, Parkour, Parkour, Parkour, kill everything in a circle................... like seriously, is this Shadow Warrior or a fish barrel shooting Sim.
8) Graphics are descent though, but then again, is it even worth saying that since thats all games are about these days.... looks. I paid nearly $80 Aus for this game and got 10 hours and almost no replay value from it

All I can say in the end is, this better be a filler for number 4 or we better see some epic expansion\DLC that adds some more story to this overwhelmingly lacking and disappointing game.

I never thought I would post such a negative review for a game I played, let alone a game belonging to a franchise that opened the doors to FPS's for me. Get this game from a friend or wait for it to go on special, this is NOT worth its money\content\story or even worth the time it took me to get through it.

Sigh, if the company reads this..... I get it.... but please, dont ♥♥♥♥ up number 4

This is got to be the demo of Shadow Warrior 3.

4.5 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hours for 45€?! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, i expected a blast and the game was fun, but the story is too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ short, if i knew that i wouldnt even bother buying it, unless we get some extra content i wouldnt recommend buying this game for full price.

Gameplay wise and such it was really fun, exactly the type of "boomer shooter" i was looking for after i finished DOOM Eternal.....Thing is...DOOM Eternal is much longer, has great replayability value and an actual MP (That i didnt touch but still...), this game is way too short, otherwise pretty fun, but i cant recommend it for that price

At this price point for a 4-6 hours of linear story without any reason to re-play not recommended at all.

+ Smoother gameplay, no perfomance issues apart from cutscenes
+ beautiful level designs
+ great sound design and OST

- Short with ok-ish story
- where are my fortune cookies?
- No co-op

they did kinda rebooted the franchise shooter/combat system, as the community says is based on doom eternal, liked it

only reason to re-play is to get them 100% achievements.

might change to positive recommendation if they update the game with dlc and more content, maybe NG+ or just let us explore levels.

Overall enjoyed this game but Just get this title when its on sale only.

Awesome combat, but it's a measly 5-hour linear game. No co-op, no fancy weapon/loot system like in 2, and no replayability.

The content doesn't justify the price. At the very least, the game should give people more to do (like NG+, more challenges and more difficulties.)

It's fun but it's too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ short man, I want to love this game but i can't due to it being sold for 50$ but yet for a 4 hour game?? wild hog come on guys.