David Sanders
David SandersSometimes life shows us that it is indeed possible to have too much of a good thing. That sentiment makes up most of how I feel about Shadow Warrior 3. I feel that way for several reasons, the first of which is its sense of humor. Devolver Digital published Shadow Warrior 3; if you know anything about the kinds of games with which Devolver is usually involved, I dare say you already know Shadow Warrior 3 is not appropriate for all ages. Shadow Warrior 3’s writing takes full advantage of this, for better and for worse.
For starters, Shadow Warrior 3’s protagonist is named Lo Wang. If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you thought of at least five obvious jokes that can be made out of that immediately after you finished reading that sentence. In Shadow Warrior 3, Lo Wang is a semi-retired (read: “washed up”) professional assassin who frequently winds up fighting various types of demons from East Asian mythology. In Shadow Warrior 3, the world is being threatened by a massively powerful dragon that Lo Wang has previously (unsuccessfully) fought. This defeat led him to exile himself because he believed he had “lost his mojo.”
Lo Wang’s only friend in his exile is the lifeless mask of Hoji, the in-universe god of trickery and deception. Lo Wang soon learns that Hoji’s mask still contains his powerful chi, which must be magically harnessed and weaponized if humanity has any hope of slaying that dragon before it consumes everything. The main problem is that when Lo Wang’s (temporary) allies attempt to do exactly that, Hoji regains the ability to talk to Lo Wang. When this happens, Lo Wang impulsively disrupts the spell because he refuses to allow Hoji to be permanently killed, even if that would save the world.
Hoji convinces Lo Wang that he has a plan that will eliminate the dragon without requiring Hoji to sacrifice himself, thus allowing the two to maintain their friendship. The first step of this plan requires Lo Wang to bring Hoji’s mask to the peak of the tallest mountain, where the dragon has made its nest. The dragon’s eggs have been filling the world with demons, which (apparently) means the dragon’s eggs must contain enough mystical power to allow Hoji to regain his body if his mask is placed atop a dragon egg.
As you carry out Hoji’s master plan, you’ll also fight tons of demons. Of course, you’ll need weapons to do that effectively, and Shadow Warrior 3 certainly doesn’t disappoint on that score. As you progress through Shadow Warrior 3’s campaign, you’ll unlock quite a varied arsenal to help you tackle even the toughest demons. A few of your armaments are your trusty katana, a revolver, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, and my personal favorite, a crossbow that shoots ricocheting buzz saws.
In my experience, all but one of these weapons are a lot of fun to use. Switching between all your guns and your katana is both enjoyable and practical. Killing enemies with your sword causes them to drop ammo packs while killing them with any of your guns causes them to drop health packs. I like how easily you can switch between weapons depending on whether you need health or ammo at any given moment, or even simply because there are specific weapons you genuinely enjoy using whenever possible. You’re rarely forced to use any particular weapon for long.
The one gun that doesn’t have quite the same enjoyable “impact” for me as all the others is (to my surprise) the shotgun. Don’t get me wrong, the shotgun is certainly still useful much of the time. As you’d likely expect, it can quickly eviscerate pretty much any enemy if you can get close enough to fire multiple rounds into them. Since the shotgun doesn’t feel entirely “right” to me, though, I only ever use it against one or two enemy types against which it’s particularly effective.
Using all the weapons at your disposal is going to lead to a lot of gore. That’s one thing about Shadow Warrior 3 that really appeals to me, but that I’m sure will be a turn-off for just as many potential players who feel differently about its gore and sense of humor. It’s honestly almost alarming how much detail was put into Shadow Warrior 3’s levels of gore. You can fully dismember many enemy types with your katana and blow huge holes into them with most of your guns. That’s why I’m sure this is a “make-or-break” aspect for many people who might want to try Shadow Warrior 3.
The main thing I dislike about Shadow Warrior 3 is rather paradoxical. I’ve detailed how much I enjoy using pretty much every available weapon in Shadow Warrior 3, and yet I wish the game would stop presenting me with so many mandatory occasions to use my weapons. By that, I mean there’s a lengthy list of points where I feel Shadow Warrior 3 has thrown wave upon wave of enemies at me for the sole purpose of padding out the length of its campaign. This almost always happens in the same enclosed, nearly identical areas that serve as nothing more than suitable combat arenas.
I’ve counted at least ten times during my playthrough of Shadow Warrior 3 where I’ve approached one such enclosed space and thought aloud to myself, “Oh, it looks like I’ll be in for a fight as soon as I walk in here.” I’ve been right about that in every instance. After a while, I reached a point where I genuinely dreaded these points because it felt like these fights were just there to pad things out. I understand that groups of enemies will occasionally try and stop me from achieving my main goals in the story, but Shadow Warrior 3 amplifies that idea so much that it subtracts from my enjoyment of the game overall.
This is a game in which you play as a man who’s basically Deadpool if Deadpool had a name that he would never be able to stop laughing at. If that fact combined with (perhaps too many) tons of gratuitously gory demon-slaying action sounds like your cup of tea, I wholeheartedly recommend Shadow Warrior 3 to you. Its New Game Plus mode offers an optional second helping if you’re not entirely satiated after your first playthrough. Otherwise, I’d honestly say you’re much better off avoiding it because you’ll likely hate most aspects of it.
A PC review key for Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition was provided by Devolver Digital for this review.
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14 Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition
$19.99
Pros
- Combat and traversal feel consistently fun and fluid.
- The details of combat and humor really appeal to me in particular.
Cons
- The amounts of gore and the sense of humor will likely make or break the game’s appeal for most players.
- Subtitles often don’t match the spoken dialogue or even convey entirely different things.
- Certain traversal methods might be an accessibility issue.
- A lot of the core gameplay loop feels like it’s just padding.
