If nothing else, it’s confident not just with the kind of game it wants to be, but knowing full well it’s going to resonate with the very audience it’s targeting. If reviews like this required no more than a literal mere sentence, this is precisely what a game like Shadow Warrior 3 – developer Flying Wild Hog’s third outing for what was originally a reboot of 3D Realms' late-90’s shooter – is best-suited to don. But like most things, it’s never that simple. An ironic circumstance given this year’s streamlined, back-to-basics, roughly-five hour romp that seldom stands still for long. And that’s before you even factor in the ample number of arena combat encounter that have you filling one’s screen with demonic gore and blown-off limbs alike. For those coming straight from 2016’sShadow Warrior 2, the differences are going to be blatant and divisive in regards to what’s in store for players coming in. Or rather: what’s not in store.
Gone are the semi-open environments, the loot-based scavenging of weapons and accompanying perks, so too the co-op (though it’s a given many may see the latter’s absence as not all that damaging). Upgrading of one’s weapons and skills remain, but if we’re talking solely about everything outside of the core FPS gameplay, it’s surprising just how different Shadow Warrior 3 is. It may carry through that same excess – and crude humor alike – of prior titles and while different, it’s easy to take an initial glance at the series' third (or fourth if we’re counting the original) outing and fear Flying Wild Hog have gone further than cutting off the figurative fat. A fear made even more relevant and nagging via that aforementioned one-and-done play-time of around five hours to see end credits. The only semblance of replayability realistically being how different a challenge the Hard mode is to its respective Medium. Though in all honesty, this is one of the rare occasions where one would strongly encourage that even complete newcomers pick Hard by default given how relatively cakewalk the challenge at Medium feels in the long run.
But it’s the progression and manner at which the adventure unravels that will grab early attention. To say this game is far more linear in this respect, while understated, doesn’t necessarily equate to a negative. True, Shadow Warrior 3 this time confides in the simple objective of getting from A to B, with combat encounters sprinkled about to break up the pace from time to time. Thus, players are required to use a mix of Lo Wang’s abilities – double-jump, dashing, grappling onto parts of the environment – to move forward. There are optional hidden paths tucked away, wherein an upgrade point is usually stashed away, but for the most part the path forward is relatively simple without much divergence. That doesn’t mean players won’t fall victim presuming a part of the environment is interactive – be it in the pursuit of hidden collectibles or otherwise – and dying as a result, but these accidental moments can be chalked up more to a player’s momentary curiosity, rather than a fault of the level design.
Speaking of immediate impressions, by far the most striking aspect of the environments is in the art direction this time. Specifically how much emphasis there is this time on color – levels offering a surprising amount of vibrancy which, in hindsight, proves to be a nicely-fitting counter-balance to what’s predominantly an overly-violent romp of blasting one wave of enemies after the next. As minor a detail this may be to everyone save myself, I have to give Flying Wild Hog credit for so cleverly shifting the main color palette of their levels from red to green and finally to blue during the latter stages. Red-green-blue: RGB. An intended, aesthetic-tinged joke perhaps – more subtle than anything that comes out of protagonist Lo Wang’s mouth, at least? Who knows. But so far as gameplay integration goes, the best parts of traversal come when players are eventually required to use a combination of some or even all abilities at once above an infinite drop, just to reach the next vital part. Instances that, for example, require you to shoot a series of vines mid-air to enable a viable latching-on point for your grapple hook. Or swapping between jumping over/around an instant-death obstruction and shooting others to pieces, all while making sure to land back on a platform descending down a slope.
The solutions to such segments may all be singular in what the game wants you to do and admittedly Shadow Warrior 3 isn’t immune from throwing a deliberately-scripted moment into the mix. Moments that have time slow down to a crawl – thus mitigating much of the risk that comes as a result of the fast and frantic means of platforming. But thankfully, such implementation is few in number that it’s the former deductive sections that shine as the better examples of traversal. Then of course we get to the combat, undoubtedly Shadow Warrior 3’s beating heart. Moments that may well over-indulge in being flashy, substantial in terms of sheer volume and similarly violent on top (even at its most tame), but Flying Wild Hog have made sure to inject strategy to stop the game from feeling mindless in its first-person action.
One of the brighter spots of the combat lies in the integration of what are dubbed Finisher Moves. Sharing a similar sentiment to that of the Glory Kills from 2016’sDOOM(that comparison was going to show up one way or another), the game actively encourages players to go about combat aggressively, but not without keeping a close eye on where ammo and health drops are respawned about a locale. Upon each enemy kill, players can also nab little yellow droplets that fill a meter corresponding to said Finisher Moves. The twist here, though, is that certain enemies require a certain number of charges to take them out. That may sound irrelevant at first, but when you factor in that certain enemies drop powerful temporary items dubbed Gore Tool’s, combat in Shadow Warrior 3 briefly turns into more of a strategic managing of one’s Finisher meter. A sense of management that also factors in one’s health; successfully landing a Finisher refilling one’s HP regardless of the enemy you target.
The conundrum then – and one that spices things up in the heat of the moment – is whether or not you hold back on expending energy for the sake of health, or hold off in the hopes of acquiring a desired Gore Tool. Tools that, not least for later enemies, are ridiculously over-powered and unrelenting in spectacle, even in the context of the “normal” scenarios. Temporary weapons that can have you mow through enemies in mere seconds. And yet, even if you put the Finisher Move mechanic to one side – ditto the optional traps that appear from time to time, that you can spring on baited hordes – and concentrate solely on the split-second, moment-to-moment fray that most combat sections play out in, Shadow Warrior 3 is still a ridiculous amount of fun not just to control, but in simply spectating. Be it the fifth instance or the fiftieth instance of a screen full of foes, bullet-fire and many a particle effect. It all may look like dumb, shallow style without substance, but it’s that unhinged delivery that Flying Wild Hog are so clearly committed to and the game is all the better because of it.
Admittedly the further you progress into the campaign, the notion of the game relegated to just spawning everything at you until it’s deemed time to move on can get repetitive. Not least when little else is there to vary up the mere objective of “kill everything.” But the consolation to even this very repetition is in how fluid and relatively easy it is to sprint/bounce/wall-run one’s way around the allotted arenas. Clearly this is a game that is intending to make you feel, even from the out-set, over-powered but Shadow Warrior 3 most importantly will still punish those that stick in the same place for too long. Even if that notion of punishment lies in simply spawning enemies off-screen or have them run rings around you until they’re dead.
Such has been the focus on gameplay and even its presentation from a visual and artistic standpoint – and rightly so – that it’s no surprise that even here the notion of Shadow Warrior 3 as a narrative, a plot it anchors to its linear level-by-level progression, is easily the weakest element. An element that, looking back, doesn’t linger all that well in the memory. Much like its gameplay, one that’s so desperate to hurry between one cobbled-together set-up after another, that any impact to what one is actually doing becomes an afterthought. Then there’s Lo Wang himself and the particular brand of humor shall we say; if you weren’t a fan of it in prior games, Shadow Warrior 3 won’t convince you to change your mind here. Even so, it’s disappointing at just how unfunny most of the writing actually ends up being – not helped by the incessant pop culture references that spring up along the way. The handful of genuine chuckles the game does manage, coming almost unintentionally or just through other pieces of dialogue not pertaining to the series' love for innuendo.
Closing Comments:
For some, what you make of Shadow Warrior 3 may well be influenced by the comparisons one draws from the prior 2016 entrant. While all parties will unilaterally agree Flying Wild Hog’s third outing in the series feels more stripped back and “to the point” than its predecessors – least on the surface – feelings thereafter will no doubt be split. Some will deduce this year’s offering lacks what made 2016’s title a novel but compelling shooter to play in repeated session. For others, myself included, that notion of being stripped back by no means signals a negative. But few will disagree that developer Flying Wild Hog have gone about this in as unapologetic and as indulgently-confident a manner as one can get. That attitude may only get you so far in admiration, so it’s thanks to a mixture of smart strategic additions to its combat formula, as well as a welcome care to its artistic design, where the series' third entrant will garner a majority favor. It may not be reinventing the wheel in any drastic means, but Shadow Warrior 3’s warranted excess and lovably chaotic flow is one you’ll easily get lost in and perhaps never want to get out of.
Shadow Warrior 3
Reviewed on PC
