Shadow War Review (Luna O' Blue)
So, I hadn't write the review for some time since I finished the game. Partly because I didn't know how to rate it, partly because I hoped to see some improvements with the updates. Now, when the developers finally added something new - a Hardcore mode in this case - I decided the time has come.
First things first, the game looks and plays great. If you are a fan of fast-paced shooters and liked the Shadow Warrior series because it has always tried something new, the new title will certainly entertain you. The weapons and enemies are balanced and if you learn to play correctly you can feel yourself a badass ninja tearing through enemies like an unstoppable force. The level design is kinda lazy, consisting of either straight tunnel sections for parkour or arenas for fighting. It's also very unfriendly for the explorers as every area you are not supposed to be in is a deathpit or blocked by an invisible wall, so finding few secrets that are in the game becomes a pain. The arenas themselves, however, have a decent potential for movement, as well as a number of traps and explosives scattered around, which makes the combat more diverse. The graphics are great and provide very stunning sceneries which you will totally admire as you rush through the environments. The game also has challenges which give you access to additional skill points. Though most of them are simple "do *name of the action* N times", this still expands the gameplay and encourages you to plan your actions.
Nevertheless, everything else about Shadow Warrior 3 is... mediocre at least. To begin with, the series has seemingly lost it's identity by copying Doom Eternal mechanics too much. Sure both SW1 and SW2 were not totally original games but they had it's own distinguishable features. If you dug up you noticed that SW1 took inspiration from The Darkness 2 and SW2 followed Borderlands and Destiny but the games were not direct parodies. Unlike that, when you look at SW3 you instantly see Doom Eternal behind it. Moreover, the story and characters became a kind of mess. Sure, the other titles' plots were not the main features but you could enjoy them, plus, the protagonist had some character. Here, Lo Wang became a kind of crazy cringe idiot obsessed with the death of his friend from the first game (even though he did not care about it at all in the second title) and most of his jokes make you facepalm rather than laugh.
Finally, the main problem of the game - its duration. I do not usually consider this factor as if a game is good I do not really care if it's 10 or 100 hours long but here... it's just unacceptable. I finished the whole SW3 on 100% on Hard difficulty in under 6 hours, and I'm sure if you play it on normal or easy without hunting for challenges and achievements this time can drop to 2-3 hours. And this is not bad itself, provided that the game has the potential for replayability... but it doesn't... at all! There is no cooperative, NG+ or heroic mode. Sure, they've recently added a hardcore difficulty but I played it for some time and can say it is not that much hardcore. Yes, it makes you care more about your resources and plan your actions but the thing is that you are already able to do this if you finished the game on hard at least once. Yeah, maybe if you play further there will be brand new experience with boss battles and last levels but why the hell I should go through all the game again to feel the hardcore difficulty? Moreover, the price for mistake is relatively low, as you will simply respawn on the last checkpoint, in comparison to Heroic difficutly of the first title, which kept you in tense for the most of the level, and even Doom Eternal's Ultra Nightmare, which keeps you in tense for all of the campaign! Furthermore, there is even no option to replay the levels, so if you missed an upgrade or just want to revisit your favourite level - hell no, you can't, restart the entire game!
All in all, I can only come to a sad conclusion. If the game was at least 30$ I might have thought about the rate but for 50$ 3-5 hours of content is simply not enough. You can buy Shadow Warrior 2 for 40$ and get trice as much content with the ability to play the game with your friends. Besides, you can buy the pack of SWCR, SW1, and SW2 on any sale for about 30$ and get at least 10 hours of gameplay from each of them. If the developers add NG+ or release free story addons I might reconsider my review but for now, unless there is at least a 50% discount or you really want to play this game and have spare 50$, there is no real reason to buy Shadow Warrior 3. Hell, you can buy the original Doom Eternal for 10$ less and get much more gameplay and content and a multiplayer mode on top of that!