izigame.me

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.