Shadow War Review (Yaerveth)
Shadow Warrior franchise suffers from having an identity crisis since every single installment is different than the previous one, and Shadow Warrior 3 decides to carry on the tradition by simplifying the gameplay and heavily copying DOOM Eternal by adding grappling hook, glory kills that replenish HP and provide new temporary weapons and mixing it with heavy platforming elements.
The gameplay is actually enjoyable; I had a lot of fun while playing it. Therefore, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to be inspired by something successful and implement certain mechanics into your own work with a twist. I could even say that this was the most fun Shadow Warrior game I’ve ever played. Yeah, it’s short, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome, which is a good thing. I just wish it had more than 2 boss fights, though. The previous entries were longer, and they offered a lot more content compared to this one, but I didn’t really like the second one since it was more of a looter-shooter with heavy ARPG mechanics, and there were barely any unique missions in it. I’m glad they went back and implemented new stuff while they’re at it. However, the first Shadow Warrior will always have a special place in my heart.
Unlike its predecessors, the achievements are very easy to get, and I’m surprised they didn’t add any when they updated it to the Definitive Edition. The Hero Mode returns, a game mode that grants you one life only, but this time, you can earn up to 3 by performing glory kills. Since the game is about 5 hours long, the mode itself doesn’t offer any challenge at all, especially considering that you can play it on any difficulty you want. Your reward for beating it is a weapon skin, which is kind of disappointing. There is also New Game Plus, and it gives you a chance to replay any chapter you want to complete the remaining challenges and collect the rest of the upgrades. The Arena Mode offers a bit of replay value, too, but playing each of them up to wave 10 is enough to earn yourself their dedicated weapon skins. The new challenges they add after beating the game only advance your rank, which rewards you with 2 more weapon skins.
The humor is still there, and it’s better than ever, but the guy who delivers killer one-liners isn’t. They recast Jason Liebrecht because he is white, and it’s apparently offensive to some white folks for a white person to represent an Asian guy. Out of all the games out there, I never thought Shadow Warrior to devalue itself by falling into such a trap. The tragicomedic part of it is the fact that the new voice actor Mike Moh is Korean and Lo Wang is Chinese. You fired the original guy almost a month before the release and recorded new lines with a guy who isn’t even Chinese!? Flying Wild Hog and Devolver Digital, I thought you were better than this. I’m deeply disappointed because those guys aren’t even a part of your audience.
TL;DR
A very fun entry to the Shadow Warrior franchise that is heavily inspired by DOOM Eternal, but a bit short and offers only 2 boss fights. Performing executions, swinging around with the grappling hook, and platforming are very fun, though. The sad part is that the original voice actor of Lo Wang has been fired to be replaced with a Korean guy to fix the inconsistency with Lo Wang’s cultural background. The only problem here is Lo Wang is Chinese, not Korean. Maybe that was a joke, too, huh?