Are you ready for a little (definitive) Wang?
That first line of the review should tell you all you need to know about Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition from Flying Wild Hog and Devolver Digital.
Now, we reviewed the base game a while ago, and while the action and everything else is pretty much as it was then, the move to be being Xbox Series X|S optimised has given the developers the chance to not only give Shadow Warrior 3 a tickle with the shiny stick, but to also add a lot of new features as well.
The first thing we want to look at is the way Shadow Warrior 3 looks – is it better than it was? Well, I can’t answer that question, as I never got around to playing the original version of the game, but what I can tell you is it looks flipping great on the old Series X. The action is fast and fluid, the game never slows down, and the design of not only the enemies, but also the weapons that Lo Wang, our hero, will use to end their miserable lives are very well designed indeed. Although whoever came up with the burrowing mole type demons is off my Christmas card list forever.
The vistas that you look at, from the top of a mountain to the inside of a dragon, as well as how the levels are designed to channel you through some free running sections to the next fight, is all fantastic. As is the sheer amount of gore, and how the Shadow Warrior 3 demons get progressively more battered as you fight them. In all, this is a game that looks great and is very entertaining to play.
The sound is all gravy as well, with the constant chattering of (potty mouthed) Lo Wang counterpointing nicely with the roar of the guns, the swipes of the swords, and the demons shouting and screaming. The cutscenes feature some very good voice work as well, and while Lo Wang does have a great line in an expletive filled rant, Shadow Warrior 3 comes with an 18 rating that is well earned.
As you’d suspect, the story that powers it hasn’t changed from the first iteration of the game, and sees Lo Wang trying to stop a massive dragon that he has released, with the aid of Zilla, his old enemy, and a supporting cast of witches, raccoons and ex gods in tow. The story moves at a cracking pace, dragging you along in a very appealing manner. I’m not going to spoil the narrative, but it is well worth a play.
One thing to note with Shadow Warrior 3 is an interesting mechanic that I am sure I saw first in DOOM Eternal – depending on how you kill an enemy, you’ll find different items dropped. For instance, take them down with a firearm and they will drop health orbs, yet if you use the katana, they drop ammo. You can also action “Glory Kills”, charging a meter up to allow for instant enemy death. Obviously, the bigger the enemy, the more of the meter you need to charge, but in a pretty cool move, killing foes in this way grants you new weapons, ranging from a fragment of a mask that will freeze foes, right up to a pair of blood soaked mini guns that shred enemies. There is always fun to be had in dismembering foes, that is for damn sure.
But what are we getting with the Definitive Edition of Shadow Warrior 3? First off, when you finish the story, which won’t take a massive amount of time, there are new things that can be accessed. There is a New Game Plus mode, which remixes some of the challenges that you faced the first time on your run through; this is a welcome addition. I went straight into New Game Plus after finishing the game and the first thing that you notice is that the challenge ramps up considerably. And then you notice that there are a lot more rabbits this time around…
There is also a Survival Mode. This puts in a choice of three arenas and challenges you to stay alive for as long as you can. It’s not quite as easy as you may think, however, as all Lo Wang has to start with is his pistol and his katana – you can choose one extra weapon at the start of each wave, from a choice of three. Making sure you choose the weapon you are best with (in my case, the grenade launcher) will help you stay alive. And boy, do you need all the help you can get, as these waves of demons do not mess about. Surviving will see you get extra weapons as you go, and the game will record your best survival time, so you can try and beat your best.
The other new features are tied to the difficulty levels, with the addition of two new difficulty levels. Hardcore mode is billed as the toughest challenge the game has to offer, and having tried it, it isn’t mislabelled! Hero Mode meanwhile brings another little twist, which is that the game will give you only a limited amount of lives – if you run out, it will delete your save. You can gain extra lives by glory killing the enemies, but the constant risk of losing the whole run focuses the mind beautifully, especially in the free running sections where death is only a mistimed button press away.
You’ll likely not have too many issues with Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition, save for a couple of graphical oddities when free running (I ended up so high above the map that it was just a dot in the distance below me), and that means you should thoroughly enjoy your run through. The action is fast and bloody, the free running sections shouldn’t work in an FPS but do, and the enemies and bosses are a real challenge.
If you like a shooter but need it to come with wit and action, you’ll find it in Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition.
Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition is on the Xbox Store
