Instead of being overly cocky, Duke Nukem-style, and telling unfunny jokes in the face of danger, Lo Wang in Shadow Warrior 3 is wacky. Mike Moh turns in an okay performance as our protagonist, but the problem is that he’s not playing the Lo Wang from the previous two games. I was on board initially, but after sitting through hours of Shadow Warrior 3, all I wanted was for Lo Wang to be quiet. The whole thing basically exists as a cartoonish framework to hang jokes on, and half the time Lo Wang will be running directly away from the story for the most ridiculous reasons. An interdimensional dragon is threatening the Earth, because it’s hungry or some shit, and it’s up to Lo Wang to stop it. Each level is bookended with a cutscene that links your journey together, and the stakes are simultaneously the highest and the lowest they’ve ever been. Speaking of which, Shadow Warrior 3 still puts a heavy emphasis on its story. The stakes are simultaneously the highest and the lowest they’ve ever been. It sounds grim, but the tone of the whole game is so over-the-top that it’s impossible to take any of the violence seriously, and it's all the better for it.
Every single enemy in Shadow Warrior 3 can have their body mutilated into a unique weapon or tool like this, and it rewards you for planning your Finisher moves around the enemies you’ve got left to dispose of. Lo Wang will punch a chunk of flesh out of a demon, yank out their bone like a chicken drumstick, and then swing their disconnected limb like a giant mallet.
#SHADOW WARRIOR 3 NEWS FULL#
That name doesn’t really do it full justice. If you collect enough to fill a meter, you can brutally dismember your assailants through an animation, instantly killing them, and then watch as Lo Wang converts their insides into a limited-use Gore Weapon. Located around the game, as well as dropped by most demons, is a new consumable called a Finisher Orb. My favourite addition has to be the Finisher moves.
The revolver, for example, can go from being a pinpoint sharpshooter to an AOE weapon that sets enemies on fire. Lo Wang has a simple skill tree now, and every weapon also comes with its own tiny tree that develops slight nuances to them. The devs have also brought the total gun count down to six, but whether it’s a revolver you can fan bullets from or a superpowered sniper rifle, all of them stand out quite cleanly from each other. You always have both your katana and a gun equipped, so you can switch between either at a moment’s notice. In direct contrast to Shadow Warrior 2 (a game described in Adam Smith's review as "part Borderlands, part interactive chainsaw massacre"), everything’s been streamlined. In theory, it’s all about constantly moving, and weaving in and out of danger in order to survive. There’s a high level of precision to the controls as you platform between arenas, and they manage to balance keeping Lo Wang feeling super light with being really responsive. These enemies are a group of variously-sized and variably outlandish monsters with glowing red eyes and, e.g., accordion bodies that spit saw blades. Shadow Warrior 3 lets you wall-run, slide, double jump, dash, and use a grappling hook to either swing between areas or jump towards an unsuspecting demon.
To further shake things up this time round, Flying Wild Hog have tossed in some new movement options.
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