For those coming straight from 2016’s Shadow Warrior 2 , the differences are going to be blatant and divisive in regards to what’s in store for players coming in. Or rather: what’s not in store.
Gone are the semi-open environments, the loot-based scavenging of weapons and accompanying perks, so too the co-op (though it’s a given many may see the latter’s absence as not all that damaging). Upgrading of one’s weapons and skills remain, but if we’re talking solely about everything outside of the core FPS gameplay, it’s surprising just how different Shadow Warrior 3 is.
Approximately 5-6 hour linear arena levels campaign.
A short, scripted, linear shooter, huh? Well, that’s a really weird approach for a shooter to take these days. But if they’re six good hours, more power to Flying Wild Hog.
So I don’t see any reviews on Metacritic*, which makes me think the review Telefrog linked is some kind of exclusive advance deal. Or did the embargo just lift and the reviews aren’t listed yet?
It has gotten 9/10 on games.cz, one of oldest CZ gaming sites. They praise basically everything about it, but do mention that it is stripped down of the nonsense from SW2 like inventory faffing about and what not.
What surprised me, they also praise the new voice actor. I was pretty pissed about the change because I love original Lo Wang’s voice and this new one sounded flat in the trailer. But maybe he will grow on me.
It looks like this bombed. On Steam, it’s at around 150 on the top global sellers list, the user reviews are in the low 60s, and the peak player count maxed out at a tenth of the previous game. Lots of players are upset FWH moved away from the looter shooter direction into a short, Doom Eternal-inspired solo campaign.
I played the first few levels of this and the word that comes to mind is “heartbreaking”.
Lo Wang’s low-brow colorful color-commentary is still hilarious, but everything else is a sad imitation of the latest Doom. Which I might think Flying Wild Hog could pull off, but not by playing this half-assed attempt. It feels so plasticky and forced and constrained, which is the exact opposite of Shadow Warrior 2.
There are four Shadow Warrior games (including the OG in Build engine, and the 3 modern ones) and I’d say the four of them are of different style. It is, at least, curious how much they change.
What I wanted to say, because of that, I’m not that surprised they abandoned the style of SW2. Which had a fair share of detractors too.
From what little gameplay I’ve seen, the level design looks like it’s a bunch of mini arenas with parkour spectacle sprinkled in between offering no room for exploration. The combat seems to favor Doom Eternal’s ammo system where you preform a different kind of finishing move to replenish your special, ammo or health. It doesn’t looks especially exciting, though the enemy design visually seems pretty awesome. Does the grapple hook let you zip towards enemies or anything cool?
That’s not really the issue with Shadow Warrior 3, though. Doom, Outriders, and Necromunda all use the same formula and they’re terrific games. Shadow Warrior 3 doesn’t understand what makes the formula work, relying instead on lots of color, confused splatter, and corny jokes. (All of which was already in Shadow Warrior 2, by the way.)
I see that Michal Szustak, the game director of Hard Reset and Shadow Warrior 1 & 2, is heading up Evil West, Flying Wild Hog’s first third person co-op game, which releases later this year, so that might explain why this sequel doesn’t cut the mustard.
I started playing this and it’s pretty good. Great enemy design, both visually and in gameplay, nice weapons that feel good, very colorful vistas, faster traversal than in Doom Eternal (thanks god), and a better hook too. It had some cool ideal like the moving traps in some arenas and the types of explosive barrels and jars, and I like better here the Doom-style glory kills, they are rarer, and they serve to give your a unique time limited weapon (although the animations themselves are worse). It also performs well on pc.
