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The final gun, the “Shuriken Spitter,” staggers enemies with sticky death frisbees, and that’s hard to hate.

You can gimmick the SMG to fire electric rounds, for example, or turn the shotgun into a full-auto riot gun that can dump its entire ammunition supply into a demon in seconds.

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The guns are fairly generic at first, with a revolver, shotgun, submachine gun, and grenade launcher making the rounds, but SW3‘s upgrade system slowly makes most of them more fun to use. It even does the Doom Eternal thing where little enemies will constantly respawn in an arena as long as a bigger one is still standing, so you can bulldoze through them to score easy resources.

You can take a lot of damage in a hurry in Shadow Warrior 3, but you can restore it almost as quickly with a few kills in rapid succession.

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That, plus the slowly-respawning health and ammo drops in each primary arena, set the tone for SW3‘s combat.

Enemies you kill with guns drop health those who die to the katana drop ammunition. Guns to a Sword Fight, and Vice VersaĪs Wang, you’ve got a gradually-growing arsenal of seven firearms, and can switch to his katana with a single button press at any time. I’m left with the impression that, if there’s a Shadow Warrior 4 at some point, it’ll be a gory, profane dead ringer for whatever goofy and/or heavy-metal FPS gets popular in the next five years. It still manages to feel like it’s got its own distinct identity, mostly due to Wang’s running commentary and its weird Chinese-myth-by-way-of-Peter-Jackson monster design. SW3 is trying to split the difference, between Doom-style straight-up action and a sort of Marvel Cinematic Universe self-aware, self-mocking spectacle. The original 2013 Shadow Warrior was a little more like this, but less goofy, and its 2016 sequel seemed to be wanting to tap into the same flavor as Borderlands.

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You don’t often see a series that changes its entire sub-genre so dramatically between games. It’s reasonably well-executed, but it’s wearing its primary influence on its sleeve. Wang is given a double-jump and air dash right at the start of SW3, and in between combat zones, you’re asked to navigate long, tenuous sequences of narrow platforms, steep slides, walls to run along, and destructible obstacles. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, Doom Eternal with a sense of humor and a grappling hook. Melee combat in Shadow Warrior 3 is better than most first-person attempts thereof, but it’s messy. Instead, it’s a linear series of monster arenas that puts a lot of focus on mobility, offensive variety, and constant demon murder. It features no co-op, no multiplayer modes, and no additional difficulties, as well as abandoning the gear-hunting mechanics of SW2. SW3, by comparison, is stripped down to the quick, with a small arsenal, limited upgrades, a relative handful of monsters, and an eight-hour campaign that’s limited to a single player at a time. SW2 was more of a “looter shooter,” with a deeper world, a lot of enemy variety, and a larger supporting cast. At the start of SW3, after multiple unsuccessful attempts at dealing with the problem himself, Wang is forced to team up with his former arch-nemesis Orochi Zilla to kill the dragon and save what’s left of Earth. Save the World From YourselfĪt the end of 2016’s Shadow Warrior 2, Lo Wang – former assassin, would-be ninja superhero, and giant nerd who’s simultaneously living his best and worst life – accidentally released a massive, magic-eating dragon into the world. Wang’s chiropractic career was over before it started. This may be the first game I’ve ever played where it feels like it’s biding its time until it reaches that point.

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While it’s by no means a perfect game, its primary flaw is its launch price.Īt $50, it’s a little disappointing, but if you got it for $10, $20, or free on the Xbox Game Pass, as an Epic freebie, or as part of a Humble Bundle, SW3 would be a solid burst of cathartic mayhem. Two console generations ago, I’d have called SW3 a good rental. It’s a short, 6- to 8-hour burst of crowd-pleasing, picturesque violence that you can burn through in a single long evening, or over the course of a couple of weekends. Shadow Warrior 3 is the first game I’ve played that feels like it’s deliberately aimed at the discount market.

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