Shadow Warrior 3 relies on less, but better quality content than its predecessor. But the Wang is too short and only partially satisfies us in the test.
Shadow Warrior 3’s motto is “less, but better”. The over 70 weapons, random loot, randomly generated levels and legions of different enemies from ninjas and yakuza to cyborgs and demons from the predecessor give way to a comparatively manageable amount of content that feels even better and more valuable.
Master ninja and would-be superhero Lo Wang fights creatures from Japanese mythology in his latest adventure, using an arsenal pared down to seven weapons. Battles take place in sealed-off arenas. In between the gunfights, you move through tube levels in fast-paced jump passages.
Discoveries have also been greatly reduced, and many upgrades for your weapons and your Wang are now unlocked through in-game achievements, for example, through kills with traps, explosions or certain guns. After five hours you have defeated the final boss, which makes Shadow Warrior 3 a fairly compact adventure.
There’s no multiplayer, New Game Plus or great replay value here, but the quality of what’s on offer is very good – especially if you’re into the series’ usual dick jokes and visual gags like censorship bars on Tanuki genitals.
Table of Contents
Shrunken World
In Shadow Warrior 3, you hunt a dragon that has destroyed large parts of the world. Wang’s allies are all dead, he cuts his teeth on the dragon at the start of the game, he has lost his mojo. In desperation, he teams up with his nemesis Orochi Zilla in the hope of somehow stopping the behemoth.
The story isn’t terribly exciting, but it explains why this time you’ll mostly be racing through picturesque Japanese forests full of steep cliffs and past chic sunrises and won’t see any cities or cyberpunk environments like in the predecessor, because they’re all destroyed now. In addition, the levels are now strictly linear.
Occasionally there are tiny jump and switch puzzles for hidden upgrades, but otherwise the game plays like it’s on rails. An arena is always followed by a jumping passage, then the next arena, then climbing and jumping again and so on.
The arenas run exactly as you know it from Doom from 2016, for example: monsters appear around you, they want a beating, then bigger, stronger monsters appear and when they are all defeated, the way forward opens up. To get to the next arena, you now dash over cliffs and slopes at breakneck speed.
To do this, use double jumps and a dash and run sideways along walls. Wang now also has a climbing hook. You throw it out at the touch of a button when you are near special rings to which the hook is attached. Sounds complicated, but it’s child’s play and quickly mastered thanks to the excellent controls.
These jumping segments look spectacular and play great, but of course you have to like them. If you don’t feel like running up walls and throwing out climbing hooks between two baller orgies in a shooter, you won’t be happy here.
Crazy critters
In the battles you will have to deal with some very unusual creatures. From burrowing monsters with literal drill heads to flying kabutos with laser cannons to multi-armed swordsmen that simply knock your projectiles back, it’s all here. You also fight jumping jacks and enemies with wheels. One of the (just two) bosses in the game is a huge cock called “Ancient Cock”, which is unspectacular to the max.
The monsters all react visibly to weapon hits. Not only is the hit feedback excellent, the enemies are also visibly damaged when you wound them. You can shoot gaping holes in the giant Onis and they will still attack. If you kill enemies with a finisher, you can temporarily use their remains as a special weapon and, for example, pummel enemies to a pulp with the large oni club. This is accompanied by Wang’s incessant chatter and groovy music.
The weapons are mostly genre standard fare, but they are all fun. Even the simple revolver produces powerful impacts, has rich sound and a damn cool reloading animation. Akimbo submachine guns, a shotgun, a grenade launcher and the obligatory railgun are also available, plus you get a püsterich that shoots huge shuriken.
Unfortunately, there are no alternative shooting modes this time, most of the weapon upgrades are relatively unspectacular and, for example, give you more ammunition or ensure that the shot from your railgun penetrates enemies. Right-click to wield the katana when you’re running low on ammunition. Enemies killed with the sword leave behind ammunition, monsters defeated with firearms leave behind healing stuff. So you have a reason to use both.
Beautiful New World
Shadow Warrior 3 looks great. From the picturesque panoramas in the game world to the truly fabulously kinky creatures to the very detailed weapons, this thing is just sexy, even if there are no options for HDR or ray tracing here. Those who have played the predecessor will also notice that the environments from the first half of the game are not really new. Sunset, cliffs, many small caves, pagodas and bamboo forests – everything still looks as great as we remembered it from Shadow Warrior 2.
And then nothing changes in these environments for a long time except for the position of the sun. Later the forest becomes denser, there is also an icy landscape, but it never becomes as varied as in the predecessor. At least there is another really wacky level at the very end, but we don’t want to spoil that here.
In general, the rather limited content is our biggest criticism of the game. As great as the chic landscapes, the fun jumps and the wacky enemies are, we would have liked a bit more of everything. We would have liked to see one of the dragon ravaged cities, would have liked more and especially interesting upgrades for Wang and his weapons, and certainly wouldn’t have complained about an extra boss fight or two.
Yes, it’s an AA game at an AA price, but for 40 euros after all, five hours of gameplay is just pretty thin, especially since the game mechanics drag a bit towards the end. Especially on the higher difficulty levels, the last arenas are so crammed with already known bullet sponges, where new (boss) monsters would simply have been more fun.
Derb, flat, fun
Bottom line, Shadow Warrior 3 almost feels like a standalone expansion or spin-off of sorts and less like a full game. What’s in it works and is fun, but it wears out towards the end, repeats itself a little too often, is a touch too thin. You can still pick it up in a sale without hesitation, especially if you like Lo Wang and his wonderfully stupid sayings. Although they often become repetitive over time, they are funny and not infrequently have a certain foreign-shame factor, in the most positive sense. It helps if you find faecal humour funny.
Technically, the game is almost flawless. Thanks to Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR, Shadow Warrior 3 also runs in 4K with frame rates in the triple digits with the appropriate hardware. However, the numerous render videos in the game, which are great in and of themselves, cause occasional reload stutters. The game regularly switches between gameplay and video sequences, then the frame rate hiccups for a moment. However, we did not experience any crashes or noticeable bugs with the Day 1 patch that has been released in the meantime.
Editorial conclusion
I like Lo Wang better than guys like Duke Nukem or Sam Stone. Wang is a nerd, he gets on the nerves of those around him, always has the worst possible line ready for any situation and quotes some of my favourite comics and movies. I enjoy the jokes in Shadow Warrior 3, some of which are so bad that you could easily kill a smaller animal with them. I also like shooting holes in Japanese ogres who don’t seem to care at all.
The gunplay is excellent, the hit feedback is great, the action is fun. The jump passages are also okay because they look good and play very pleasantly. But at some point you’ll master them in your sleep, at some point you’ll have defeated every enemy a hundred times and you’ll ask yourself whether there’s still something to come or whether it’ll soon be over. In a game that only lasts five hours anyway. For 40 euros, that’s too meagre.
