Even more confusing, Shadow Warrior 2 is notable as the first major PC release to offer HDR output. This one is SDR only and it's a real shame as the vibrant color palette of the game and varied environments feel like they were made for HDR. The same goes for HDR output, which failed to make the cut for Shadow Warrior 3. Shadow Warrior 2 allowed players to disable this, but there is no such option now. It adds colors and blurring to edges in the game world and grows worse towards the edges of the screen. The game forces a chromatic aberration effect that adds a fullscreen lens distortion effect at all times. While it’s clearly a last-generation affair, folks who have the equipment available for 4K/120Hz operation will find a technically impressive showing here. Most of the visual effects look sharp and the game runs very smoothly on my PC. The architecture and lush landscapes of Shadow Warrior 3’s neo-feudal Japan rarely fail to impress and will be recognizable to fans of the team’s previous work in Painkiller or Bulletstorm. On one hand, you have a heavy push towards oversaturation and deep contrast that leaves lots of detail crushed in dark areas, but on the other, the game offers some of the finest environmental design I’ve seen in a while. When in the game itself with control of Lo Wang, the visual presentation is almost the textbook definition of a mixed bag. It doesn’t help that the cutscenes look different from the game color grading and contrast, further hurting the chance for immersion. These cutscenes are almost always a jarring transition from gameplay that regularly stutter and skip (likely as the game loads in the background), making it hard to clearly hear what is said or understand what is happening.
The game alternates between Lo Wang’s internal conversations with returning character Orochi Zilla (who now serves as Lo Wang's spirit guide in the place of Hoji) and pre-rendered cutscenes to deliver exposition. Like the first two entries, the writing and overall story are largely forgettable, as are most of the characters. Shadow Warrior 3 picks up right after the events of the second game and kicks into high gear very quickly. Additionally, the quest system and randomly generated levels and encounters have also been dumped for a fixed-path campaign.
Cooperative play, one of the defining features of Shadow Warrior 2, is now gone. Thankfully, the engine swap doesn’t result in an experience that feels drastically different from the other games, but there are several design elements and features that now remain in the past. While the previous entries used Flying Wild Hog’s Road Hog Engine, the threequel has been designed using Epic’s Unreal Engine 4. Things have been mixed up for Shadow Warrior 3. For the sequel, the scope expanded to include cooperative play and some RPG-style itemization and questing. The game engine built by Flying Wild Hog was nearly perfect for balls-to-the-wall shooter action and delivered much of the experience that Doom 2016 was celebrated for a few years later. Relying more on the possibilities provided by its eastern setting and less on the misogynistic and racist leanings of its predecessor, 2013’s Shadow Warrior managed to bring the best parts into the present. Years later, the team at Flying Wild Hog, themselves veterans of high-adrenaline arena shooting classics like Painkiller and Bulletstorm, revived the Shadow Warrior brand with a stellar outing in 2013. Built on the same engine that powered Duke Nukem 3D and designed entirely around frantic action and not-so-casual racism, the game is certainly a product of its time.
If I was forced to rattle off the games that I had fond memories of from childhood, the original Shadow Warrior would surely be on the shortlist. I’m no longer ready to watch or wash Wang Shadow Warrior 3 is now ready for launch on the foundation established by its fast-moving predecessors but routinely falters when asking the player to do something that doesn’t involve dismembering its oodles of stupendously inventive enemies. Be it Black Sabbath records, Evil Dead films, or Olsen sisters, coming along after a pair of solid lead-ins has worked out well in the past.
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