As you travel from the gorgeously tranquil Bailu Village in Guilin through to the more city-like district of Niaowu, you’ll undertake the familiar tasks of, questioning locals (complete with charmingly stilted and often downright bizarre dialogue), playing games, gambling (a lot) and getting in to the occasional fist fight (using a downgraded but still excellent take on the brilliant Virtua Fighter system). This is still the slow-paced, tonally odd, often idyllic game that it has always been. There have been a few minor quality of life improvements, but Shenmue III is principally interested in recreating that original experience, something that it does very successfully – warts and all. So yeah, if you haven’t played Shenmue before, this won’t be for you, but, even if you have, the games’ unwillingness to integrate modern systems and mechanics might still prove too much. Yes, there are videos to watch for those wanting to catch up on the story, but to tear through the narrative rather than to experience Shenmue’s uniquely idyllic pacing and often bizarre tone is to miss the point of the series entirely. Again, fans of the series will likely love the fact that it’s straight back to business, but for everyone else, suddenly finding yourself wandering the Chinese countryside will likely leave you cold to the whole experience. It doesn’t help of course that, if you’re new to the series, Shenmue III throws you right in at the end of Shenmue II – as if the last 20 years never happened. That might sound snobby, but honestly, I think it’s true – if I had never played a Shenmue game before, I’m convinced that I would absolutely despise Shenmue III. Turns out that, if you’re going to be a Shenmue fan, you really had to be there when it was released on the Dreamcast. Fans of the series are of course likely to find these resolutely antiquated design choices brilliantly charming, but for the rest, it will only serve to confuse and compound. This is a game that, beyond a lick of HD paint, could have very easily been made in 2002. There has been no attempt to cater to modern tastes. Honestly, if ever there was a game made for exclusively for the fans, this is it. If that all sounds mental to you, well yeah, it kind of is – I can only assume that you’ve never played Shenmue before, and if that’s the case, please move along. I marvel at the cheesy dialogue and the games’ insistence that we press three buttons when one will do. Accordingly, I actually enjoy a lot of the archaic design choices that are used here. I guess it’s best that I provide a very clear disclaimer – this review is written from the perspective of a massive Shenmue fan (Shenmue and Shenmue II are amongst my favourite games of all time). So yeah, uhhhh, still not sure what all that means in the grand scheme of things. Needless to say, there is nothing quite like Shenmue III a game that is both old and new, beautiful and ugly. Shenmue III is a game that feels defiantly retro, but as it marks an evolutionary offshoot that was essentially closed off back in 2001, it also feels utterly unique when played in 2020. It’s a game that refuses to move with the times, instead committing to a sense of nostalgia that is utterly unique given that, despite the fact that the last game in the series was released nearly 20 years ago, nothing quite like it has been seen since. It’s a game that refuses to be anything more or less than what Shenmue was and what Shenmue III was always supposed to be. The commitment to the gameplay that defined it back at the turn of the century is something to be celebrated, but in some instances, will leave even the games’ most ardent fans screaming at the TV screen. It’s a game that fans will likely love, but one that will leave newcomers utterly perplexed. I love Shenmue III, but it’s also slightly disappointing. How the hell does one go about reviewing Shenmue III? Honestly, this might be the toughest game to review ever.
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