Thankfully, these collectibles aren’t hard to spot, and you’ll get enough of them without exploring to easily finish the campaign. Without an option to revisit levels, any upgrades you might have missed along the way are simply gone. What’s an absolute shame is that Shadow Warrior 3 spends so much time looking forward that it doesn’t give you a chance to go back. That also means it’s not a very complex or robust FPS, but I always knew that all I had to do was keep moving forward if I wanted more action. It gets to the point, and as a result felt more respectful of my time across the roughly four-and-a-half hours it took me to reach the credits than any other game I’ve played recently. You can occasionally go off the beaten trail to find upgrades that improve Lo Wang’s weapons and abilities lightly (effects like increasing ammo or making certain attacks drop more resources), but outside of those few instances you’re only ever fighting or making your way toward another fight.ĭeveloper Flying Wild Hog’s approach to Shadow Warrior 3’s linear campaign is simple but effective. The platforming sections that separate each fight never last very long or get too complicated, and exploration during those stretches isn’t really a thing. In between killing demons, Shadow Warrior 3 generally only gives you one thing to do: run to the next arena full of demons. Every arena you fight in is built around these movement mechanics, turning battles into wonderfully frantic flurries of gunshots and katana swipes. Lo Wang moves lightning fast, able to double jump high above the heads of enemies or quickly dash away from their attacks. Shadow Warrior 3 takes the same exciting approach as Doom Eternal or Titanfall 2, emphasizing speed and maneuverability above all else. Killing demons keeps all of those pesky thoughts about the nonsensical story away. If you were given the opportunity to stop and think about what was happening, you might end up asking questions like “how did Lo Wang survive in a ramshackle shack on top of a mountain?” or “why did this dragon get so big when it was so much smaller at the end of Shadow Warrior 2?” It generally doesn’t slow down from there either, and that breakneck pace is probably for the best. Its very first fights take place on the back of that Earth-threatening dragon, which you run and jump across like an action movie hero. But you don’t play Shadow Warrior for the story – you play it to shoot demons, and there’s certainly plenty of shooting to do.įrom the get-go, Shadow Warrior 3 makes clear that it wants to be exciting more than anything else. Once you start playing it you might do the same, because it's generally a rushed load of nonsense.

For Shadow Warrior, world-ending stakes like these aren’t anything new, but it didn’t take long for me to stop paying too much attention to Shadow Warrior 3’s story. Picking up a good while after Shadow Warrior 2, a massive dragon is wreaking havoc across Earth and it’s up to our returning hero, Lo Wang, to destroy the lizard. It might not offer many new ideas, and its protagonist may be unbearable to listen to, but sometimes solid movement and satisfying weapons is all you really need. And while that focus on fun is refreshing, Shadow Warrior 3 is almost completely unremarkable in its execution, being about as straightforward as an FPS can get. Instead, it throws you into the action right away and rarely lets a moment of ease set in from there. In an era where games feel like they keep trying to be bigger, this one is happy not to draw itself out with lengthy dialogue or exposition-filled cutscenes.

Shadow Warrior 3 doesn’t beat around the bush.

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