‘Shadow Warrior 3’ Review: Deadpool Eternal
Lo Wang is back with the highly streamlined threequel of the rebooted Shadow Warrior saga.
Polish developer Flying Wild Hog are on a roll, quickly expanding beyond the borders of their rebooted Shadow Warrior games — Evil West and Trek to Yomi are among the most anticipated medium-sized releases launching in the near future. Many players still think of them as the team behind 2011’s Hard Reset, but the truth is they’ve had an amazing last decade, consistently playing their cards right and tinkering with different genres and systems.
While the Shadow Warrior reboot (2013) flew under the radar, as the original IP wasn’t that popular to begin with, Shadow Warrior 2 (2016) was a bigger success story that dared to introduce looter-shooter elements into the classic “boomer shooter” FPS formula. It was an evolution that mostly paid off, but a large number of veterans claimed maybe that wasn’t the path Shadow Warrior should follow. It seems like the developers listened to those concerns, as Shadow Warrior 3 is a big departure from the previous game. Instead, they tried extremely hard to make it feel like this franchise’s DOOM Eternal. So much so that it lacks a unique personality in spite of the enjoyable blood-soaked breakneck action it offers from start to finish.
The meager story hits the ground running with a massive ancient dragon threatening the entire planet and our potty-mouthed hero Lo Wang feeling down and unworthy of the status he built up across his two previous adventures. This is more than enough to fuel up five to six hours of classic FPS action, and some character beats (without getting into spoilers) are surprisingly poignant, but the narrative is generally kept to a minimum. Moreover, there are only four characters in the game (five if you count a spirit raccoon), with only two of them undergoing some sort of development, so many times you have to wonder if setting up the “antihero fighting self-doubt and depression” angle was even worth it for such a brisk and laser-focused action game.
In the same way, the gameplay has been refined to deliver hectic but tight shootin’ & slicin’ action that wastes no time with convoluted progression systems or exploration off the beaten path. It’s refreshing to play a medium-budgeted single-player shooter so focused on delivering a short and sweet rollercoaster ride, but it’s hard to shrug off the feeling that Shadow Warriors 3‘s (excellent) platforming sections deserved their own space to shine, instead of being just small bits between Arena A and Arena B — DOOM Eternal understood the value of each of its parts and allowed players to breathe in between battles, packing memorable level design and secrets around every corner. Shadow Warrior 3 does exactly what’s advertised on the cover, but I feel like it’s not enough when the price tag almost enters the full price zone.
I enjoyed the hell out of my six-ish hours with Shadow Warrior 3. I beat it in one sitting. But I felt like I was playing on autopilot — as the game passed the first-hour mark, I had already seen everything it had to offer, and only the locations and mix of enemies were changing. I love its gunplay; the enemies are quite creative; “gore weapons” are a great twist on DOOM‘s glory kills; and the game’s final hour packs the most intense (linear) action I’ve experienced recently. And despite all that, it’s hard to make a case about why you should play Shadow Warrior 3 instead of the many amazing neo-boomer shooters out there. With plenty of indie devs looking at the big franchises for inspiration, but then working out their own mix of ingredients, Lo Wang’s third modern outing feels like a game that’s trying to please FPS enthusiasts by being the lesser version of a game that, quite honestly, only id Software could pull off in the way they did.
Much like its platforming, the gunplay and wisecracking characters deserved a more unique package, or at the very least… one that had more to offer after the credits rolled only six hours in. There’s no horde nor survival mode to be found (and believe me, they’d be easy to implement), and post-launch plans are unknown at this point. As I mentioned before, there’s not much in the way of collectibles, since exploration is non-existent, plus 90% of achievements are unlocked through normal play without even trying, so most players won’t feel the need to revisit Shadow Warrior 3 anytime soon. I don’t want to sound like a downer though; it’s a fun ride through and through — I just wish it felt like a full sequel instead of a small spinoff too afraid to let new ideas flow.
Flying Wild Hog’s move to Unreal Engine 4 is a smart decision, allowing Shadow Warrior 3 to perform reasonably fine on last-gen hardware while still looking slick on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Of course, top-of-the-line graphics and performance are only found on the PC version of the game, but PS5 and Series X push ahead with strong visuals without sacrificing an ounce of their 60 FPS target. Series S (the console I used for this review), however, struggles sometimes to maintain the framerate in the 50-60 FPS range in the busiest levels and effects-heavy combat situations. Mind you, it’s still a really solid experience, and those dips didn’t affect my enjoyment of the action, but maybe the devs aimed a bit too high with their resolution target on this platform — dynamic resolution is either non-existent or not aggressive enough, as the game looks consistently sharp on the budget next-gen Xbox hardware, and could withstand a hit to visual clarity in order to perform better.
More annoying were several instances in which enemy AI acted up or simply disappeared, as well as two hard crashes that required a full reboot of the system. For a game as sleek and smooth as this one (forever grateful to the SSD gods), those issues really brought down the mood. As for audio and music, I experienced no problems, though Shadow Warrior 3 tends to get quite noisy during its later stages — incessant screaming, gore effects, and explosions often melted together in unpleasant ways.
It’s somewhat exciting to blast through a modern boomer shooter that (briefly) questions its starring action man’s psychology in similar ways to the second Deadpool film, but that’s pretty much the only thing I’ll remember about the third rebooted Shadow Warrior entry a few months from now. If you have exhausted all other options in the genre, this one’s a solid “deep sale” get. Its six-hour, one-mode offering would be enticing with a $25 price tag and the absence of a strong identity crisis. Maybe it’s time for Lo Wang to rethink his future.
Shadow Warrior 3 is now available on PC (Steam) as well as PlayStation and Xbox consoles. It’s also part of the PlayStation Now subscription service for an unspecified time.
Thanks to Devolver Digital (publisher) and Tinsley PR for the Xbox review code.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
