Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking While back in the day (and these days), it’s clear that shooter series have borrowed from each other in one way or another, Shadow Warrior 3 feels like an unashamed riff on Doom Eternal. Both games encourage you to run-and-gun at all times. They have a hard-hitting arsenal of out-there weapons. And they both grant additional health and ammo by killing enemies. While Doom Eternal did a better job of masking its constant arena battles than its predecessor, Shadow Warrior 3 is closer to the more obvious combat spaces of Doom (2016). In terms of story, it feels more straightforward than previous outings: an ancient dragon has been accidentally awakened, so Lo Wang and his ragtag group of pals must stop it from destroying the world. There’s some chatter about Wang feeling he’s lost his mojo, but that’s certainly not reflected in the gameplay, which is honed to a sharp tip. The other big gameplay mix-ups are the wall-running/clambering and the grappling hook, both of which are unfortunately restricted to specific spots. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Dying Light and Dying Light 2 hadn’t shown just how much fun can be had with free-form parkour and a grappling hook that can effectively attach to anything. Get past that comparison, though, and these fixed spots become the better form of puzzle platforming in the game—regular platforming sections are way too easy—because they act as new avenues for getting out of trouble when you’re being swarmed by enemies. You’ll soon learn to focus your efforts on the bigger baddies because their presence means they’ll be perpetually spawning smaller, squishier peons. Those peons can block your run-and-gunning or even take you down if you don’t respect them, but they’re better used as health and ammo recharges (with the right upgrades), with one foe in particular worth taking down to score a freeze grenade. Considering some of these mini-bosses drop some of the best limited-use weapons in the game, this becomes a viable strategy for clearing some of the tougher fights. There is the odd actual boss fight in Shadow Warrior 3, which start out tough, but once you memorise the attack patterns and phases, you can breeze through them without taking a hit. While I like that Flying Wild Hog hasn’t interpreted Hard mode as ‘player takes more damage, player weapons do less damage’, Shadow Warrior 3 feels like it’s missing a truly challenging difficulty. Also missing is co-op from the last game, though the fighting arenas feel smaller, so I don’t know how that would’ve worked, but it would have been great to see better AI. In fairness, the mini-bosses tend to have decent AI, but one in particular feels too big for its own good, so it often gets stuck or its pathfinding fails. Similarly, the smaller grunts frequently just stand there and wait to die. Had Shadow Warrior 3 not had an excellent combat loop—filled with a smattering of unique weapons and homages to some classics—and genuinely hilarious dialogue, these moments would have felt more painful. But Lo Wang’s variety of quips, fourth wall-breaking and regular sass, combined with a game that never takes itself too seriously means Shadow Warrior 3 is a breath of fresh air after the disappointments of Rainbow Six Extraction, Battlefield 2042, Far Cry 6 and Call of Duty: Vanguard.
