#NEW SHADOW WARRIOR GAME PRO#

#NEW SHADOW WARRIOR GAME PRO#

Watch on YouTube Alex Battaglia's technical review of Shadow Warrior 3, as tested on PC, PS4 Pro and the back-compat plus PS5 rendition. Shadow Warrior 2 may have looked gorgeous, but the base gameplay was marred by turning most of the objectives into something you might find in Borderlands. Shadow Warrior 2 was a different beast: the base shooting and swordplay improved and the Road Hog engine delivered impressive visuals, but level design and engagement in most of the game took a step back in quality, owing to levels built around tile-based randomisation, Diablo-style. The changes to gameplay are worth focusing on to begin with: Shadow Warrior's 2013 reboot was a fast-paced classic FPS, filled with health drops and secret locations - but with a surprisingly well crafted story and characters you could really care about. Meanwhile, the lack of native current-gen versions of the game is a genuine disappointment - owners of new consoles essentially get accelerated versions of the last-gen game, missing key visual features. The impressive Road Hog engine takes a backseat this time to Unreal Engine 4 - a controversial decision that doesn't quite pay off. Protagonist Lo Wang's voice is different, the gameplay itself has evolved and crucially - from a Digital Foundry perspective, at least - the engine technology powering the experience has moved on.

Nine years on from Flying Wild Hog Studios' first reboot of the Shadow Warrior franchise, it's all change with the third series entry.

New shadow warrior game