
Shenmue 3 also allows for slightly more freedom of exploration - it's still constrained by today's standards, but it's now possible to walk out into the surrounding fields or behind buildings, expanding the sense of freedom. It encourages you to slow down and appreciate the minutiae. There's no real gameplay benefit for doing this - it's completely optional - but it's part of what makes Shenmue special. Walk into a store, for instance, and you can open just about every drawer or cabinet in the shop and examine most of the objects. Buildings can be entered without cutting to a loading screen and everything feels rather seamless now.Įven better, the small details you expect from Shenmue remain present - at least in part. While the demo only consists of one area, the map itself is reasonably large. Technically speaking, the original games were broken up into small chunks divided by loading screens owing to the limited memory of the console. That doesn't mean improvements to the formula haven't been integrated. This intimacy between the player and the world played a huge role in defining the original games and it seems that the team has decided to continue this tradition - which I feel is a smart decision. As you play, you become familiar with the location, its people and the choices available to you in a way that usually doesn't work in a typical massive open world game. I feel this element is key to the design of the game - the smaller scale and scope helps strengthen the bond between the player and the world.
SHENMUE 3 VINYL FULL
Watch on YouTube A video breakdown of the Shenmue 3 backer demo - it's a small, but promising sampler of the full game to come. It also means that Shenmue 3 focuses on smaller but more densely packed areas rather than presenting a massive open world.

In this sense, despite the use of of a cutting-edge engine, art direction and game design are more of an evolution of AM2's achievements back in the day, as opposed to dragging the concept kicking and screaming into the modern era. Yu Suzuki and his team have chosen to stick closely to the original design template rather than attempting to mimic modern open world design. However, it's the vision of what a new Shenmue game should be that I find most interesting. Many key features already exist within the engine itself, allowing the team to experiment and utilise these features more rapidly than in the past. How could it ever hope to compare?įor starters, I feel the power of modern middleware plays a large role - the flexibility of Unreal Engine 4 empowers developers to more efficiently build new experiences such as this in a way that wasn't possible 20 years ago. By contrast, Shenmue 3 is crowd-funded, lower budget project put together by a much smaller team. The original Shenmue was one of the most expensive games ever made at the time of its release, developed by an industry-leading studio at the top of its game. Going into this one, there were bound to be concerns. It's our first proper taste of the game - and I'm excited by what I've played.


The game is set for release on November 19th but a select tier of original Kickstarter backers received access to a playable demo earlier in the week.
SHENMUE 3 VINYL PC
Over 18 years after the release of Shenmue 2, the story of Ryo Huzuki would continue on modern day hardware with PlayStation 4 and PC versions confirmed. This also comes after Suzuki partnered with the company for a Tokyo Game Show appearance, fueling speculation of an upcoming announcement.The announcement of Shenmue 3 several years ago is one of those moments I never expected - something which seemed like an impossibility became reality. This comes from the publisher's social media accounts, which acknowledge the rumours but refuse to elaborate on them.

110 Industries, the studio behind the upcoming third-person action game, Wanted: Dead, has teased that it's partnering with Yu Suzuki to bring the fourth Shenmue installment to life. And with Shenmue 3 not performing spectacularly, fans were, once again, losing hope that we'd ever see a conclusion to this saga.īut that has all changed overnight, as hints are being dropped that Shenmue 4 has finally found a publisher. At this point, I'd just head back home, to be honest. After all this time, Ryo Hazuki still hasn't avenged his father's death. Despite being a sequel that fans had long abandoned hope for - eventually launching 18 years after the last game - designer Yu Suzuki made the decision to (spoiler alert) not finish the story.
SHENMUE 3 VINYL SERIES
Shenmue 3 left the series in a weird place.
