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You’re encouraged to upgrade, and it’s all freedom of choice how you enhance Lo Wang’s abilities.
Shadow warrior 3 weapons upgrade#
To aid in attaining the upgrade tokens, there’s in-game challenges for killing enemies in a certain way, or simply doing enough damage to receive a token.
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Weapon upgrades vary per weapon, but the shotgun can be upgraded not to require reloads or the shuriken spitter to be charged to fire three projectiles at once. Character upgrades consist of things like doing greater elemental damage, making your chi blast more powerful, or regenerating health over time. Upgrade costs become exponential with each tier. In order to invest in an upgrade, you have to pick up the requisite tokens f rom any level. The upgrade system is rather straightforward, offering two types: weapon and character. It’s a momentum killer, but it’s so jarring every time it happens, and it happens a lot. The pacing is all over the place, as cutscenes will often interrupt the player during some action to bring the player to the next area. These finishers also have the bonus of stealing a weapon from the enemy you’ve killed like a fireworks gatling gun, a frozen shuriken, or a gigantic greatsword that cuts easier than a hot knife through butter. When you initiate a finisher, a system whereby you accrue tokens to do so, you’ll regain health and some ammo with it.
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I said that Shadow Warrior 3 feels a lot like DOOM Eternal, this is exemplified best by the fact that when you kill an enemy with the katana, they drop ammo. Levels are very linear this time, offering little to no exploration except for finding upgrade tokens. It being color-coded this was better to digest during the thick of combat to do what I needed. Elemental damage still plays a big role as it did in _Shadow Warrior 2_, but has been distilled for readability: red items are for fire damage, blue for ice damage, and yellow to deal electric damage. This does mean that you can’t aim down sights anymore, but it just isn’t necessary here. One change I really like is that using your katana is just as simple as right-clicking, it’s a fantastic improvement. This makes combat just as fast and frenetic, allowing you to swap to the weapons you need for the situation at hand. The weapons are pared down to just a katana, revolver, four-barrel shotgun, dual SMGs, grenade launcher, rail gun, and a shuriken spitter that launches spinning sawblades. It’s the one I’d recommend, but of course choose what suits you best. Even though I didn’t feel challenged until the final boss, playing on Hard was the only difficulty that felt like it was testing my skills in any way.
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That said, this game is unbelievably easy, even on the Normal difficulty where it felt like it was playing itself. The difficulty though is a bit of a let down, as it’s lacking the encouragement from Shadow Warrior 2’s selection for playing on easier difficulties and not shaming players. Sounds good, right? To start we get a settings menu with clearly defined Low, Medium, and High without the extra “Very High” or “Ultra” settings. Flying Wild Hog chose to abandon the looter shooter aspect, and stick to a run-and-gun first-person shooter. Simply put, Shadow Warrior 3 is back to basics – for better and worse. After rallying from his long-time adversary Zilla, he finally sets out to right the wrongs he’s created by killing the dragon once and for all. Despite the grave circumstances, the dialogue and interactions between what characters remain will generally elicit a laugh to get by. He’s grown out his hair, his cave is in shambles, and he’s unwittingly unleashed a dragon unto the world that’s decimated the human race.
Shadow warrior 3 weapons series#
Unfortunately, Shadow Warrior 3 is a bit of a lo note for the series as Lo Wang and the gang go on a bloodthirsty yet ephemeral adventure. Now we have Shadow Warrior 3, a DOOM Eternal-like that’s more a continuation of the first game that chases its prior success. Shadow Warrior 2, this was a looter shooter like a mini- Borderlands, focusing on longevity and replayability. Flying Wild Hog was either predicting or echoing something in the first-person shooter genre, and always doing it better. The resurrection of Shadow Warrior is one I never thought I’d see, and for it be so successful over the past nine years is a joy all its own.
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