Pawel Kowalewski, the lead game designer of upcoming first-person shooter, Shadow Warrior 3, has revealed that developer Flying Wild Hog is specifically dedicating a button to Lo Wang's samurai sword. The change from prior games is intended to promote more fluidity in combat, allowing players to freely switch between blade work and gunplay.
The Shadow Warrior franchise was originally launched by 3D Realms in 1997, powered by the same engine that ran Duke Nukem 3D. And like the Duke himself, Shadow Warrior's protagonist, Lo Wang, bleeds irreverence and delivers a steady stream of sarcastic one liners mid-combat. Indie publisher Devolver Digital rebooted the series in 2013 with a fresh engine and new mechanics, while retaining the series' grindhouse aesthetic and in-your-face attitude, which still appear to be in full force in the latest sequel.
Devolver Digital premiered Shadow Warrior 3 during a recent live stream with a blood-soaked trailer showcasing some strange boss fights, and some of the game's other new features as well. While Shadow Warrior 2 added wall climbing and aerial dashes to the mix, the third game will be expanding Lo Wang's maneuverability options to provide players with an "ultimate ninja experience," via access to a grappling hook, and the ability to wall run. The series will be backing away from the lite looter-shooter mechanics of the previous game, however.
While the Shadow Warrior franchise has never held the same cult of personality as its sibling series, Duke Nukem, the broad appeal of Call of Duty, or the unanimous acclaim of DOOM and Half-Life, Devolver Digital's titles rank high among the most overlooked shooters from the past decade. Kowalewski stated, "Each new Shadow Warrior game is in many ways an improvement of the previous one," and the new features seem like solid steps in the same positive direction. But both the over-the-top gore and crass humor can feel like holdovers from an earlier era of gaming that have since lost their novelty.
Kowalewski appears to be well aware of those potential hangups though, mentioning that the Flying Wild Hogs team made a conscious effort to modernize the game's sensibilities with updated cultural references and a younger look for Lo. He also admitted that some of the original games' comedy "simply doesn't belong in the games we make today."
Shadow Warrior 3 will be staring down some stiff competition, including Devolver Digital's latest installment in the Serious Sam series, whose bombastic violence and arsenal of enormous guns scratch a similar itch. Then again, the latter series lacks the same freedom of motion and melee-combat emphasis that Flying Wild Hog has been fine-tuning. And a feature as seemingly simple as having a dedicated attack button for slashing and stabbing could give Lo Wang the edge he needs to succeed in the indie shooter arena.
Shadow Warrior 3 will be released for PC at an unannounced date in 2021.
Source: PCgamesN