Shenmue 3 review round-up: ‘A worthy successor’

Shenmue 3 review round-up

• VGC (4/5) – “Shenmue 3 was always about delivering a sequel its diehard fans wanted… On that basis alone, it’s a miraculous success… We can only hope that the wait for Shenmue 4 won’t take as long..”
• VG247 (3/5) – “Despite the fact that it’s a game designed with decades-old sensibilities, I enjoyed my time with it. It doesn’t have the conclusion we’ve been waiting two decades for and it barely drives the story forward at all, but the climactic battle is as satisfying as that 70-man tussle in the first game’s harbour.”
• Eurogamer (no score) – “Yes, Shenmue 3 can look and play like a Dreamcast game. But it looks and plays like a Dreamcast game that’s as off-kilter, maddening, magical and majestic as the original Shenmue games, both all-time classics. I think there’s good reason to rejoice in that.”
• Polygon (no score) – “It’s not the lack of elegant dialogue or the glitches that make this game so disappointing, but the idea that a series that was so obsessed with what would be possible from gaming in the future has turned into a way for people to attempt to revisit the past.”