Shenmue.... Cool as!!! (Shenmue (DC))

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Product:	Shenmue (DC)
Date:	02/06/03 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One of the finest videogames of all time

Disadvantages: linear story

Ever since Sega and AM2 announced plans to release Shenmue, I thought to myself this is the game that will take gaming to a new level and how right I was?
This game is simply beautiful, you are Ryo Hazuki a martial arts expert in training, you are sent on a journey of revenge to find your Father`s killer Lan di and figure out why he killed your father. A little clichéd?granted but there are so many surprises and plot twists along the way you`ll be on the edge of your seat to find out what happens next, but I won`t ruin the story or what happens for people who have never played/experienced Shenmue that`s for you to find out!

There is so much interaction in this game which is why Shenmue set new standards and created a new genre of its own, the creators called it F.R.E.E (Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment). You can go anyway you want, you can even use a phone box to find out what the weather will be like!, you can talk to anybody you wish which is essential because you have to ask people questions to find out the where abouts of Lan di (your fathers killer) by piecing together clues that you?ve gathered, and key points in conversations with people are kept in your log book.

Part of the beauty of Shenmue are the endless possibilities and it really feels like a living breathing world, you can buy food from shops, buy drinks from vending machines and even collect toy capsules from the virtua fighter series, sonic series and a lot of other Sega franchises. You even have your own Sega Saturn in your house that you can play original Saturn games on! Oh theres even an Arcade in Shenmue where you can play some great yu suzuki classics like Space harrier and Super Hang On and you can even have a game of darts among other things.

The graphics in Shenmue took the Dreamcast to the limit every object and person is highly detailed, even the weather was very realistic from rain to snow. As Shenmue is in real time, day changes to night and each person
goes through their daily routine in Shenmue like you may only see some people at night but not in the daytime for instance you will find drunkards roaming the streets at night time and shops have their own opening and closing times, everything is so realistic and the visuals are still very impressive despite being almost 3 years old. The game also keeps a steady frame rate and pop up admirably rarely occurs considering the amount going on on screen at any one time.

The gameplay can be difficult at first, controlling Ryo around the house can be a chore because you have to use the D-Pad for movement but you`ll get used to it. The fighting elements in the game have been taken straight from the Virtua fighter series as Shenmue is made by AM2 the creators of the Virtua fighter series, and you`ll soon find that there is lots of depth to the fighting system. There are also `quick time events` (QTE?s) which is a sequence in which a series of buttons flash on screen and you have to press the appropriate button to make an event happen, for instance you may be walking down the street and a football is kicked at your characters ahead, a QTE will then begin and your have to press the appropriate button that flashes on screen to parry the football. That was just an example of a simple QTE but some of them are really impressive particularly if your swarmed by a gang of thugs or chasing after someone making a runner with your money.

The music in the game is equally impressive each piece of music fits the situation in the game perfectly. Some pieces may not be that great, but lots are very memorable like the main theme to Shenmue. In the game you can even buy cassettes to play on your stereo so you can listen to them anytime you like. All the characters in the game talk aswell which is quite impressive considering theres over 300 different characters to interact with and each have their own individual voice and character. However the dubbing is quite a let down.


The game spans over 3 discs because of the size of the game so the game does last a long time, however if you decide just to play through solely for the story the game could take just a matter of days to play through but its difficult to play trough solely for the story purely because of the amount of distractions making the game last far longer. Even when you do finish the game there is still lots to do like collecting all the toy capsules, fighting moves, Sega Saturn games and cassette tapes. But the chances are you?re most likely going to want to play through Shenmue again purely because its such a memorable experience and the chances are shenmue will become one of the best games you?ve ever played. All in all ive probably played through Shenmue at least 3 or 4 times!

Theres one fault to Shenmue however, the story is very linear and this creates a love/hate relationship between most people who play it, but personly I loved Shenmue despite the linearity of the story purely because the game is so impressive. No other game to this day has come close to the vision of Shenmue and Shenmue still remains the only game of its genre and it still remains only rivalled by its sequel.

Shenmue still remains the most expensive video game ever created, amazingly though it was never created to be a profitable game but rather to increase interest in the Dreamcast at the time but unfortunately Shenmue failed to find any mass market interest because by the time of completion there couldn?t possibly be any promotion or advertising, and Shenmue went unnoticed, one of the biggest travesty?s in the video game industry in my opinion. Anyway I certainly suggest Shenmue to every one purely because its such a memorable experience.

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