Shenmue II (Xbox)
[b]sega[/b]
Shenmue II is one of those games that straddles the boundaries of various gaming genres. Being a combination of RPG, Action / Adventure, Mystery, Collection and Fighting games, it sits in a weird place as far as a gaming experience is concerned. Coming with an hour long DVD explaining the first game that came out on DreamCast a few years ago, plus a mini movie on the actual game disk, you get introduced to the intriguing story and splendid world in which Shenmue is based, and then thrown head first into the story.
Shenmue II starts off with you as Ryo Hazuki finding yourself in Hong Kong, on a quest to find Lan Di, the man who murdered your father, and unravel the mystery of the Phoenix Mirror. It is from this point on you will lose hours upon hours of time doing mini quests, gambling, and just taking in the sights and sounds as you wander the streets of virtual Hong Kong, looking for the man that killed your father, until you find the right path to the game story. Although story line is quite linear, you don’t have a set time to do things in so you can wander freely, talking to the many hundreds of people walking the streets or manning the shops, finding out information on leads gained through the main story, checking out shops and stalls, buying toys to collect then pawn, trying your luck at gambling, or even working carrying crates or running a lucky hit (gambling) stall.
Unlike games like GTA and Morrowind, the main story does pull you along – you can’t go around doing side quests and avoid the main story. However, the story is engrossing and contains enough twists and turns to keep you wanting to play until the end. Most of the time you control Ryo in a fairly standard FPS sense, with the D-pad controlling your walking, the left-trigger and right joystick enable you to look around, and the A B X Y buttons do various content specific chores such as open doors, activate, open your journal, talk to people, and so on. Then there are the Quick Time Events (QTE). These are scripted events where you lose the ability to control Ryo and have to play a game of “Simon Says”, following the directions on screen to get past certain stages in the game, like obstacles in a chase or to avoid being spotted, for example. Some of these lead to other events if you fail, but most of them require you to restart the game from a certain point. Most of the time it’s not hard to do, but some times it can be a little frustrating getting the timing right.
Another big part of this game is fighting. Ryo can learn moves from other characters in the game, as well as buy “Move Scrolls”, list of key combinations that perform different moves. Pulling off different moves makes you become better and stronger at those moves, so it pays to practice different combinations. The fighting engine is based on Virtua Fighter, as the creator of that game and Shenmue II are one and the same. There’s a number of kick, punch and throw moves you can execute to defeat your enemies. Fighting is quite easy, which is good, as often you have to battle more than one person at a time. The camera can become a little annoying though, especially when your back is to the wall, and you’ll find yourself cursing at the bloody thing as you get pounded.
Whilst the gameplay is generally quite good, it suffers from being too slow and too tedious at times. There’s one bit where you have to follow a person back to their house, and it takes too long due to cut scenes showing you how annoying and evil this character is. Ok, so character development is good for the story, but this person has already tried to kill you, so you [i] know[/i] they are bad. Another annoying feature is the QTE’s. Sometimes you think, “Why can’t I just kick these guy’s arses, why deal with this push left and hit x crap… I just beat up six people a minute ago!” Also, when you fail a QTE, you simply have to do it to get it right. This doesn’t help in endearing you to this world as a living, breathing world. Why not introduce consequences and have another scenario if you fail? This would have the downside of making the game even longer, however.
Graphic wise the game looks ok, but it’s no Halo. Being based on the DreamCast, it does look a little blocky and stiff. Some of the characters look hilarious due to the poor animation. Having said that, there are over 100 different models, and each look different, from size, to clothes, to facial hair, which gives you more of a sense of being in a large city. The different sections of the city look different too, so it’s not like other RPGS where the same models are used over and over. The cut scenes are nicely done, and the lens flair and lighting effects do add that little extra to remind you that you’re playing on an Xbox. Sound wise the game is adequate too, the music score being quite nice, but voice acting being quite terrible. I actually wish they spoke Japanese rather than be overdubbed with such bad English, as it makes dialogue seem unnatural and Ryo is somewhat repetitive.
Being a game that combines different genres means this game sits uneasily with me. It’s a good concept, and there are some great little additions to the game, like the ability to play Afterburner in one of the arcades, and collect the range of Virtua Fighter action figures. The hundreds of individual characters and locations make the city worth exploring, and the story is engaging. However, I feel a little disappointed with the game, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the ending, with no real sense of closure (but the possibility of a sequel). Maybe it’s the fact that it tries to be too many types of games, but isn’t really any. Having said that, it is a game worth playing, because unless you played it on DreamCast you won’t come across too many games like it. I’d give it an 8 out of 10.