Shen(woo!!!) II
Written: Feb 13 '03 (Updated Feb 15 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Real atmosphere, LOADS of fun mini-games, cool story, free DVD movie, good quality product
Cons: Gets off to a tedious start, bad voice acting, lots of running back and forth
The Bottom Line: If you enjoy adventure, an outstanding story, and awesome visuals, along with a free DVD and a handful of classic Sega arcade hits... this game is a must buy!
|
|
|
| andrew_rage's Full Review: Shenmue 2 for Xbox |
Story from Shenmue I:
Ryo Hazuki comes home to find a Chinese man and his goons accosting his father in their dojo. The Chinese man, Lan Di, seeks a special mirror that belongs to Hakuzi Sensei (Ryo's father). The men get away with the mirror in their possesion following Lan Di killing Hazuki Sensei infront of Ryo. Our hero takes it upon himself to get revenge. He goes around the various towns in the area playing detective and trying to find out who this Lan Di fellow is, and where he went. He meets up with some new friends who help him out from time to time, and gets some clues that lead him to Hong Kong. The original game concludes as Ryo boards the boat to China. Shenmue II begins at Ryo's arrival at the harbor in Hong Kong. And so this game begins!
Graphics:
Everything looks appropriately colorful, as well as grimy or gritty. The cities look like real cities. The character models look great, much like the rest of the game. The graphics dont really push the xbox to its limits, but significant upgrades were made to the former Dreamcast visuals. The lighting is all appropriate. Dive bars look grungy and messy, restaurants look pleasant (for the most part). Everything compliments everything else fittingly to create beatiful bussling cities with extremely high attention to details. Despite that, the draw distance is phenominal. All of the textures look crisp.
Sound:
The musical score is beautiful. It is of the utmost quality. The music compliments what is on screen perfectly. The sound effects aren't bad, but they are not so hot either. They are functional. All the sounds do their jobs well, but dont really grab any attention. Where the music and effects prevail to different degrees in their respective places, the voice acting is awful. They aren't the worst video-game voice overs i have ever heard, but that doesn't say much, as many games have sounded nothing short of embarrassing. The voices range though. Some sound adequate; they wont come close to impressing you, but they arent horrible. Then you've got the horrible ones. They are usually the children's voices. I still laugh when thinking of that kid turning around "Heya Mister!"... it is truly something to behold, and it isn't even the best example of bad acting. The sound works on a slope:
music > effects > the movie: "dude where's my car?" > voice acting (I am not joking).
Gameplay:
There is a lot of depth to the gameplay. Let me start with the QTE's. They work for some fights, while running after someone, etc... All they are is a button you have to press immediately will flash in the center of the screen. This will happen in quick succession, also. When pressed correctly, it shows you doing flashy stuff to pull off the movie. If you miss more than a couple, you'll lose that QTE section, and start over again. Sometimes, if it involves following someone, you just have to go on a search for them... then once you find them again, a new QTE session will start.
Next we have the adventure portion of the game where you just wonder around, talking to people, playing minigames, and so on. Everything's responsive, as it should be. The controls for each minigame are laid out before you begin, and they are very straight forward.
The final control scheme is the real-time fighting one. It used a variation of the virtua fighter engine. You can execute throws, kicks, punches, and other various forms of beating people. You also learn new, more powerful, techniques as you progress through the game. All of the controls are responsive and well mapped.
The frame-rate is nothing but smooth. I noticed no slowdown, even with all the massive and populated landscapes. Everything moves fluidly.
Extras:
First and foremost is the free DVD, Shenmue: the Movie. It's about 90 minutes in length. It was pieced together with parts from Shenmue. This is a very cool feature in that it sets up the whole story so far within the series for those without a Dreamcast, or who never played the original game. This was the best freebee i have ever seen packaged with a video-game.
The other extras are comprised of classic Sega hits. Some that come to mind are Space Harrier, Afterburner II, Outrun, and Hang-On. These are just as fun as they were back when they first debuted. The classic Sega games, combined with a free DVD make this title the #1 game for extras thrown in.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
andrew_rage
|
|
Location: BC, Canada
Reviews written: 59
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.